Last week I shared with you a snapshot of the last twelve months at First Baptist Church. This has been a very good year in measurable statistics, with record average attendance in worship and Bible Study as well as new members. For all of this we are grateful.

Today I want to share about our giving. Giving, of course, matters because it fuels our ministries. For example, we have ministries such as Celebrate Recovery, Special Friends, Upward Recreation, Young at Heart, Women’s Bible Study, and a number of others. All of these ministries reach out to the community. Most of these have at least 50% of participants who are not our members. Our regular giving funds these ministries.

You have heard many times that the first two years in the new expansion (2018 and 2019) will be challenging years for our giving. The buildings require increased expenses for debt repayment, property and casualty insurance, janitorial services, and utilities, as well as a number of smaller areas.

So far this year our giving is up significantly (about $400,000) but not enough for us to “breathe a sign of relief.” If the giving continues to increase, we should be able to fund all of our ministries.

At our May Congregational Meeting, I went through our finances in detail. We decided then that if everyone would increase their giving 5% (for example, if you give $100, give $1o5) we would cover our needs. It’s amazing how small increases given by hundreds of people can make such a difference.

We are close to finishing all of our expansion. While our Forward! Capital Campaign has been good, it is necessary that we complete the task. This campaign will continue through 2019 and if all the pledges are completed (about $2.5 million) we should be able to finish the project.

Thank you for your generosity. You make the ministries of FBC possible!