EPUMC – Weekly Memo – October 9, 2014
From Bart Reed – Stewardship Chair
*This week’s memo is from our Stewardship Chair, Bart Reed. This information was recently published in the October issue of The Tumbleweed, but we are making this available again so that you may review this important information.
Back in June we provided an update on how the church was tracking toward its annual budget. At the time, we were tracking to a loss, but a much smaller one than we expected and planned for based on 2014 pledges. We’re pleased to let you know that as of the time of this note, we’re in a similar situation. We knew our shortfall would grow over the summer, but it didn’t grow by much, thanks mainly to prudent expense management by our trustees and other groups.
The chart below shows you our budget, where we were in May and where we are now. The bottom line is that we are doing OK but we need to stay on track through the last part of the year. And while we have been able to sustain a loss, no church can sustain losses for long.
Which brings us to the topic of stewardship. Our stewardship emphasis won’t begin for a few weeks yet, but we’d like to ask everyone to give prayerful consideration to a step up in giving during this year’s pledging period.
If we assume our expenses will be flat and we get the same number of pledges as this year, we need to increase our average pledge by 6% just to break even. And if we take into account that certain expenses are highly likely to increase, we probably need an average increase of almost 15%.
We’re not trying to scare you, and our situation is not dire. Our church is in a fortunate position to have a highly engaged membership and the ability to sustain near-term budget losses. But for us to be the kind of community we want to be – big enough to make a difference, small enough to care – we’ll need to show it through financial support. Thank you in advance for your consideration. Please feel free to touch base with Pastor Dan, Bart Reed or Dave Zuelke if you have questions or thoughts to share.
From Bart Reed – Stewardship Chair
*This week’s memo is from our Stewardship Chair, Bart Reed. This information was recently published in the October issue of The Tumbleweed, but we are making this available again so that you may review this important information.
Back in June we provided an update on how the church was tracking toward its annual budget. At the time, we were tracking to a loss, but a much smaller one than we expected and planned for based on 2014 pledges. We’re pleased to let you know that as of the time of this note, we’re in a similar situation. We knew our shortfall would grow over the summer, but it didn’t grow by much, thanks mainly to prudent expense management by our trustees and other groups.
The chart below shows you our budget, where we were in May and where we are now. The bottom line is that we are doing OK but we need to stay on track through the last part of the year. And while we have been able to sustain a loss, no church can sustain losses for long.
Which brings us to the topic of stewardship. Our stewardship emphasis won’t begin for a few weeks yet, but we’d like to ask everyone to give prayerful consideration to a step up in giving during this year’s pledging period.
If we assume our expenses will be flat and we get the same number of pledges as this year, we need to increase our average pledge by 6% just to break even. And if we take into account that certain expenses are highly likely to increase, we probably need an average increase of almost 15%.
We’re not trying to scare you, and our situation is not dire. Our church is in a fortunate position to have a highly engaged membership and the ability to sustain near-term budget losses. But for us to be the kind of community we want to be – big enough to make a difference, small enough to care – we’ll need to show it through financial support. Thank you in advance for your consideration. Please feel free to touch base with Pastor Dan, Bart Reed or Dave Zuelke if you have questions or thoughts to share.
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