Christ Church Grosse Pointe Case Statement

To Excel In

• Christ Centered

• Community Focused

• Future Driven

To Excel in Love

To Excel in Love is a five-year strategic plan and investment in the future of Christ Church. The process of developing this strategic plan and identifying long term goals for our congregation began in 2017. The pillars of this strategic plan are to become a church that is Christ Centered, Community Focused, and Future Driven.

In order to become the church we are called to be, we must proactively fill gaps in our programming and build financial stability for the future. We cannot meet these needs with our current annual contributions alone. As a community we are embarking on a $6 million dollar campaign, fundraising above and beyond our normal annual contributions to invest in programs that will empower us to better serve our congregation and maximize our impact in our community.

Success in this effort will mean that we can build a stronger community together, one that nurtures and educates our children, compassionately serves our wider community, develops and strengthens our faith in Christ, and makes our little corner of the world more just, civil, and loving. To put it simply, this campaign will significantly bolster our Church’s financial future and our ability to carry Christ Church’s nearly 100-year legacy into our second century. Please join us.

A Letter from the Rector

Since our founding in 1930, Christ Church Grosse Pointe has enlivened our community with joyful worship, enduring friendships, beautiful music, rich formation, and kind-hearted service. Sustained by God’s abiding grace and the faithful support of countless parishioners through the years, our ministry has expanded from a simple Sunday School to a vibrant and diverse Christian center serving parishioners and community members from Grosse Pointe and throughout Metro-Detroit.

As we look to our centennial and our next 100 years, the Vestry has set out a bold vision to strengthen and sustain our church and community. I invite you to join me, our To Excel in Love campaign leadership, our Vestry, and our staff in joyful prayer — with gratitude for God’s love that surrounds us, with appreciation for the generosity of friends and founders who have sustained us through the years, and with hope for the ministry that lays before us. Together, may we Excel in Love!

Yours ever with affection and gratitude,

Father Andrew Van Culin, Rector

Campaign Prayer

God of

Love and Joy; your Son proclaimed that in pursuing your way of generous, enduring love we will find completeness of joy, and that in taking up your life of service and abundance we will find fullness of life. We give you thanks for your ever-present generosity, the gift of your abiding love revealed in your Son and shining throughout the generations here at Christ Church. Fill us now, we pray, with confident hope that we may pursue your way of generous love for one another and the world, for this generation and those yet to come. In the fellowship of your Son who loves us and in union with your Spirit who fills us, we pray with gratitude and joy. Amen.

A Letter from Wardens

As parents, we raised our children in this community. As members of this church, we have witnessed many changes through the years. In our positions as Vestry members and Wardens, we have faithfully guided and shepherded those changes.

The Vestry has made the challenging, exciting, and bold decision to initiate a fundraising campaign that will empower Christ Church to be all that we can be – for ourselves, for one another, and for our community. This decision did not come easily, as it will require each of us to make the challenging decision of how much we can give to this church, our spiritual home. What is easy, however, is to say that we must undertake this challenge for the good of our church, to fulfill our mission, and to ensure we are building a robust Christ Church community for future generations.

Our goal is to raise $6 million from our congregation, above and beyond our annual contributions, to be received by Christ Church over the next five years. As Wardens, we have each committed a sacrificial gift to this effort. We have both challenged ourselves to consider a commitment that is truly sacrificial because we know in our hearts how important this campaign is, and how much good it will do for Christ Church in the future.

Today, we are asking you to join us in the effort. Imagine all that we can do today and for our future, if each of us makes a sacrificial commitment.

Betsy Creedon, Senior Warden Amie Sweeney, Junior Warden

What’s Going on at CCGP?

+3,000 lbs of Food Donated to Crossroads

Worshipers per year (Pre-COVID) Impact: Beyond Measure

From Our Founding…

1928: Episcopalians gather for Christian Education in Grosse Pointe.

1930:

The first service is held at Christ Church Chapel, a beacon of hope in a difficult time.

1930:

Choir of Men and Boys begins.

1955:

Choir of Men and Girls begins.

1971: Yamasaki Education Wing is opened.

…To Our Future

1997:

New Organ Installation.

2000:

Completion of the Education wing.

2009–10:

Stained Glass Window Restoration.

