CHURCH BUDGET

The church’s budget is determined by the pledges made by church members, loose offering given during the church service and Sunday School classes, Crossroads Preschool’s monthly donation, interest from our bank accounts, usage fees for the hall, rental properties, etc.

Our 2008 budget was made in the fall of 2007 but due to change over in staff and other incidents, we could not do our Consecration Sunday until April 2008.

2008 Budget
  
Preliminary 2009 Budget
(after Consecration Sunday)
$185,572
     Pledges $162,263
$15,032
   Loose Offering $12,819
$12,882
  *Non-Donor Sources $12,882
2008 Total: $213,486
   Crossroads Preschool $12,000
 
2009 Total
 $196,798
(*Non-Donor Sources = interest, rentals & fees)

This figure does not include the responses from those who regularly give to our church but were not in attendance on Consecration Sunday.

I want to thank everyone for participating in Consecration Sunday. A BIG thank you to those that helped in the planning, testimonies each Sunday, and helping with the luncheon on Consecration Sunday. Many hands make light work. The leftovers were donated to Our Daily Bread. Now it is up to the Finance Committee to work on the 2009 budget.

Many of you asked about the lasagna and cakes that were served at the Consecration Sunday luncheon. They were purchased at Gordon Food Service (GFS) which is located near Dairy Queen on Colonial Boulevard. GFS is similar to BJ’s, Sam’s Club and Costco but there is no membership fee required and they only sell food and kitchen products. Our Finance Committee is looking into fundraisers through this company. One fundraiser is that a percentage of what church members purchase at GFS will be given to the church. Membership applications will be available through the church for you to obtain a FREE membership card which will track the church’s percentage each time you present the card. Your friends and family may also have a card without being a church member. Members will receive coupons and special offers through the mail.

Charlene Golden

Finance

Each month we will try to keep you informed of our budget situation.

Month Year
Income
LI: 3100
Salary
LI: 4200
Program Ministries
LI: 5600
Trustees
LI: 6100
Admin Office
LI:6500
Total Expenses
October 2008
$22,658
$15,349
$3,554
$10,668
$592
$30,163
Jan-Oct 2008
$268,986
$168,697
$10,415
$84,568
$6,963
$270,643
Jan-Oct 2007
$306,675
$224,652
$20,698
$85,791
$8,753
$339,894

Our income for this year versus last year has been reduced by 12.3%, while our expenses have been reduced by 20.5%.

Our great staff and committee members have been very good at holding our expenses down as much as possible.

Our unpaid bills, as of the end of October, were reduced to $857.31, which is the lowest amount in a very long time.

We have paid $1,395.00 towards our apportionments, which was applied to the carry-over 2007 apportionments, which must be paid or they will be carried over to the next year.

Our Daily Bread made $1,182.00 on the Potato Supper. For the month of October, including the Potato Supper, Our Daily Bread received a total of $4,707.00

Again, let me thank all of you for your continued support of Christ’s church here in Lehigh Acres.

Charles Jones, Finance Chairperson

CONNECTIONAL GIVING

All United Methodist churches share in the cost of running our conference, providing emergency aid around the world, and providing educational opportunities. Each church has a portion to pay towards these costs or more commonly called our apportionments. Since 100% of the clergy support apportionment is used by the conference each year, they require that each church pays that one in full or it rolls over to the next year. In 2007, our clergy support apportionment was $3410.71 of which we paid $1395 towards that last month. Our 2008 clergy support apportionment is $4326. We recently received our apportionments for 2009.

The Finance Committee discussed putting into the 2009 budget that 5% of our income would go towards apportionments. We would pay towards our apportionments each month or quarterly just as we do other bills the church has to pay.

The Finance Committee is made of the committee chairperson, treasurer, finance secretary, lay leader, the pastor and chairpersons from Trustees, Staff Parish Relations, Stewardship, and Administrative Council, as well as members at large. They could use your prayers as they work on the 2009 budget. They have to make hard decisions throughout the year to maintain the church, its programs, and care for our employees while staying within the budget.

Charlene Golden