Moderator Moment

The Church Council met on Monday May 11th. I’d like to highlight two issues that were discussed during the meeting.

Coffee Hour
We are having a shortage of people signing up to host coffee. When no one signs up, then usually a few members of the congregation jump in to make and serve coffee at the last minute. But we can’t always depend on someone jumping in at the last minute. If we don’t get people to sign up in advance, we might just end up with black coffee to serve while we share in Fellowship.

Coffee hour hosts are only responsible for making sure there is sufficient milk, half and half and juice available for coffee hour in addition to making and serving coffee. Although it has become commonplace, hosts are not required to provide snacks or food. We recognize not everyone has the ability to prepare or purchase snacks and food. So please don’t let food or snacks prevent anyone from signing up for coffee hour.
We have found typically it is easier if one or two people/families host coffee hour together on a Sunday. It makes the task easier and more enjoyable when there are many hands to help out. So I encourage everyone to find a “Coffee Hour Buddy” and sign-up to host coffee hour one or two Sundays a year.

Church Financial Situation
One of the most significant discussions was around the financial situation we find ourselves in. Not everyone was able to attend the brief May 3rd informational meeting after the service. We started the meeting highlighting the exciting momentum our Congregation and Church is experiencing in Sunday attendance, membership, Christian Education and Missions. We are also excited that this year is our first year with 5 paid staff positions: a full-time Minister, Director of Faith Formation, Director and Minister of Music and an Administrative Assistant. We adopted a hopeful budget at the annual meeting knowing we had an approximately $34,000 gap between projected income and budgeted expenses as shown in the graphic above. We anticipated finding additional income throughout the year to help close the gap.

To make the situation worse, we have experienced additional and unbudgeted expenses. The very cold and snowy winter drove up utility costs and snowplowing expenses. Additionally, the boiler needed expensive repairs in February, and the church sanctuary heating systems will need additional repairs over the summer. These expenses increase the gap between the budget and income budgets.

As noted during the meeting, we have not been able to close the gap at all during the first 3 months of the year nor is the Council confident we will be able to find sufficient additional income to do so over the rest of the year. The Council is anticipating a significant deficit this year if nothing changes.

We really only have two options to overcome the potential deficit: find additional sources of revenue or cut expenses. In our annual budget, staff salaries and benefits are approximately 67%, utilities are 9% and other fixed costs like insurance, etc. total almost 7%. This means 83% of our projected budget is essentially fixed. The Council welcomes all ideas on potential expense reductions and revenue sources.

Sincerely yours,
Matt Mullen, Church Moderator