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First Baptist Family,
I must begin by expressing my gratitude for your kind expressions of Pastor Appreciation on Sunday. Your notes were so encouraging and sweet. Your gifts were generous. You succeeded in surprising me, and I certainly felt your appreciation. I am honored to be your pastor. Thank you.
Below you will see a copy of the Quarter 3 Congregational Budget Update; we'll also hand out paper copies on Sunday. This is a snapshot of our financial picture through the first 9 months of the year. With the unusual nature of last month, we hope you will forgive us for being a bit later than typical getting this quarterly report to you. Recognizing we're now a full month into the fourth quarter, still, this report highlights some important things for us all to know as we fulfill our calling as a church together.
First, I want to be clear that through the end of September this year, our expenses have exceeded our income by over $34,000. Clearly, we would prefer not to have a year-to-date deficit; that said, it is less than 3% of our revenue thus far year-to-date.
When it comes to our revenues, Promiseland Preschool has exceeded their targeted enrollment. We have been on track with expectations for other revenue like facility rentals (it is worth noting we had an expected and budgeted significant decline in this category this year, as a third-party which had been renting parking lot space from us greatly reduced their utilization rate).
Likewise, while our tithes and offerings have been below our budgeted pace, they are ahead of where they were at this time last year, so we need not be unduly anxious. Clearly this will turn out to be an unusual and difficult fiscal year for many, so we cannot know what our giving will look like for the final months, but might I encourage that we each consider how we are able to invest in the ministries of our church to close out the year.
Our expenses are not terribly out of line with expectations. However, they paint a picture of the current reality of our congregational life, and renew a sense of the importance of discernment and prayer as we go forward into God's good future for us.
With the ongoing and anticipated vacancy in our Associate Pastor role, our personnel expenses have been below budget this year, and we have made some additional recent staffing changes to reduce those expenses further moving forward.
Our Ministries & Missions expenses are largely as anticipated, with Promiseland's expenses more than covered by their tuition revenue.
The category which continues to be the most significant financial burden is caring for our church campus. We have worked to reduce operational costs wherever possible. Additionally, many of you have generously cared for our facility beyond the budget by investing your time and effort and/or making special designated gifts for special projects such as the elevator upgrade and chilled water loop repair this year.
Though we still have several significant needed projects to tackle, thankfully, over the last several years, we have made great strides on catching up on deferred maintenance and making our facility safer, more resilient, and cleaner (much of which was made possible by the income from the aforementioned parking lot rental revenue, which has now been significantly reduced), all with an eye toward making our building a more effective tool for making ministry possible.
I want to focus on that phrase for just a moment "a tool for making ministry possible". It is, admittedly, multi-faceted.
Our building makes ministry possible when it serves as a gathering place for worship, discipleship, and community.
It makes ministry possible when we use it for our Food Pantry to distribute tangible goods and intangible love to our neighbors in need.
It also makes ministry possible when we allow other ministries to use it such as Bible Study Fellowship, Florida BoyChoirs, Via de Cristo, and others.
It makes ministry possible when our beautiful sanctuary offers a sacred space for our larger community to host significant funerals, truly serving as a sanctuary for our city.
But, we must recognize, it also makes ministry possible when we rent out our building or parking lots to bring in revenue to fund our ministries and missions - whether those are long-term tenants like Excellerated Teaching Academy, the school for children with Autism we host upstairs, or concerts and events utilizing our beautiful, spacious sanctuary.
We will continue to strive to be creative in how we think about using our building as "a tool for making ministry possible".
All that said, the reality is that were we to set out to build an appropriate church campus for our congregation today and meaningful ministry into the foreseeable future, we would not build what we have now.
Knowing how to most wisely proceed while embracing the truth of that reality is the aim of our prayerful discernment together.
I want to be clear, I truly believe that the people of this congregation and its leaders throughout our 135 years of history have each taken what they believed to be the right step during their season of stewardship. I am grateful for that strong legacy from which we benefit today.
I recognize the challenges of ministry in our day, both universally and uniquely for First Baptist Church of St Petersburg. At the same time, I am grateful for the clear evidence that God is at work here and now.
I am confident, if we are willing to be boldly faithful, God has yet more than we can hope or imagine in store for this family of faith. I am profoundly grateful for that hopeful expectation.
This theme of gratitude, for what has been, what is, and what is to come, will be shaping my sermons over these next three weeks, and I trust, will shape our prayerful discernment, as we set out to faithfully follow God into the good and beautiful future which awaits us, together.
I can hardly wait to walk this path together with you!
Blessings,
Ben
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