Approved Recommendations at the Business Session

Our church had a business session last Sunday night where several important items were approved.  (If you would like to get a hard copy of these reports, please request it from our church office).

Our finance reports year to date (as of October) show us ($216,940.74) income under budget.  This is a significant budget shortfall.  This has been a difficult year in the economy and a transition year for our church.  It is remarkable that our spending has been only ($12,512.63), representing about 6% of our budget shortfall.  Considering that we have had to exceed the budget in the area of maintenance because of air condition problems and related issues, this primarily means that we are not able to service all our mission endeavors at the projected level, that some ministries do not get done, and that we are not able to fill the staff positions that have been left vacant this year.  However, we are confident that the Lord will provide for Calvary's ministries this year.  We hope that our Thanksgiving offering this Sunday will be an opportunity to give generously so that the church's ministries for 2010 can be carried out.

I am grateful for the official addition of 73 members who have joined during the last four months (47 by transfer and 26 by baptism).  We hope that in the months ahead God continues to add those who feel called to be disciples and make disciples through the fellowship at Calvary.

The church also approved the nominating committee and coordinating council recommendation in regard to committee nominations.

The deacon screening and nominating committee recommended six candidates for active service as deacons: Joe Averill, Danny Drefke, Brad Price, Darin Burrell, Tony Worley, and Bob Canterbury.  We are grateful for the availability of these men to serve our church as deacons for the next three years beginning in 2011.

Finally, our church approved the proposed 2011 church budget.  This budget reflects the addition of the Spanish Language Ministry since this was previously in the missions budget.  It also reflects salary and insurance increases for personnel.  There is a slight decrease in the missions portion and in other areas.  In terms of revenues, the budget will now count on the offerings from the Spanish Language Ministry worship service which were previously going to a designated account.  After these changes, the stewardship committee presented the budget as requiring virtually the same weekly revenues from the three English worship services as the 2010 budget.

As a church, there is always a delicate balance between a faith-driven budget and wise stewardship.  On the one side, the danger is that we would be irresponsible with the resources God has given us.  On the other side, the danger is that we would revert to only do what is humanly possible without relying on the Lord.  We believe that God is giving direction to our church and that there are ministries and mission endeavors that he has called us to do.  We are grateful to the stewardship committee for recommending and to the church for approving a budget that will challenge us to do our best and to rely on the Lord's provision while being responsible stewards of the Lord's resources.

Let us continue to seek the Lord's direction and blessing as we move forward to 2011!