As has become our custom, we are publishing my annual “Rector’s Report” in this month’s Pohick Post in order to give it a wider circulation among the congregation. If you weren’t able to attend the Parish Meeting last month, please stop by the office to pick up a copy of the larger report. You’ll find it contains a wealth of information about our many ministries at Pohick, particularly as they functioned over the past year.

Echoing the comments I made at the Annual Meeting, I’d like to convey my heartfelt thanks to the outgoing Vestry members for all their hard work over the past several years: Jim Hayes (past Jr. Warden, Property), David Lehner (Worship), Almetha Powell (Service & Fellowship), Robin Teale (Register, Christian Ed), Tony Harriman (Stewardship), and Connie Eppley (Service & Fellowship). In addition, I’d like to express my appreciation to Ken Evans for his hard work as Treasurer this past year.

On the other end of things, please join me in extending our good wishes to those nominees elected to the new Vestry at the Parish Meeting: Joe Moran, Neil Hogg, Susan Pehrsson, Jan Hoffeins, Wayne Biggs, and Edwardene Pitcock. Congratulations also to those recently elected (or re-elected) as Officers of the Vestry: Pete Kind (Sr. Warden), Ken Wrona (Jr. Warden), Reed Heddleston (Treasurer), and Susan Pehrsson (Register). I look forward to working together with them as well as with the other continuing members of the Vestry in the coming year.

Finally, I want to highlight the special events and forums we will be offering this month during the Sunday School hour (10:15 am -11:05 am):

• January 8, Welcome Reception for Linda Egan as Pohick’s Minister of Music
• January 15, Newcomers’ Reception
• January 22, Pre-Diocesan Council Forum
• January 29, EYC Mission Trip Forum & Super Bowl Snack Sale

I hope that many of you will be able to participate in these sessions as we move into the New Year!

Rector’s Report

Last year in my Rector’s report, I wrote about the “Busy Comings and Goings” at Pohick. Among these, I called attention especially to the departure of several long-time parishioners (through “cashing out” of Northern Virginia), as well as the arrival of many new ones. While this trend has certainly continued into 2005, this past year will probably be remembered more for “comings and goings” of a different kind.

For starters, we have had significant turn-over in our staff: over the summer both Mari Lynn Bland and Victoria Shields Harding left their respective positions as Youth Minister and Minister of Music. As I’ve expressed elsewhere, I am grateful for both of their contributions to the spiritual life of this parish, and I wish them well in their new endeavors.

Their departures meant that I had to devote a significant amount of my time this past year seeking their successors. In the case of the Youth Minister position, this did not turn out to be particularly difficult: I was able to turn my attention to this concern right away since Mari Lynn had indicated at her hiring that she could only remain in the position for a year.

Thankfully, Jennifer Crump Strawderman approached me in the Fall of 2004, expressing her desire to return as Youth Minister at the conclusion of that year. Jennifer’s obvious qualifications, as well as her continuing ministry as a volunteer Youth Advisor made the need for a full-blown search superfluous. We are very pleased to have Jennifer back as a member of the staff as she furthers her ministry among the Young People of this congregation.

The search for a new Minister of Music proved a much tougher nut to crack. Since I have already chronicled this odyssey across several Pohick Post articles, I will not rehearse the account here. I will only give thanks to the congregation for its support and prayers - and to God for hearing and answering them. The net result is that we will be welcoming Linda Egan as our new Minister of Music in January of 2006. We look forward to her addition to the staff, as well as to the exercise of her considerable musical talents among the congregation in the new year.

Another set of “Comings and Goings” involves the construction workers. They were here for the better part of two years as the US 1 project unfolded. Shifting lanes, uneven pavements, and the noisy rumble of machines became the norm around Pohick. Yet we endured, and finally the construction workers have moved on. Thanks to their work and the early negotiations of Vern Eppley, Grant Hodges, Blaise Burry and others, we now have in front of our Church one of the most attractive stretches of US 1 on the entire eastern seaboard.

In connection with this, I’d like to thank Jimmy Foster and Chet Liddle for their suggestion several years ago of the new entrance to our property at the intersection of Pohick Road and Richmond Highway. Kudos also to Jim Hayes, Ken Wrona, John Sessums and others for navigating this now completed project through the Byzantine domains of the Fairfax County and VDOT Permit Departments. While this road currently services only the rectory (making access to US 1 safer for my family), we hope eventually to connect it up with the larger road system surrounding our other buildings, making it the main entrance to our property.

