Dear New Life Family,
We hope that this Spring season has been a time of refreshing and the start of new things for you. It’s always a welcome sight to see things turning green with life again after the barrenness of winter.
We want to update you on the financial status of our church. Essentially, we are not receiving enough in our weekly offerings to pay our financial obligations. The way we have been meeting those obligations has been through our cash reserves. We need approximately $8,500 each week to meet our budget and pay our expenses. We are averaging about $5,400 in giving each week. As you can see we are over $3,000 short of what we need and are quickly depleting our savings to make up for the shortfall.
We have made spending cuts wherever possible. The majority of our expenses are in fixed expenditures such as the mortgage ($11,272/mo.), maintenance, utilities, staff and office expenses. This month we have cancelled our advertising in the local paper ($585/yr.) and the cleaning service ($485/mo.). We are looking into using a less expensive security alarm service (currently $314/mo.). These spending cuts will only slow the drain on our cash reserves not correct it. Beyond these minimal cuts in expenses, if monthly giving does not increase we may have to look at possibly closing our New Life Children’s Center day care and cutting pastoral staff.
The reality of our situation is the monthly mortgage payment is overburdening our expenses. We need each person that attends New Life to help in this burden. If you are a regular giver, we appreciate your generosity and only ask that you keep giving faithfully. Pray and ask if God would have you increase your weekly/monthly tithe or possibly give a one-time sacrificial gift to help us through our financial hardship. If you have not been giving to New Life, begin giving in accordance to your income. We are not asking you to match those who are able to give more but to give what you can. We need equal sacrifice in your church giving, not equal amounts. If you love New Life, if you have been blessed and benefitted from its ministry and programs, then please help us to meet our expenses so that more crucial cuts in staff and ministries do not have to be made.
Please do not despair. God is great and He promises to supply what we need. He will see us through this time if we continually seek Him and submit to His will for our lives. One of the core principles of discipleship is giving. Jesus expects us to give just as He fully gave Himself to accomplishing God’s plan of salvation for our world. By working together we have no doubt that God will see us through and get us beyond our financial hardship.
Beyond your giving please pray for our church. Pray for God to supply what we need. Pray for God to help us be good stewards of what He provides for us. Pray for our ministry volunteers who give so much of their time and talent in serving God and others. Pray for the pastors and leaders of New Life. This is a stressful time for them as they work hard at finding a solution to our financial need.
Please don’t hesitate to talk with our pastors or Steering Committee members. If you have helpful ideas or solutions, they want to hear from you.
May God greatly bless you.
New Life's 2008 Steering Committee:
Kelli Brooks
Bryan Hunt
Gary Murray
Ed Spear
Donna Watson
Pastor John Crump
Pastor John Klotz
