The following is an excerpt from an article written by Anne for the Episcopal Church Foundation Vital Practices – Vestry Papers July 2019 Issue on Strategic Visioning:

What inspires congregations to make sound financial management a priority? Who is doing this? Why? We hear messages about decline…we eagerly greet opportunities for planting new congregations and approaching ministry in new ways…we pray, we have faith…and ultimately, financial management is involved. There is no getting around it. It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, a basic and sound sense of financial management is at the core of our success as a Church evolving into the future.

Our charge as people committed to improving the sustainability of our congregations’ ministries is to address financial management for every one of our 6500+ congregations, intentionally and individually. And achieving long-term sustainability through up and down economic cycles, serving constantly shifting demographics in our communities, addressing evolving ministry approaches in the Episcopal Church in our world today, takes coordination.

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