"Keep the Light On" 2014 Budget Campaign

Jesus said, “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16 NIV2011).  Our church seeks to do that!  We want the light of Christ to shine in our church, in our community and around the world.  We want our worship, our discipleship, our ministry and our missions to result in good deeds that glorify the Father in heaven.

One of the primary means for our church to demonstrate this is through our Church Budget.  The Calvary stewardship committee prepared a budget for 2014 that the Church in Conference approved last Sunday.    This budget represents a 5.5% reduction from the 2013 budget and consists of an annual total of $2,141,159.  Although the stewardship committee considered this reduction necessary, the budget is still challenging for our congregation.  It is a faith budget and it will require the best of our prayers and our generosity.  Additionally, there are some maintenance and repair projects that were removed from the budget and will need to be funded by special offerings.  The most urgent of these projects has to do with the lighting in our worship center.

The stewardship committee was faced with two challenges in the preparation of the 2014 budget.  On the one hand, the realization that we are not meeting budget this year.  On the other hand, because we are not meeting budget, certain important maintenance and repair projects are not getting done.  After prayer, much discussion, and consultation with other leaders, the committee decided that the best way to move forward was to reduce the 2014 budget.  One of the measures that made this possible was to remove the major maintenance and repair projects from the budget and to find alternate funding for them.

As the committee was exploring the options for funding the additional maintenance and repair projects, it felt it would be wise to gather the members of all administrative committees and officers to inform them and seek their counsel.  On October 16, over 35 key leaders attended this discussion.  After the information was shared, varying points of views were heard.  Some of the leaders expressed that what needed to be done was to inform the entire congregation of the need and to give them an opportunity to respond to both the budget and the specific projects and before taking any other measures.  The stewardship committee listened to this counsel.

For these reasons the stewardship committee decided to do a budget campaign.  “Keep the Light On” is the theme of this campaign.  This theme keeps the spiritual meaning of Matthew 5:16 as a priority and includes the physical needs of our church.  We are confident that God will meet all the needs of our church when we trust Him.  Ultimately, the budget campaign is not really about wanting the congregation’s money for the church but about giving an opportunity for each person in the congregation to participate in what God is doing.  It is an invitation to joyful obedience by grace.  We believe that giving is a blessing for the giver!

          The campaign will address our base for ministry: the church budget, and our special projects, as needs that will require generosity beyond the tithe.

The campaign will have three phases.  During the month of December we will have a spiritual preparation phase that will consist of prayer as a church body and as individuals/families.  In the month of January we will give opportunities to individuals/families in our congregation to make a faith giving commitment.  All of 2014 will be the “giving” phase of this campaign.  We hope and pray this will make our church stronger and more unified, help our members grow spiritually, and ultimately bring glory to God.

 In the days ahead we will be sharing newsletters, a prayer guide and other information, please help us get this information to your respective teams.  Ask those whom you lead to join in prayer and to help communicate this information to all in our congregation.