The season of Advent is a time when we recognize that our hopes are not yet realized. Advent is the season in which we await the One whose coming has been promised - but has not yet arrived. In this season, our practice is to continue on faithfully when the promised future is not yet certain. Unfortunately, our church's current financial position also gives us an opportunity to practice continuing on faithfully at a time when the future is not yet certain.
I am writing to update you about the church's current financial situation.
Your Finance team, with input from every ministry in the church, has put together a draft budget for 2016. Currently that draft budget predicts a $36,000 deficit. We are committed to approve only a balanced budget. And so, I am writing to you with a heartfelt plea to help us fill that gap.
At this time, we are anticipating a decrease in income from pledges in 2016, as compared to 2015. This is primarily due to a few individuals or families who have passed away or moved away.
We really, really do not want to have to make cuts. Every ministry area at DUMC is valuable! And every ministry area manages with a very lean budget.
Children's ministry particularly needs solid funding this year, as we seek to stabilize programs that went unstaffed for a year. We want our youth ministry to continue thriving. We support a robust collection of missions - things like the Interfaith Rotating Winter Shelter, organizations working toward ecological stewardship, and more. We do our part to fund a long list of valuable national and international United Methodist ministries, including direct services to populations in need and many resources that benefit congregations, through our apportionments - annual payments to the denomination. The list of what our budget supports goes on and on.
Our staff salaries are all very modest for their respective fields. At this point, the Staff-Parish Relations Committee has already submitted a reduced budget after their first proposal (reflected in the $36,000 gap). We have not yet asked other ministry areas to submit reduced budget requests. All ministry budgets will need to be cut - perhaps substantially - if we cannot fill the $36,000 gap with donations.
There is good news! It looks like we are on track to break even at the end of 2015. Forty households have increased their pledges in anticipation of the coming year - forty of you (individuals, couples, and families) have already made it a priority to grow in your giving. Thank you so much! We also received 15 brand new pledges - commitments from households who had not pledged before Thank you so much!
There is still more good news. Unlike in prior lean years, at this point we are still planning to pay 100% of our apportionments in 2016.
Part of our financial plan for 2016 is to use a portion of savings carried forward from prior year surpluses. I want you to know that this demonstrates just one way that your Finance ministry is planning carefully, with a long view, to avoid financial roller-coasters from one year to the next. One option would be to use 100% of those savings now, but that has the potential to set us up for a larger deficit - with fewer options for addressing it - in future years. We hope to plan financially in ways that provide some consistency from year to year - with your help.
If you have been intending to turn in a pledge for 2016 but just haven't gotten around to it, please turn in your pledge as soon as you can. If you have already made a pledge for 2016 and might be able to increase it, please consider doing so. Even small increases, when multiplied across the many families in our church, can add up to make a big difference. Or if you would like to make a special one-time gift to help support the ministries you value, please do so.
I want to acknowledge with gratitude that so many of you give faithfully and so generously. I know that there are families and individuals in this church who are truly giving as much as they can - and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. I also know that many of us are in ongoing discernment about what proportion of our income feels appropriate to give away, and where the church falls in the overall picture of our charitable giving. If you are in ongoing discernment about your giving, I hope you will reflect on the value of this church in your life and the difficult position we are in.
I can imagine any number of questions you may have. I have tried not to overload this letter with details. But the members of your Finance ministry would be glad to answer your questions or discuss greater detail with you: Mary Anne Ingenthron (chair), Susie O'Bryant (treasurer), Zora Fowler (co-financial secretary), Joe Archer, John Knight, Sarah Williams, and Bill Powell. Copies of the 2016 draft budget, or of any 2015 financial statement, are available to you - just ask. And I am also available for questions or conversation.
As always, we trust that God works through all circumstances and that we will faithfully carry out the ministries we are equipped to do. Thank you for being a part of God's work through the ministries of this church
