CHRISTMAS GREETINGS from ASABE'S SON

From Cynthia: I got this FB message from her [Asabe's] son, Iliya. The English isn't great but hopefully you can figure it out :)

Iliya Pochen

Dear cynthia,it is nice2write u in this festive month of Dec.we sent u greettings and love@christmas wishin u a joyful christmas and bless newyear ahead,thank u for the supports to our mom&family, ..believe me i can not thank u enough as no word is enough2appreciate dis love and kind gesture,pls sent our love and thanks to your church@seathle,is my earnest prayer that the good lord continue reward u richly in jesus name,we are all doing fine back here in nigeria except that we miss all u:jan&fran,kevin&theressa,wiebe&Joanna who're here in lagos nigeria,they visit jos and us@any slitest opportunity we thank them for that, ..and u Cynthia thank u for been a part of our lifes even financially,u've been a blessing to our family,above all,we thank God for been there for all of us.pls.join me in Amin... Love,Iliya

VOLUNTEER SCHEDULE UPDATING

Kristen VanderLinden is updating our Sunday Volunteers schedule for January through June 2013 in the next couple of weeks and would love to hear back from all of you! Please let Kristen know if you would like to keep the same roles, be added to a new role, or make adjustments. As a reminder, here are the areas in which you can serve:

• Greeting
• Hosting
• Reading
• Prayer
• Nursery
• Godly Play
• Big Kids Leader/Helper
• Take down, Slides 

Kristen would love to hear back from you by Monday, December 3 so she can publish the schedule as soon as possible.

FINANCE UPDATE for SUNDAY, DECEMBER 2

Emmaus Road Church: Budget Handout Overview
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday! We’re making it a ‘tradition’ to have a Road Crew budget update sometime in the last two months of the year before we head into the Christmas/holiday break and start a new year together. This memo provides that update, and we’ll discuss it at our December 2 Road Crew meeting this Sunday at around 11:30am, immediately following the service.

If you only have enough time to read this intro, the key takeaway is that while we’re not yet in dire financial straits, our giving has not kept up with our expenses this year. As we noted in our March and June Road Crew meetings, giving has been lower by approximately $1400 per month in 2012. To be clear: If the current trend continues, our bank account will reach a critical level where we will operate ‘month to month’ sometime in the second half of 2013 (as early as Summer 2013, likely Fall 2013). We can turn this trend around as a church – please pray for the continued financial sustainability of our church, and consider your own family’s ability to give to sustain our church financially. Importantly, thank God for sustaining our church in so many ways.

Expenses This Year
The chart to the right shows our church’s actual monthly expenses for the year. Actual expenses came in very close to budget for the year, when all expenses are taken into account (including our church tithe). Through November, we’ve averaged $8,900 in expenses, not including some of the annual one-time expenses we incur for December tithing each year (see Acts 6 fund mentioned later in this document).

Giving Trends
Giving has averaged $7,500 per month in 2012. As the chart to the right shows, giving levels fluctuate month to month, with many Road Crew members giving quarterly, while others give monthly. The challenge for our church is that giving is significantly below our monthly expenses. If we are unable to collectively bring our giving up, we will need to look for ways to cut expenses in order to remain financially solvent and sustainable as a church going forward.

Cash Reserves
The chart to the right shows the average amount in our church bank account for the last two years. We’ve seen a steady decline in our bank account this past year to the point where currently we dip below our goal of three months’ expenses. Having three months’ expenses is important because it allows our church to handle the sometimes large quarterly and annual payments that arise each year. It also allows us the freedom to give back to our community through the Acts 6 fund. As was discussed in the overview at the start of this document, giving has been lower than expenses by approximately $1400 each month in 2012. If we don’t change that trend, our cash reserves (the blue line in the above chart) will reach a critical level where we will begin to operate ‘month to month’ sometime in the second half of 2013 (as early as June or July 2013).

Proposed Budget 

Our proposed 2013 monthly budget is depicted in the table and pie chart. The table outlines each of the major monthly budget items for our church, while the pie chart shows what percent of our total budget each major expense represents.  Our 2013 budget is very similar to our 2012 budget.  The budget includes annual cost of living increases for our pastor Eric, increased health care costs for the Likkels, and increased monthly rent for use of the New Horizons Mission on Sundays. We also budgeted a cost of living increase for our Sunday School instructor and Sunday setup/takedown workers (each of which have not had a pay increase in over two years). As we discussed in our June Road Crew meeting, increases in the cost of living are not something we control, but are something we need to recognize in our budget so that our pastor and those that work for Emmaus Road Church can remain financially sustainable.
As a reminder, the Acts 6 fund was created to formalize our annual tithe as a church. We regularly support several worthy organizations and people. For example, we give regularly to support Asabe in Nigeria and HCI (Wycliffe). Part of our tithe goes to pay our classical shares – this pays for our Christian Reformed Church denomination activities such as world missions. Finally at the end of each calendar year, during Christmas time, Emmaus Road Church tithes to various partner organizations that we pray for on a regular basis. These can include Union Gospel Mission, New Horizons Mission, Acres of Diamonds, Roots Church, and Storytellers Church. Last year, and in our proposed budget this year, we budgeted to give 10% of annual church giving levels through the Acts 6 fund.