2020–21:

Video System installed in the nave and undercroft to enable homebound members and travelers to stay connected through virtual worship and formation.

2023:

Celebrating our inheritance; preparing our future…

What We’ve Heard

We dream of children and youth programs as vibrant as our music program.

We need to be great stewards of our facilities and our organ.

The Undercroft chairs are uncomfortable.

Our staff and volunteers are spread too thin.

We need programs for kids who aren’t interested in the choir.

Let’s care for our oldest and youngest members together.

We love the Covid flags memorial.

Thursday nights are such a wonderful respite, I never miss them.

This is a place that helps me be my best self.

We’d love to have the Saturday evening or Sunday 11:15 services restored.

I love seeing children participating comfortably in worship.

Sunday morning refreshes me and challenges me.

The Challenge

As a community and as a society, we have faced many challenges these past twenty years. The unexpected and divisive changes in our clergy twice over in recent memory, and more recently, a challenging global recession, and an unprecedented global pandemic. The importance of our endowment was evidenced by the recent challenges we faced during the pandemic. Politically and culturally, our nation and world have become divided. We have seen decreases in support of our church, driven both by recent economic challenges and by a cultural shift in how many people engage with and philanthropically support their religious life.

Amidst these challenges, our church has been a safe haven and home for so many. Christ Church is where each of us and our families celebrate joyful occasions, holidays, and sacraments. And, it is where we turn in times of need and grief. Christ Church is vital, but we need more resources to secure our stability for the future and to meet the needs of our changing community and congregation. With this campaign, we are taking critical steps to bolster our Church’s programming, to deepen our involvement in the broader community, and reaffirm the important role that God, our shared faith, and the community of Christ Church play in each of our lives.

Why Now?

We have spent many years as a congregation discussing our hopes and dreams for our future. With our To Excel In Love strategic plan, we have a blueprint to bring them to life. However, the needs of our community and our vision for the future require greater financial resources than annual contributions and our current endowment can support.

While our community is generous, annual contributions remain consistent year over year, and we need a larger endowment to undertake these ambitious plans and support increased costs each year. This campaign will empower these plans and support our growth into the future.

As we look back on the nearly 100-year history of Christ Church, we celebrate the many triumphs and successes of our congregation. We are now called to look forward, and to lay a foundation for our future. Today we ask ourselves what Christ Church can be in our new world. We have the opportunity to impact the next century of our church in a way future generations will be truly grateful for. Together, we have the opportunity to sustain Christ Church today and to transform Christ Church for generations to come!

Our To Excel in Love strategic plan guides our next steps as a congregation and inspires this campaign. The long term goals of our plan are to expand membership, increase engagement by our member families, and secure our legacy through increased financial support.

The Christ Church Vestry is committed to this plan and is increasing annual funding of Christ Church by $275,000 to make these goals a reality. Our Vestry has elected to lead by example in this effort, investing boldly in our needs today for the future of our community tomorrow.

To realize the ambitious goals of the To Excel in Love strategic plan and to meet the changing needs of our community and our world, we need participation and investment from our entire congregation. Through this $6 million campaign, we will secure the future of our Church’s priority programs and ministries. While our priorities may evolve over time, our strategic plan and Church leadership have identified the following Christ Centered, Community Focused, and Future Driven programs for immediate investment.

Christ Centered

Growing in Christ Together

● Investing in Children, Youth and Family leadership, staff, and programs to provide:

™ Children’s programs that match our music programs.

™ Youth programs that engage all our youth — from choristers and musicians to acolytes and athletes.

™ Family programs that connect families to one another in Christ.

● Enriching Adult Formation by:

™ Expanding our formation offerings, restoring the Sweeny Lecture, and cultivating our life in Christ together.

● Sustaining our worship life and music program to:

™ Ensure that our choral services and choir programs continue to inspire and illuminate our faith and spiritual journey.

