Think of all the things a church family does. Sometimes it’s amazing to even consider. You might be able to make a list, but you could never really quantify what a church does.

There are a few ways you can put a number to what a church does. The church’s budget is one of those ways.

I want to share with you about the church budget for 2016.

First of all, the church budget (the sum of all the ministries, missions, and discipleship areas of the church) for 2016 was $5.568 million. The actual offerings given by you, the church, was $5.719 million. In addition, we underspent the adopted budget by approximately $100,000.

Here’s what we did with the surplus. First of all, we gave over 10% of the total to a number of our ministry partners both in our area and outside our area. This is in addition to the $900,000 which we used locally and around the world for various missions. We took the remaining excess (as has been our practice) for use in our building expansion.

Because of your generosity, we were able to help many families from our church and connected to our church who suffered from the floods of 2016. In addition, we were able to bless many churches which are trying to rebuild their buildings due to the most recent flood. Thank for giving to help encourage people who have suffered.

Second, our Rise Up! Capital Campaign has been completed. You gave a total of $6.4 million of a goal of $7.0 million or 92% of the projected amount. This has allowed us to move forward with our expansion.

The Forward Campaign will make it possible to finish the campaign and do the things we need. To date, 520 individuals or families have made commitments totaling $4.503 million.

Thank you for giving to the work of God in our community.

Our church provides financial statements at each of our business meetings. We will have the first congregational meeting of the year early in February. I hope you will plan to join with us.