News: 2009 Ministry Plan Reconsidered
- Rev. John McMullen, Senior Pastor
We are redoing our Ministry Plan for 2009.
Here are the reasons why.
It appears that our financial resources are going to be less than we had hoped. It also appears that the needs are going to be greater than we might have anticipated even six months ago. It is my belief that we should do everything possible to keep all of our staff realizing that any more cuts will greatly hamper major portions of our ministries now and in the future. We also have significant building costs that cannot be altered. Given these realities, we are reorganizing our Ministry Plan in order to best use what we have been given.
I believe that the reorganization should be based on three main foci.
The first of these is mission. As stated above, most likely needs are going to be greater. More people will turn to the church for help--spiritual, pastoral, and/or financial.
The second of these is worship. People will need spiritual resources especially during the months to come. They will need words of hope and assurance. Worship of high quality and integrity will be even more important.
The third is spiritual growth. Growth in faith will be paramount as increasing needs and struggles confront us and those around us
If we balanced the budget given current data, it would necessitate an approximate 24% decrease in the budget adopted by our Church Conference. After some discussion,the Coordinating Team is recommending making some $90,000 in cuts.
Some of these came by asking program staff and teams to make across the board cuts of 10% in programming. The decision as to where those cuts were made was left to the affected teams. In truth, there were even deeper cuts in some areas.
We further recommend that all raises be canceled, and full-time clergy expenses cut $750 each (Kathleen’s would be cut $375).
Further we recommend that Congregational meetings be held to share the depth of the problem that we face as a congregation. We also recommend that an effort be made to contact people who have not pledged, asking them to consider making such a commitment, as well as asking those who have pledged to consider raising their pledge or making an additional gift, realizing that many have made sacrificial efforts already.
In this we are trying to live up to the needs of our time and the tenets of our mission statement: “to make the best use of all the resources given us by God in order to bring as many people as possible into a lasting life-changing relationship with God through Christ Jesus” even, and especially, in this hard time. I know I can count on you to make every effort to help us continue the minstries that are so important to us and to others.
