About 15 years ago, the women of St. Michael's in Raleigh hatched a novel idea: an evening of adult fellowship to raise money for outreach. It was christened An Evening in Parish (EIP), and that inaugural event brought together a few dozen people who raised a few thousand dollars. By April of 2004, EIP, which had already grown so large it was forced to move from private homes to the church grounds, was setting records: