Goal #2

I have 8 goals in all.  I wanted to start with the goals that were more about the church as a whole and transition to the ones that are about making sure that I'm equipped to be the leader you expect as your pastor.  The first two goals I'm listing are ones that have easy to measure results (not easy to achieve, though.)  The first post was about making an increase in church worship attendance.  The second is about becoming more fiscally sound.  

We are a church that has a lot of great ministry taking place.  You might imagine that these come with a cost.  Good Shepherd's total cash flow in 2009 will exceed a million dollars.  The majority of that comes through the offering basket on Sunday morning.  

Our challenges are many.  We have a mortgage of $20,000 per month.  We have a building that is between 6 and 16 years old (built in two phases.)  Our facility is beginning to reach the point where maintenance, while expected at the age of the building, are beginning to be required.  (Your board of trustees feels that deferred maintenance is more expensive and will seek to keep ahead of the repairs.)

We are also in the midst of a financial downturn.  While most of us are maintaining our jobs, the crunch is enough to cause us to pull back from our spending and carefully discern what we can and should be doing.  This has affected our offering.  While we are not in a panic situation, our offerings have not grown at the same pace as our worship attendance... but our bill have.

Before sharing the goal, let me explain the most misunderstood part of our budget.  There is a line item entitled "Apportionments."  It is divided in two parts; district and conference.  We are a United Methodist Church.  The UMC has operations locally, nationally and internationally.  The way these ministries are funded is through the total budget of these ministries being apportioned to the many churches.  In 1990, some of these funds were used to fund the beginning of a new church and Good Shepherd was formed.  The UMC is involved in so many different ministries worldwide that it would be difficult to describe it all to you.  I encourage you to do a little bit of research at www.umc.org.  We touch the lives of people in Kansas City, Missouri, the US, and such faraway places as Mozambique.  

In recent years the increases in Good Shepherd's liabilities have made it difficult to meet our obligation to the UMC.  In 2009 we were able to pay out only 20% of our Conference apportionment ($12,000) and 100% of our district apportionment ($7,400.)  Our conference apportionment for 2009 is set at $84,878.  My goal is to pay between 40% and 75% of the total.  That comes to $33,951 to $63,659 to total paid out.  

As you look at your budget for 2009 consider how  you're going to help the UMC be in ministry to people who are far beyond your physical reach, but well within your fiscal reach.