What You Should Do Road Crew 
Please read this handout prior to next week’s Road Crew meeting on December 2, following the service. Be prepared to discuss this at the Road Crew meeting. Send any questions you have to the stewardship team at the email addresses below. Finally, thank and praise God that our church has been able to remain financially sustainable this year. Please pray for continued abundance for our church that we can meet our expenses and continue to do God’s work in Belltown and Seattle. Stewardship team email addresses:

• Ryan Engel at: rengel@gmail.com 
• Mike Elenbaas at: mchllnbs@yahoo.com 
• David Anema at: heyitsdavida@comcast.net

DECISION MAKING PROCESS, FLOW CHART

Back in 2010, we revisited and mapped out our Decision Making Process. We felt it was important to clarify leadership and membership roles we share in Emmaus Road. This alleviates confusion, helps us be transparent, and honors God's desire for unity among us. Council members put the details together, presented them, and during a Road Crew session we voted to approve the process. Here are some diagrams to illustrate who, and how, various decisions are shared in our church. These Flow Charts do not cover every possible scenario, but they provide a helpful framework.

STEWARDSHIP TEAM UPDATE/PROPOSAL JUNE 2012

Summary
As a Stewardship Team, we are using this quarterly budget update as a regular way to communicate  how our church financial health is evolving.

 Here are key takeaways from this update:

• Overall giving is down in 2012 
• Paypal! – it is up and running as a way to donate online to Emmaus Road Church
• Expenses are in line with February 2012 budget
• Salary-time – we’re past due in revisiting Eric’s salary

Giving

Bad news first: our overall giving levels have been significantly lower than in 2011 on average.  We budgeted that 2011 giving levels would continue into 2012 and that this would sustain our budgeted expenses.  So far in 2012 that has not been the case in the majority of months.  The figure to the right shows our average monthly cash reserves over the last two years.  You’ll see the drop off if you compare where we are today to where we were in the summer of 2011.

We’ve been monitoring the giving levels; at our February Road Crew meeting we noted that giving was down slightly.  Unfortunately, this trend has continued into the Spring and through May.  Through April, we were averaging $6,700 of monthly giving, approximately $2,600 per month below our budget.

So that is the bad news.  We have seen some very recent signs of strong giving; thanks everyone for giving faithfully! There are so many great areas of growth in our Church, we pray that we can continue to sustain these going forward, and believe we will.  This is a big part of our church and needs your prayer.

Paypal! 
Finally we have Paypal up and running on the Emmaus Road website. See the ‘Donate’ button on the right hand of the website? This is an easy way to budget your giving and give electronically. What’s the catch, you ask? Just one little catch: we’re going to incur an expense as a church of 2.5% of every online donation. So that means, for every $100 you donate to the Church, Paypal gets to keep $2.50. All in all, Council discussed the tradeoff of this expense and feel that the positives greatly outweigh this one negative. Positives:

• Potential for steadier giving since you do not need to remember to ‘bring the checkbook’ 
• Those far away (traveling for work, Road Crew ‘alumni’, or others that believe in our Emmaus Road Church mission of ‘Church Beyond Sunday’) will have a way to support over long distance
• Let us not forget you can now get some miles on your credit card for your tithe . . . . ☺ 

Given the additional expense, please consider bumping up that tithe by 2.5 to 3% to make up the additional expense if you start to give online.

Expenses
Monthly expenses have been right in line with budgeted levels. We recently relocated our church office space in the Greenwood neighborhood (just across the street, now right on Greenwood Ave). No change in rent, but the new space is a big improvement in terms of better meeting space, easier location to access. Council met there last month and it was comfortable.

Stewardship Team has committed to provide average monthly giving vs. expenses updates to include in the eweekly. We’ve done this in the past as a progress report on our giving levels to highlight how we’re doing. Please watch for this in the eweekly and as we move forward into the rest of 2012.

