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First Baptist Family,
Today marks the end of July, and before you know it, school will resume and we'll re-enter the rhythms of our Fall schedule. It seems an appropriate time to pause, take account of where we've been so far this year, and "raise our Ebenezer" in gratitude for what God continues to do in and through our church family.
One important part of our life together is our shared stewardship of resources. I'm grateful for our Executive Leadership Team and Stewardship & Facilities Committees who have been called out from among us to lead these efforts. Below you'll see our mid-year report, which touches on these arenas. Of course, as the saying goes, "not everything you can measure matters, and not everything that matters can you measure." Still, metrics are helpful to give us a glimpse of some key things going on.
As you look at our report, I'd like to offer some thoughts from my pastoral perspective.
We've done well diversifying our revenue. In this new and next era of our church life, this is a key shift. While our own tithes & offerings will continue to be our primary funding source, I'm grateful we've been able to utilize our building to make ministry possible. We've just expanded our relationship with Excellerated Teaching Academy - a school for children with neurodivergence - which sees them rent space on our 2nd floor for their school and therapy services. This summer we've served as host for Mirage Summer Camp, and we continue to rent our facility for many community events throughout the year. These rental revenues allow our building to help make ministry possible. I'm extraordinarily grateful to our Church Business Administrator, Rhonda McVey, for all the work she does to coordinate and facilitate our very scheduled church campus!
Promiseland Preschool is an important and growing ministry of our church. Quality, affordable early childhood education and childcare is all too rare, and when parents find it, it is a tremendous gift to their family. That is certainly the case for the ~75 families of the 1-4 year olds who are enrolled in our weekday preschool ministry. As a Promiseland Preschool parent myself, I can attest that we have an exceptional staff, led by Jenn Jurevic, who share the love of Christ with these preschool students and their families faithfully day in and day out. It is a ministry of our church of which we can all rightly be proud.
Our facility is large, aging, and expensive to maintain. You'll notice, as you review our expenses year-to-date, that the only area which is significantly out-of-line with our expectations is our facility expenses. A not-insignificant part of those expenses were roof repairs related to damage we experienced due to Hurricane Milton. However, it would be naive not to recognize that a church campus the size of ours has many systems and features in need of continual maintenance; and on this scale, those projects are often exceedingly expensive. I am grateful that over the last few years we've been able to catch up on some needed deferred maintenance projects, and I once again express my deep appreciation to our Facilities Committee for the good work they have done managing and maintaining our facility. Even this year they have accomplished a lot! At the same time, there are yet more expensive repairs on the horizon. It is crucial we think creatively and strategically about the potential paths before us when it comes to our church campus, and act in the most faithful way we can to steward this meaningful asset for God's Kingdom. I commend our Stewardship Committee, Facilities Committee, and Executive Leadership Team for the way they've been "doing their homework" in the first half of this year, to understand as accurately as possible the contours of our situation, so that as a church family we can be equipped to act wisely as we move forward into these decisions not urgently nor anxiously, but intentionally and purposefully. Let us all be praying for the guidance of God's Holy Spirit as we approach God's good future for us together, that God would lead and we would be bold enough to follow.
You are a tremendously generous congregation in both your giving and serving! I am humbled as I think about not only the tithes & offerings you've entrusted to our church, but your giving and serving above and beyond that. You'll see some of the highlights below, but even as I prepare this newsletter, Ray Hempstead & Frank Roehler are here replacing lightbulbs in our Kids Worship room and our faithful Food Pantry volunteers are serving our neighbors in need. Present living examples that so many of you in so many ways, often unseen and unheralded, help us live into our God-given purpose to help people experience God's gift of life in Jesus. Thank you!
God is still at work! If you look at the financial bottom line from the first six months of 2025, you will see we outspent our income by $8,400. While we never want to get in the habit of spending more than we take in, considering our unforeseen expenses related to facility repairs, this is actually quite good, and made possible by a combination of solid, diversifying revenue and controlling other expenses (including savings by way of being currently understaffed). I am grateful for God's sovereignty and for your generosity which made that possible. Encouraged in those, I am eagerly anticipating what this second half of 2025 has in store for us. I'm looking forward to onboarding a new Associate Pastor, to re-doubling our focus and efforts in being disciples who make disciples, and to continually becoming evermore the church, the people, God is calling us to be.
Thank you for giving. Thank you for serving. Thank you for investing your resources and your very self in this family of faith and all God is accomplishing in and through us. I am humbled and grateful to get to be your pastor.
With gratitude to God and all of you,
Ben
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