Drew commented asking how it went last night so I thought I'd fill in some more gaps. I heard from several people that they thought it was one of the highlights of the night. (We had an agenda that was too long. Seven speakers about five different ministries.) Someone said they should have just let the church planters speak and then one more ministry, but...
We have a group of churches that are on our side and wanting to see us succeed. I shared with them the facts of our church attendance, ministry, and financial position. I shared with them stories of people that I'm seeing accepted and included in the changing landscape that we see at SRC. Mainly I talked about maturity, and how I saw us maturing.
I was also told that I was the only speaker that seemed prepared. I don't know if that is fair or not, but I had prepared and spoke from notes.
So that's pretty much it. I kept my comments to about eight minutes. They prayed for us, and that was that. I saw some pastors today that said they were still praying for us, and have great confidence in what we're doing.
--Ben
2 comments:
Given that this seems to be the current forum to discuss the growth and maturity of the church...
Since I know the current numbers of the church, based on projections, where to does the church need to be to be self sustaining? I ask this since you posted earlier that we will no longer receive outside funding after our third year.
Drew,
There are three criteria that the Assemblies of God maintains for church soveriegnty.
1. A membership of twenty or more people.
2. Qualified leadership to staff the church governance structure set up in the constitution and bylaws.
3. Financial self-sufficiency.
Those are the criteria.
Where we stand now:
1. Membership is not a problem.
2. We need to construct a new constitution and bylaws, and staff the governance structure. You've heard me recently promoting that people should let their names stand for positions in the new year. This is an effort to bring us up to speed over the next year. At our last Oversight Board Mtg we began the conversation about the hybridizing of our boards over the next year.
3. For the last two years our expense budget has been around $100,000. In our first year 75% came from outside the church and 25% from inside. In our second year those numbers changed to 35% from outside the church, and 65% from inside. We have made progress toward our own self sufficiency. But still have a little ways to go. I think the way to get there is to dial up the urgency. Like a bird being forced out of the nest. We can't stay dependent forever, and I doubt churches would support us beyond three years anyway.
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