We also discussed the need to maintain a level of cash in reserve to help balance the month to month fluctuation in giving that will naturally occur in a church. We decided to target a cash reserve at a level equal to three months of expenses, or approximately $30,000.

As most of you know who have been here for the last couple of years, Emmaus Road's giving has fluctuated quite a bit; we have only recently (in 2011) seen giving fall in line with budgeted expenses. 2012 has not been phenomenal yet from a giving standpoint. Due in part to the lower giving in 2010, we did not include a cost of living raise for Eric in 2011, and have not done so yet in 2012. That means two years without a pay raise. As you all know living here in the Seattle area, our cost of living has continued to rise steadily each year. Recent discussions with Eric highlight the need to revisit his salary – the current salary is just not sustainable for his family budget.

We should have revisited a cost of living increase in the 4Q budget of 2011, but did not; chalk this up to a ‘rookie mistake’ by your new Stewardship Team members. In addition, Eric has expressed understanding about delaying a raise, in order to avoid draining Emmaus Road's bank account – he wants the church to be financially sustainable as much as we all do. We have recently met as a Stewardship Team and discussed the whole picture of our church finances and also highlighted how we need to balance the financial picture of our church with the many other great areas of growth we have seen in our church body. To name a few:

• The thriving Groundworks Sunday program that has born much fruit in Belltown
• The wonderful new life we have all shared as so many babies have been born 
• Small Groups – several of which continue to thrive in different pockets of Seattle 
• Road Crew participation has remained high 

Balancing these very positive signs of health and growth when we consider our overall church finances, as well as the need to maintain three months of expenses as a reserve, the Stewardship Team proposes the following as a mid-year budget adjustment (recall this really just ‘makes up’ somewhat for no increase the last two years):

• 4% net pay increase for pastor, effective July 2012, as long as cash reserves continue to stay above three months’ expenses (currently $30k) 

As a Stewardship Team, we also propose to use the following as our go-forward plan for assessing pastor salary on an annual basis:

• Review budget progress prior to 4Q Road Crew meeting. 
• Budget cost of living increase with remaining annual budget proposal. Decide as Road Crew on annual budget proposal. 
• Schedule ‘annual’ discussion between Eric and Elders on how he is allocating his time to ministry (just a normal ‘check-in’ that we will make sure happens each year)

Closing Thoughts
As a small church community, steady giving is the lifeblood of our church remaining financially sustainable. We have continued to be faithful whenever called to give. Thanks to Road Crew for stepping up! We’ll vote on the following items at the June 10 Road Crew meeting:

• July 2012 cost of living increase for Eric of 4% 

If you cannot make the meeting (which will follow immediately after Sunday worship), please email myself or David Anema to let us know your thoughts on the above proposal. (p.s. I know Ryan will be out of town, so make sure you include David or me on the email) ☺

Thank you everyone for continuing this journey together as a Church. We have so much to be thankful for in our lives and in our church body – Praise God for his faithfulness to us.

Mike Elenbaas: mchllnbs@yahoo.com
David Anema: heyitsdavida@comcast.net
Ryan Engel: rengel301@gmail.com

ACTS 4, ACTS 6, & EMMAUS ROAD

Elder Rennie Araucto delivered the following address when reading our Old Testament lection this past Sunday (4/15/12):

We are in that period between Easter and Pentecost; traditionally, the Lectionary gives the OT reading slot to a series of readings from the book of Acts. Today, we the lections is Acts 4:32-35; interestingly enough, our church also has reason to listen to Acts 6:1-6, a somewhat related narrative. Let’s listen to both texts this morning, and how they apply to our church today:

Acts 4:32-35
32 All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. 33 With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all 34 that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

Beautiful picture of harmony and generosity, right? People are always looking back to the Jerusalem church of Acts 4. But then there’s Acts 6…

Acts 6:1-6
1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them…

And that’s what they did; they ordained seven men who happened to have Greek names. So what happened to the harmony and generosity of Acts 4? Why did they have to ordain deacons? Basically, Jewish widows were being cared for, while Greek convert widows were not. The Apostles needed to remain focused on the “ministry of the word”; the church responded, appointing a group of leaders to serve, overseeing and distributing food.
Today, we have some related circumstances. Like any church, Emmaus Road is a diverse group of believers; each of us has different gifts, different resources, and different needs. As a body, we use our gifts/strengths together; nobody can do ministry alone. But we also attend to individual needs as a group; to help this happen wisely, lovingly, and fairly, we have a Elders/Deacons, a Church Council, who oversee the distribution of resources from the church for various members’ needs from time to time. With church approval, we recently set aside an amount of Emmaus Road's budget for an “Acts 6 Fund,” naming it after the story we heard about, where people were appointed to distribute food to Greek widows. The timing was good; we have had several people with different needs who have asked for, or been offered, support. We are glad to be able to offer this.
Please know that you may give directly to this fund, which is used to help individuals of this church; also know that as you give tithes and offerings to support the general ministry of Emmaus Road, a certain percentage is set aside for the Acts 6 Fund. Thank God for blessing us with people, with spiritual and material blessings, and servant leaders willing to oversee and give.