Community Focused

Serving Those Within Our Walls and Beyond

● Enhancing Parish Life Ministries to:

™ Better welcome new members

™ Connect parishioners to one another

™ Care for our elders and those struggling around us

● Expanding community outreach programs to deepen our service in collaboration with our partners at Carstens Academy and SOAR Detroit, Rebuilding Together, and Crossroads of Michigan

Future Driven

For Our Kids Today and Our Grandchildren Tomorrow

● Expanding staff support to:

™ Increase our ability to administer our ministries

™ Better nurture the spiritual health and direction of our congregation

● Improving facilities and grounds to:

™ Maintain them in their historical beauty

™ Ensure they remain for future generations

Investing in Our Endowment

The Christ Church Endowment covers our annual costs beyond what we receive from our generous congregation in annual contributions. Every year, we rely on our endowment to keep the lights on, to heat and cool our building, to fund needed capital improvements, and to address other needs as they arise. We use funds from our endowment to fund gaps in our programs including our choir, community outreach, and children’s programming, depending on the needs we face each year. As it stands, our endowment allows us to sustain the church we are, but will not allow us to become the church we are called to be.

Current Yield : $450,000 $11 M

$150,000 supports capital improvements and repairs including building and ground maintenance

$300,000 supports our programming and spiritual life, including aspects of our music programs, community outreach, and children’s programming.

Current Endowment

Future Endowment

Our Endowment sustains all that we love about Christ Church — our Choirs and Church School, our Buildings and Grounds, our Care for one another, and our Outreach to our neighbors!

$16.5 M

$5.5 M Campaign Goal

New Funds: $275,000

Total Future Yield: $725,000

$11 M

Current Yield : $450,000

Reaching our goal will mean an additional $275,000 of annual funding to support new and existing programs.

Funding Our Endowment is Critical

The contributions we receive today are simply not enough to realize our long-term goals. This campaign will allow us to grow our endowment fund by $5.5 million, increasing it to $16.5 million, increasing our annual yield by $275,000 to help us fund expanded programming, staff, and community support.

During the pandemic we remained profoundly committed to our community and members, relying upon our existing endowment to fund critical ministries. Within a week of the shutdown, we developed an all-parish call system to support those in need. We invested in our digital capabilities, developed virtual services, while providing hundreds of weekly breakfast meals to JeffersonChalmers students. In partnership with Wayne State University and the Henry Ford Health System, we became one of the most dependable Covid testing sites and later one of the most impactful vaccination sites in Grosse Pointe. Overall, we remained strong and responded to the needs of our community, leading with Christ’s love in a world that so desperately needed a message of hope and healing.

Immediate Use Funds

$500,000

In addition to the long term stability we will secure by growing our endowment, one opportunity is so urgent that we must raise funds for immediate use:

Startup Costs for Early Childhood Education Center

We seek to raise $500,000 to fund the startup costs of an Early Childhood Education Center in the Education Wing. This center will position Christ Church as an exceptional option for thoughtful, community-oriented Early Childhood Education for the Grosse Pointes and the east side. This education center will be a much-needed destination for the highest quality education, serving children from 16 months to four years old.

Investments in this center will include:

™ Installing a permanent playground accessible to all children of Christ Church and the surrounding community

™ Investing in safety and security upgrades for the Education Wing

A Letter from Our Chair

Dear Friends,

As a 20-plus-year member of Christ Church and a long-standing resident of the Grosse Pointe community, I cannot think of a better investment than our church.  Christ Church has unlimited capacity to live out its values and fulfill its mission and I’m honored to be a part of the team that is making this happen.  For me and my family, Christ Church has been a place of comfort, peace, hope and friendship — it’s been an easy decision to make a significant pledge to this campaign so that this very special, sacred place can achieve its maximum potential and continue to carry on its important work for generations to come.  Thank you for your consideration.

Peace and blessings,

Lisa Vallee-Smith, Christ Church Campaign Chair

What Now?

If you would like to discuss your giving history and philanthropic planning with us please contact Diane Ward at dward@christchurchgp.org

™ Pray for the mission and ministry of Christ Church, and the success of this effort

™ Share our faith and commit to this effort with a pledge

™ Participate in a way that is meaningful to you, your family, and your relationship with Christ Church

Excel in Love Steering Committee

Lisa Vallee-Smith, Chair

Colleen Fitzgerald

Ebony Duff Gillooly

Ian Jones

Jean Redfield

John Van Osdol

Brendan Walsh

Rema Waugh

Christ Church Vestry Executive Committee

Betsy Creedon, Senior Warden

Amie Sweeney, Junior Warden

Richard Best

Gregg Russell