Update
On Spending Plan Progress For 2003!
Does
God Provide For Our Mission? He Already Has Through You & Me!
We’re just a few weeks away from the end of the year and the close of our fiscal year at Mount Calvary. In January a full final report on the church’s income and expenditures will be available. I leave the fine details to our finance team, but I want to give you a bit of information on our year so far and some ideas for the future.
Stewardship!
The Bible teaches a great deal about material wealth. Jesus himself spoke of money and wealth quite often, not because he had any, but because our Lord knows that they way we handle money is an indication of what is in our heart. That’s the real issue for the Lord.
The two basic principles taught in God’s word are that first of all, everything in the world is the Lord’s. It all belongs to him. He both created and owns the earth, the gold, and even the people and the bodies he’s entrusted to our care.
The second is that he has indeed entrusted the good things of this earth, the planet, the wealth and our bodies, to the care of his servants. That’s us. Christian stewardship is simply the management of God’s treasure. The motivating factor is love. He has given us all we have in love. The question is, will we utilize the gifts he’s given based on love for God and others, or on love for ourselves?
God supplies all we need to care for ourselves and our families and also to do the good work he has called us to do. Will God provide? He already has. The money needed to accomplish every purpose of the church has been placed into our hands. If the church is short of money, it’s not a supply issue or a financial issue, it is a spiritual issue, a matter of distribution.
As is often the case, we see at Mount Calvary that a small number of our families give very generously. From our family’s experience, I know it is a matter of faith and trust and love. Those who have settled the trust issue with the Lord give from the top a proportional gift, often 8% or 10% or even more and they would never change. If you asked a long time tither (10% giver) to give less, they would tell you “No!” It is a faith issue they would never change.
If every member of the church had settled those issues and were generous first fruit contributors, our finances would look very different. We’ll discuss these matters in more detail in January during our stewardship emphasis month.
Spending Plan
Process
Each family’s contribution is an act of faith and worship. We seek as leaders to plan the year’s ministry spending plan also as an act of faith and worship. Here’s how the process goes.
Our households give expression of their love for the Lord in their annual giving. We teach people not to give to a budget, but to give to the Lord in response to his goodness. Each year we consider the gifts that have come in as the measure of our members response tot he Lord. That figure is then increased a certain amount and used to guide our spending for the following year.
The following is just a pastor’s summary statement of this year’s planning process. Our financial helpers can give you exact details, but I hope this will help you get a picture of where we stand.
For 2002 we projected a very faithful and courageous 9% or more increase in contributions. As the year draws to a close, our offerings are considerably less than that, and we expect to close the year with an increase of just a few percent over 2001. Your church leadership has been very careful to try to spend on ministry only the funds that have come in. There was a small surplus at the beginning of the year that was also used for ministry. We hope to make all of our outside commitments to our schools and missions at year end.
The plan for 2003 shows a budget plan increase of about 3% over our 2002 receipts. That makes it less than our hoped for 2002 amount, but a realistic response to our offerings.
For 2003, worker salaries will be increased by 1.4%. Health care costs for the four of us who receive health insurance benefits (and spouse and family as applicable) went up 20%. We continue monthly mortgage payments from the early 1980’s of over $2,000 per month. We are hoping that utility and maintenance expenses will be considerable less than we budgeted for in 2002. After these and other fixed expenses were calculated, such as insurance, office expense, etc., only about 8-9% of our projected receipts remained for ministry and mission use. That is a little bit lower than usual.
A decision on our ministry board requests was postponed until after the total spending plan amount was approved at the congregational assembly meeting in November. Those groups met last week and divided in a fair and agreeable fashion the amount they would be budgeted to do their ministry. We’re glad that some items were increased. Most increases were far less than requested. A good number of ministry areas were budgeted less than last year.
Sadly, our contributions to outside missions efforts, such as District and Synod and other charitable partner agencies of ours in the area were significantly decreased.
The Good News!
A hard dose of reality needs to be followed by the good news, and their certainly is much for which we can be thankful and hopeful.
I’m very pleased that our finance team is reorganizing a number of our accounting practices that will help us be more efficient in the year ahead. Those who watch expenditures will be given much more accurate reports to aid their monthly decision making. That’s a great thing. My hearty thanks to those who have been working very hard on this project for a number of months!
But the best good news is you. The impact that our congregation has on our community is guided and directed by you and your household’s weekly response to the Lord. God has done great things for us, far greater than we could ever hope for or ask for. This Christmas season is a remembrance of a God who so loved the world that he sent his only Son. What a marvelous God we have, and what a joy to offer him our gifts in thanks and worship and as a sign of our trust in him!
The future is in our hands. In January we will offer the opportunity for each of us to be guided by God’s word as we decide our plan for giving in the coming year. We have a great track record of people growing in the grace of giving. I expect that this year also, many of us will take great steps forward in this joy and this privilege of generosity and trust.
The spending plan we have approved is pretty tight. It looks as if ministry will be funded in pretty lean fashion. The good news is this: we can change that. Motivated by the love of Christ and his vision for our church’s ministry, all giving above what’s been projected will go toward mission and ministry.
I’m hoping that we meet in a few months to revise our plan. Fixed expenses won’t be changed. We’ll meet to talk about giving more toward missions and to decide to fund more outreach and ministry than expected. That’s what your above and beyond giving will do.
I’ll be praying for you through the end of this year and into the next that the God of love who has given you every treasure of his kingdom will stir your heart to growth in giving so that others might hear of the saving love of Christ that transforms ordinary people into extraordinary servants.