ROAD CREW NOTES, MARCH 4 2012

1. ROOTS & BRANCHES UPDATES
Pastor Likkel deliberately read through each of the Nine Roots & Branches (see notes from May 2011 Road Crew), reminding members what we united around last year.
Focused on developments, growth in following areas:
Evangelism Beyond Sunday; reported conversation w/ Jessie Elenbaas & Alicia Likkel, emphasizing 1 Peter 3:15; looking ahead to "open mic" type event, where stories of sharing faith, Good News are told and shared; will include folks from sister congregations around Seattle; details TBD

Rooted & Linked; expanding Belltown Covenant; continued church planting and strengthening with local CRC Cluster (church office soon relocating to ground floor on Greenwood); March 15 Children In Worship event

Church Big versus Big Church; this perspective seems to be taking hold among members as we enjoy God doing big things with our relatively small hands

2. FINANCIAL UPDATE

Mike Elenbaas shared report based on information previously included with online Road Crew Agenda

Left time for Q&A; few comments/questions from visitor entertained, otherwise not much discussion; work of Stewardship Team approved, including moving ahead with Benevolence Fund as outlined in agenda.

ROAD CREW AGENDA - MARCH 4, 2012

Thanks Erin & Sean McCready for volunteering to bring lunch supplies!

1. Roots & Branches update: Evangelism Beyond Sunday and more...

2. Stewardship Team update; proposal re: "Acts 6:1-6" Benevolence Fund

Details re: Stewardship Team update:

Emmaus Road Church: Budget Handout Overview
First off, we apologize for not having this summary prepared further ahead of tomorrow’s Road Crew mtg. This handout gives a brief update of our church’s financial status. Please review this information; feel free to contact the Stewardship Team at the email addresses at the end of this handout with any questions you have. We’ll discuss much of this at Road Crew tomorrow, but we are of course available to answer and communicate about our financial situation anytime.

Cash Reserves

As the chart to the right shows, our net cash reserves have decreased slightly over the last five to six months. While we are still in a relatively healthy condition, meeting our budget, the Stewardship team has noticed slightly lower levels of giving. This highlights the need to continue to faithfully give, that we can together support our budgeted financial needs as a church and to continue to be able to support Church Beyond Sunday as part of Road Crew. Also, recall that some level of reserves is healthy for us in order to be able to manage the variability in month to month expenses that arise. As always, we will be monitoring our financial situation in the coming months and will update the church if giving and expenses start to move out of line.

Benevolence Fund
One of our action items from the last Road Crew meeting was to further develop a benevolence fund for Emmaus Road. This fund is a mechanism for us to respond to specific financial needs which arise among our members. Council met to discuss the fund and its principles and how to best implement this. The following principles were agreed to:

• We will establish a benevolence fund policy to guide council and stewardship team on benevolence fund decisions. The draft policy is to be attached as a separate document to our church blog.
• We will target 3% of our overall church budget for the benevolence fund each year. Note that this is one part of our overall 10% budgeted tithe as a church. See November 2011 Road Crew material for budget information.

What You Should Do, Road Crew

Please continue to pray for our continued financial sustainability as a church body. We are blessed with a diverse mix of families and individuals at our church who love God and have been called to this church to live life together and praise God together. We are blessed that we understand that money is a part of our lives as Christians; it requires discipline and humility. Thank you for your continued faithfulness, Road Crew, in giving to support our ministry together within our community.

Please send questions to Stewardship Team members at any of the email addresses below.
• Treasurer Ryan Engel at: rengel@gmail.com
• Elder Mike Elenbaas at: mchllnbs@yahoo.com
• Elder David Anema at: heyitsdavida@comcast.net

TIME TO ORGANIZE STORAGE CABINETS

Have you volunteered for "Takedown" or helped put things away after worship on Sunday? You may have noticed Emmaus Road's storage cabinets are cluttered with unwieldy stacks of supplies. We would like to organize, install better storage solutions, label things, and make it easier for people to remove and return supplies. Perhaps you are inspired to help create a new system? If so, speak to Cornell, Biff, or Pastor Likkel.