Hello Church Family,
I hope you’re having a great week! This is the last update for 2018 and it has been quite a year for us at Broadview. I was looking back over the past monthly and weekly updates from 2019 and was encouraged as I saw all the different ways God moved through our church this past year.
In this December update I’d like give you our service times for the next few weeks, explain our 2019 general fund budget and world missions offering and lastly encourage your attendance in our first ever Stand Firm Abilene apologetics conference.
Holiday Service Times
This weekend kicks off our end of year service programing. Things will look a little bit different than usual. This Sunday and next Sunday there will be no adult small groups or children’s programing. We will have childcare for ages 5 years and younger.
This Sunday and Christmas Eve we will host our traditional Candlelight Services. On Sunday, Broadview’s entire worship ministry will perform a Christmas Special followed by a sermon by Pastor Emeritus David Cason. At the end of each service we will have the lighting of the Christ candle and conclude our Advent celebration.
On Christmas Eve, our contemporary worship team will lead the music & I’ll be giving the message. There will be a special time in the service for the kids to hear the Christmas story and receive a gift. Then, at the end of the service, we will have the lighting of the Christ candle. On December 30th we will have our last service of the year.
Due to the season we’re in, the service times are changing to accommodate parking.
On December 23rd & 30th we will have TWO morning worship services: 9:00 & 11:00.
On December 24th we will have TWO evening worship services: 4:00 & 6:30.
I hope you’ll take advantage of each opportunity and finish the year strong by worshipping the Lord Jesus along with your church family. I believe the Lord will do something special during these next few weeks.
2019 World Missions Offering
December is also the month in which we present our annual World Missions Offering and projected mission trips and partnerships. Here’s a brief breakdown. If you’d like to read my full article on the World Missions Offering you can do so here.
Several years ago our church adopted a 2020 Vision of multiplying disciples, blessing our city, planting churches and sending missionaries. Over the years, we’ve seen the Lord turn this vision statement from words on a page to actual kingdom impact in our world.
This year, our World Missions Offering is set at $83,484. That’s an increase of $10,796.
We’ve added a new church planting partner in Broomsfield CO. We’ve raised our level of investment in the church planting movement taking place in West Bengal. We’ve raised our giving to the International Mission Board which sends out thousands of missionaries to some of the hardest to reach areas of our world. And we’ve raised our level of commitment to reaching the unreached peoples in the mountain regions of Lesotho.
2019 will still include trips to Brazil, South Texas and other new partnerships. However, we’re raising our level of investment in sending and supporting missionaries and church planters in the hardest to reach parts of the world.
2019 General Fund Budget
When it comes to our general fund budget, we saw an overall increase in giving to the General Fund for 2018. You can look at the proposed 2019 budget for yourself here. Below is a brief breakdown of some of the changes.
There was an overall increase of $19,000. The majority of this increase was in personnel, operational and ministry expenses.
Our budget for the Cooperative Program and Local Missions was raised because they are each a percentage of overall receipts. An increase in giving to the general fund necessarily means an increase in giving to missions! = – )
Under personnel, there were salary increases for some of the staff. Last year, the staff were not able to get a cost of living increase due to the budget cuts that were made. The 2019 budget allows us to do that and that explains some of the increase in that line item.
The second thing is, even though we don’t have a full time youth pastor, the finance team allocated enough monies to accommodate a full time salary if a part-time candidate doesn’t work out. So, while the overall personnel budget is actually less expensive than 2018, the finance team recommended to set aside this margin just in case.
Under ministries, there has been a general increase in Children’s, Adult, and West Campus Ministries. This is to accommodate the cost of inflation for certain ministry expenses. It will also give our Kids Ministry more margin as they step into their newly remodeled ministry space.
While there was no change under our educational expenses, there was a general increase on our operational expenses. The new “street maintenance fee” has caused our utilities line item to go up. We also saw an increase in other utilities. General Maintenance for Main and West Campus has gone up some due to general wear and tear on our buildings. We were able to make cuts in office expenses and building insurance.
The last change has to do with our debt retirement and capital improvement expenses. The refinancing of our First Financial Loan has lowered the monthly payment on our debt retirement. The budget covers the monthly payment and anything given to debt retirement on top of that will go towards more rapidly retiring the debt.
We’ve increased our Capital Improvement line item (previously Funded Depreciation). This is in anticipation of what it will take to replace our church vans, air conditioners, Gathering Place furniture and external maintenance to our buildings over the next 3-5 years.
Even with these slight increases in our general fund budget, we are moving forward with a plan for 2019 that conservatively anticipates giving that was equal to 2018. As you can see from the financial report in this email, we will likely end the year with a surplus greater than $19,000. However, we would rather end 2019 with a similar surplus than set a budget that is in excess of our current receipts and hope for the best.
The approach laid out in our proposed 2019 budget feels like a good and godly stewardship of what God has entrusted to us thus far and where we believe he may take us in the future.
If you have any feedback on the budget you can just reply to this email or contact anybody on the finance team. You can also talk to any of our deacons or pastoral team. We will vote on the budget during the morning services of December 30th.
Stand Firm Abilene Apologetics Conference
The last thing I want to mention is the first big event of 2019. That is the Stand Firm Abilene apologetics conference. The goal of this conference is to give Christians confidence on WHY they believe what they believe and better inform all participants of WHAT Christians actually believe.
Each speaker will provide compelling evidences for the brilliance and truthfulness of the Gospel. Christians will walk away encouraged in their faith and better equipped to share it with others.
For skeptics and strugglers, this conference will hopefully present a persuasive case for why Christianity is intellectually credible and the most viable worldview to embrace in our current market place of ideas.
Wherever you’re at on your spiritual journey, you’ll find help for taking the next step by attending this conference. We hope you’ll register and join us!
Here’s a schedule of the conference. You can register online or during the day of the event. Childcare will be available if you RSVP. Learn more on the Stand Firm landing page.
This update has gotten long in the tooth! Until next time, I hope you have a great rest of 2018. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. I hope to see you at one of our Christmas services and if there’s anything I can pray for you about, just let me know.
Blessings,
Pastor Wes