This memo provides a summary of giving and expenses for our church in 2014. As we’ve mentioned a few times this year, giving is down and we as a church body will need to increase giving in order to avoid the need to take actions to cut expenses.
Giving vs. Expenses
The figure below shows actual monthly giving and expenses for our church for the year 2014. The red bars in the chart show expenses each month, while the blue bars show monthly total giving/tithes. We’ve included a blue dashed line to show the average giving amount (approximately $6,500), which compares to the red-dashed line that shows the average monthly expenses of approximately $7,800.
Unfortunately this again shows how our giving remains below expenses. We started the year with money in the bank account, which has allowed us to continue to pay the bills, but as we’ve mentioned several times this year, our cash reserves again are low and without increased giving we’ll need to take action to cut back on expenses.
This is of course not something we want to do, so are being clear with the budget situation so that those that are able to give, and even increase their giving, will understand our church’s need.
The figure below visually shows what makes up our expenses year to date. As most of you are aware, we have a steady monthly budget with little fluctuation month to month. The bulk of our expenses are of course for Pastor Eric, with other significant amounts each month for office rent and rent for Sunday worship time.
Note that we are behind paying rent for office space by several months, and have not been able to make our denomination payment this year due to the lower giving we’ve been experiencing.
Thank you Ryan!!
Please thank Ryan Engel for his faithful service to our church as a member of the stewardship team the last 5+ years. He has done a lot of work behind the scenes keeping the books, making sure payments go out, keeping good records. Please reach out to Ryan and thank him for his service to us all – he has done this faithfully and with integrity and has earned our thanks and appreciation (and a well-earned break).
Closing Thoughts
God continues to provide for our church through all of our giving. We’ve been running a lean budget for a couple of years now, and we continually have ups and downs with giving. But let’s not forget that we’ve stepped up in the past collectively and God has shown he is faithful to us by providing what we need to remain sustainable as a church. As we enter the holidays, please consider stepping up to give to our church, so that we can end 2014 on the right foot and begin 2015 in a strong position financially.
Any questions, here are your stewardship team members, and please direct ‘detail’ questions to Mike:
Mike Elenbaas: mchllnbs@yahoo.com
David Anema: heyitsdavida@comcast.net
Chandra Mullenix
No comments:
Post a Comment