These statistics made me think immediately of life in the small church, where it's so easy to see what we want to do and to think we know just why we can't possibly do it.

The gap between desire and resources as we know them defeats imagination, energy and -- eventually -- hope.

For 20 years, the congregations of St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church in Hardwick, Vt., the gateway to the Northeast Kingdom of rugged, rural, economically depressed northern part of the state, returned again and again to the endless desire for the apparently impossible task of building expansion and renovation. There were no new young families, no children or youth, no street access for people using the Hardwick Area Food Pantry at the church, no handicapped accessibility in the church and no money.

As the new part-time rector, I got the message. I brought my own tape and thumb tacks from home -- as well as a desk and chair.

At the beginning of the summer of 2001, the vestry appointed an architectural needs committee as St. John's began what turned into a two-year series of all-congregation conversations. Our summer congregants had equal access, and all covenanted to take the time to listen to each other speak from both their minds and hearts.

We heard our junior warden present a list of $90,000 worth of deferred maintenance. We studied the demographics of Hardwick and of St. John's, whose parishioners come from 13 towns. Our differences -- in economics, education, age and concern for basics of life versus spiritual concerns -- are many and important to recognize.

Committee members went to almost every parishioner's home to be sure each had a say about the issues before us.

By 2002, our mission statement was in the fourth draft. Our deacon, who is also a lawyer, was drafting articles of incorporation and bylaws for the food pantry as a nonprofit community agency. And the vestry prepared material for the parish to use in deciding on whether to stay on site, to re-configure the building or to expand.

Finalizing the plan
What a task God called us to. People drive miles to attend St. John's services, classes and events. We gather in a small and poor town during a time of declining church membership. God invited us to open the doors wider to make room for more. We saw hard work ahead; but more than that, we were hungry for the rich new life God promised.

In 2003, supported by a diocesan feasibility grant, we began to explore real-life additions and renovations and their probable costs. This is the first time the word "money" became a part of our conversations. I firmly believed that setting a financial goal based on what one knows, or thinks one knows, of the donor field can kill imagination, dreams, initiative and even participation and faith.

By that summer, the congregation had identified specific space needs, including:

• Added room in the sanctuary for more people, a choir and some quiet toys.
• Room for Godly Play, youth group activities and summer adult Bible study.
• More space for church and community to meet.
• Continued support of the Hardwick Area Food Pantry by helping to raise money for a new street-level building, along with organizational help, food, utility payments when necessary -- and prayer.

The architects presented their first design, which met every mission goal and cost $470,000. We gasped and eliminated an elevator, a new foundation and the plan to dig out the entire basement under the church and parish house. We accepted instead a plan to attach the new food pantry building to the church at street level so that it could share a new handicapped bathroom with the church.

The cost estimates dropped: $232,000 for the new church design and $112,000 for the food pantry.

The vestry, finance committee and architectural/building committee planned a three-year building pledge drive and went to talk to people in their homes again. Others put together a summary of our journey to date and sent it on to family, friends and former parishioners with letters and pledge cards.

The new food pantry board raised $10,000, some of it from surrounding towns whose residents depend on food from the pantry. Local churches, civic organizations and especially the town of Hardwick all helped. I wrote grant applications that resulted in nearly $90,000.

The Diocese of Vermont's loan to St. John's enabled us to continue while we continued to pay our three-year pledges. People gave their hearts out. Everyone owned their mission and the project that would enable us to grow toward its fulfillment and towards living into our collective mission to be advocates of Christ's love in the world.

Vital Stats
Congregation: John the Baptist Episcopal Church
Location: Hardwick, Vt., Province I
Average Sunday attendance: 40
Year founded: 1902
Current leadership structure/staff: Vestry, halftime rector, one-fifth-time music director, one-eighth-time administrative assistant, hourly Sunday child care and cleaning staff.

Resources
Try these books and web locations for resource materials and further reading

• The Inviting Church, by Roy Oswald and Speed Leas, the Alban Institute 1984, available for $14 at http://www.alban.org/
• Precept Group Inc. This fee-based demographic program is offered by many dioceses to study congregations and their surrounding communities. http://www.perceptgroup.com/
• Episcopal Church small-church development webpage at www.episcopalchurch.org/smallchurch.htm. Click on "Studying Your Congregation and Community" at left side of page to be guided to free basic Percept data based on ZIP Code.