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