Where We Were
A little over a year ago, our ministry faced a critical financial situation. Prompted by growth and a new vision, the church had initiated a “Building a Dream” campaign in 1997. Through this initiative, our ministry invested a total of roughly $7.2 million to buy, build and equip our current campus: the buildings and the land on which they sit, as well as vacant land purchased in the hope of expanding our church home and campus in the future.
Congregants provided the money to cover about 40% of that investment. To cover the rest, our ministry accumulated a significant debt structure of $4.2 million in loans.
This debt was beginning to put a tremendous strain on our ability to serve our spiritual community. The loan payments we were required to make totalled more than $450,000 each year in principle and interest. This was causing ministry expenses to consistently exceed the income we were able to generate. We were forced to eliminate staff positions, cut programs and delay much needed maintenance and improvements of the campus in order to keep our budget and finances balanced.
In addition, our ministry had been forced to draw from cash reserves – or savings – to make up for shortfalls, reducing our cash reserves to less than $100,000. Furthermore, a balloon payment of $2 million was due on our loans in April of 2007, an impending deadline that was cause for some concern.
What We Did
Knowing that our greatest strength comes from our Unity, we gathered all of you – our congregants – together to determine how best to deal with this critical situation. Through written surveys, personal interviews and other feedback forums, our congregants made it very clear that they wanted to act strongly and quickly to reduce our ministry’s debt.
In response to this congregant input, the Board of Trustees unanimously voted to launch a Fundraising Campaign last year to reduce the debt.
Congregants were asked to pray and to discern how they were able to contribute, and to make a financial commitment to the Fundraising Campaign to ensure that our ministry would continue to grow, prosper and make a difference in our community and world.
The long-range goal of the Campaign was to give greater life to our vision and mission, and to build strong community. The more immediate goal was to retire our mortgage and create financial freedom for our ministry. Congregants were assured that all money raised through the Fundraising Campaign would be deposited into a separate account and used exclusively to eliminate our debt.
Where We Are Now
One year later, this Campaign is proving to be a true blessing to our ministry. It has served as a magnificent opportunity to build strong community among our congregants, and has created a collective consciousness for all of us to solidify and foster the successful future of our spiritual home.
To date, our congregants have pledged $1,808,345 payable over the three-year term of the Campaign.
Our progress during this first year is as follows:
1) Contributions already received against Campaign pledges are about $450,000.
2) Contributions received from those who did not make a pledge, but made a one-time contribution to the Campaign, are about $195,000.
3) After refinancing our debt with more attractive terms, the church has put all of the money we have saved through our new, lower mortgage payments into a loan reserve account.
Through these three measures, we have been able to pay down our mortgage from $4 million to $3.25 million!
Our tithes on the approximately $645,000 we have collected have also allowed us to contribute over $30,000 each to both the Valley of the Sun Habitat for Humanity and The Hunger Project. Because we are a tithing ministry, these tithes are being drawn from our general fund so that every dollar given to the Campaign remains dedicated to debt reduction, while we stay true to the tithing principles we teach.
What’s Next
Clearly, the progress we have made over the past year is worthy of celebration. Thank You, Thank You, Thank You for your support, participation and belief in this ministry! We continue to be very excited and thankful for the generous support the ministry has received and – even more importantly – for the strong sense of community that continues to build as we work together to further secure our wonderful church home.
Still, there is much work yet to be done. We have two years remaining in our Fundraising Campaign, and we encourage each of you to continue honoring your pledges and sustaining the support you have provided to our ministry over the past year.
And if you are new to our spiritual community, we invite you to join the party!!!
Some Fundraising Campaigns have a tendency to lose momentum after the initial surge. We, however, have set an intention that our Campaign will not falter but, rather, will continue to grow in success. We ask each of you to hold this intention in consciousness, and we ask for your continued prayers that we achieve all that we have set out to do.
If everyone continues to honor their pledges, and we receive the same financial support as we did over the past year, in two years’ time we will have completely paid off one of our loans, effectively reducing our original debt by half!!!
Together, we will achieve our goals!
New to Our Church?
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It’s not too late! You can still make a commitment to our Fundraising Campaign! All you have to do is fill out a Commitment Envelope, which will allow you to declare how much you would like to contribute over the next two years (over and above your current tithes and offerings); how often you would like to pay on that commitment; and through what means you would like to pay. If you haven’t already done so, we ask you to prayerfully consider making a commitment to ensure our ministry’s successful future! You can: Contribute Cash Write a Check Make an Auto-Pledge Donate Through Stocks or Bonds How -- and How Much -- You Participate We ask you to pray and discern how you are able to contribute, and then make a financial commitment to our Fundraising Campaign. Every donation we receive helps to ensure that our ministry can continue to grow, prosper and make a difference to you, our community, and our world. Thank you so much!!! |