The workers’ departure now sets the stage for our own building plans. These were set forth in general outline in our 2002 Strategic Plan. Refined by the congregation and Vestry in 2004, this plan calls for the creation of a Master Site plan, which includes the specifications for parish house expansion, as well as the demarcation of a site on our property for a new church building.

The follow through on this part of our Strategic Plan is absolutely crucial for our future growth. As the congregation intuitively realized long ago, we are stuck at what Church Growth Specialists call the “90% limit” (some researchers place the figure as low as 80%). That is to say, we have long since hit 90% of space utilization with respect to our Sunday School rooms, Common Room/Annex, parking lot, and even Church seating (9:00 am service).

Once that limit is reached, you start to hover in your attendance numbers. The growth curve resembles a wave pattern: it begins to decline at about 90 percent of capacity and stops at around 95 percent. Attendance then declines to around the 85 percent level before moving up again. The cycle is then repeated over and over.

Not even the most stellar programs or inspiring worship services can overcome this phenomenon. In order to grow consistently beyond the 90% limit, the congregation must engage in a building program so members and newcomers can see relief from the crowding problem in the near future.

Our own attendance figures bear out this pattern. While new families come to us each week, our overall Sunday attendance has been stagnant, even slightly declining. Some of this is attributable to increased weekend travel and the intrusion of outside Sunday morning activities (e.g., soccer games).

Still, research would indicate that the crowding phenomenon is also at work: when faced with the prospect of having to search for a distant parking space followed by a long walk up the hill - only to face crowded pews inside the Church and a tightly packed Coffee Hour or Sunday School class afterwards - even long-time parishioners are sorely tempted to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep. How much more would these same dynamics discourage a newcomer family from returning?

And so, in order to better minister to the large number of families moving into our area, as well as to our existing membership, the Vestry created a Building Committee in 2002. They were charged with the task of producing expansion plans and retaining counsel for undertaking a Capital Campaign to make these plans a reality.

Over the past three years, this Committee has quietly been going about its work, first under the leadership of Brook Voght, and now under Roberta Fede’s capable direction. As Roberta reported earlier in the year, we retained the architectural services of the Kerns Group over the summer. During the past several months, they have been refining concepts with an Architectural Subcommittee. By January, we hope to have these conceptual drawings ready to present to the Vestry for initial comment, followed by a presentation to the congregation.

While it is still premature to address the architects’ specific suggestions, it is fair to say that this endeavor will present us with one of the greatest challenges we have faced in recent history. It will involve harnessing all of the time, talent and treasure we can muster in order to make this vision a reality. Yet we must rise to this task, not only because this is what we have been called to do, but because this is the only way forward if we are ever to grow beyond our current size and effectively minister to the thousands of families moving into our area.

Here I am reminded of the Parable of the Talents, which I preached upon a few weeks ago. As with the servants in that parable, God has made us stewards over a great treasure - the Gospel itself. The fields surrounding us are ripe for the harvest: we have been called to spread the Gospel in the fastest growing part of the richest county in the richest country in the world.

At our disposal in this endeavor, we have more land than most suburban congregations would ever dream of owning. We currently hold no debt - and even have on account some seed money with which to start. We worship within a priceless historic building that in and of itself attracts the churched and unchurched alike. More than these things, we have a gifted and committed staff, and a generous and faithful congregation.

I firmly believe that if we step out in faith to meet the challenge set before us, God will bless our efforts. If, on the other hand, we lose heart and bury our talent in the ground, that will be all we’ll have to show for when the Master returns.

My hope is that over the next several months, as the more specific expansion proposals are unveiled (and further, prayerfully refined), our entire congregation - and indeed, our entire community - will rise to embrace the great possibilities God has set before us.

It has been more than two centuries since our forebears took a step of faith and built a new, larger church building to minister to a growing plantation population. Now that we are living in the area’s first major renaissance since those Colonial days, it is our turn to follow their example. Let us not let this moment pass us by, but let us rise to the occasion and become for our surrounding communities that vision of a shining city set upon a hill, revealing the light of Christ for all to see.