After One Year, A Status Update on our Community

Now that we are one year in to weekly worship services, I'd like to update you on the status of our community. Here is a brief update of what we've done and where we are going:

Financial
We've made it through our first year of weekly worship services without any major financial delinquencies! Our current budget runs about $10,000/month, and our income comes from three sources: denominational appropriations, outside support, and tithes and offerings. Our projected budget for 2011 is attached to this page, or it can be accessed here. Our income for 2010 broke down as follows:

• Appropriations: $38,868
• Outside Fund Raising/Other Donations: $39,100
• Tithes and Offerings: $32,184

Our Appropriations for 2011 will decrease to $28,536. Our outside donations and fundraising will also diminish over the next 2 years, but in a less predictable pattern. That means that in order for our church to maintain our 2010 level of funding we have to (at minimum) increase our tithes and offerings by about $10,000. But considering that our outside donations were given by friends of our community living in other parts of the country who were eager to help us launch the church (mostly one-time gifts), we probably cannot count on this level of support for the coming year.

So far in 2011 (thru March), we have received the following amount of income:

• Appropriations: $8,556
• Outside Fund Raising/Other Donations: $1,332
• Tithes and Offerings: $15,386.83

This has provided a total amount of income of $25,667.83 to cover total budgeted expenses of $31,912.97. Our tithes and offerings are on pace to exceed that of last year, but as you can see our funding from outside sources has significantly decreased this year. We have been left with a shortfall of about $6,000 so far. This may or may not seem like a big deal, but it impacts the salaries we are able to pay our staff and our ability to pay rent. We are pursuing all avenues for meeting this shortfall, including reaching out to our outside supporters and looking for a new place to rent. However, to continue operating as we have been, we as a community need to increase our regular giving.

Most new churches experience similar financial challenges in their "toddler" stages, and I'm sure we can meet this challenge as well. God brought us through our first year, which was an accomplishment in itself, and he will bring us through the next, and the next. I have been encouraged by the generosity of people in our community. Your gifts are an expression of your love for God. If you would like to give, the best way to give is to give online. If you set up a consistent recurring gift, it makes it easier for us to plan out our budgeting. Thank you for your generosity.

Spiritual
We've seen tremendous spiritual growth over the last year. Spiritual growth is sometimes hard to see when it's happening to you. It's a slow sort of maturing growth that happens over time. But as I step back and assess the growth of people in our congregation over the last year, I am very encouraged. We've seen couples grow through struggles in their marriages. We've seen people who had never gone to church come repeatedly to our services. We've seen people take their first steps of real faith in their relationship with God. We've also been able to raise money for flood victims in Pakistan, pack food for starving children, send out a missionary, help coordinate and volunteer with an organization committed to ending human trafficking, and so much more. For all these things I am are deeply grateful. God is present in our community and we are growing spiritually!

Growth
One of the primary reasons we decided to start a new church is because church plants are the single most effective evangelistic strategy for sharing the gospel with those who have never heard it. Church plants draw the majority of their members from non-church goers, which is in contrast to established churches that mostly experience transfer growth. Church plants are 6-8 times more likely to bring new people into the Body of Christ than older churches of the same size (reference). This has been our experience as well. We've seen people find a place in our community who haven't felt comfortable in other more established congregations.

But as is the case with church plants, there are challenges to being new as well. At our current size of about 50 people a Sunday (kids included), we don't yet have the critical mass that makes growing more natural. We have a small pool of volunteers to draw from, and some Sundays when we have a small turn out we are just too small for new visitors to feel comfortable worshipping with us. So while our growth over the last year in relational depth has been undeniable, our growth in numbers in attendance has been mostly flat. I am hopeful that our spiritual growth will act as the precursor and catalyst to our numeric growth over the coming 12 months.

Summary
We've had a great first year. Amazing things have happened in the lives of many of us. I'm thankful for our community and the way that God is at work in our midst. I look forward to growing with you over the next year. Also, if you would like to talk more about this, please feel free to contact me directly.

Grace and Peace,

John March