Over the last several weeks, we’ve been communicating about the challenges we face this year as we develop the budget for 2009. After much prayer and discussion, your Governing Board has arrived at a budget proposal for 2009. In this article we want to share with you how we arrived at the overall number, what the implications of that budget proposal are, and what some of our next steps are as we move to approving a budget at the Annual Meeting in February.

Arriving at a Target Number

Building a budget begins by projecting income (offerings) that are anticipated for the coming year. As many of you know first-hand, these are challenging times economically. The financial crisis at a national level affects all of us, especially those in our community tied to the housing industry—and it trickles down from there. These issues were factored into the budget proposal. Additionally, our attendance is down from this time last year, so it is logical to assume that less people means less offerings. Much of this has also been confirmed in the trends we see in current offerings the last couple of months, which have come in consistently less than last year at this time.

As we weigh these factors, it is clear that we need to take a conservative approach to this year’s budget. So based on these considerations, the budget we are proposing is $1.2 million. This budget is $320,000 less than last year’s budget, but will still require our faith to meet it in the coming year.

Implications of the Proposed Budget

Cutting $320,000 (20%) has significant implications for ministry. We made every reasonable reduction to expenses while continuing to fund ministries that are foundational to what God has led us to do. Not feeling that we could cut further into ministry budgets, we had to look to the only other place in the budget we could for reductions and that was in the area of staffing. After weeks of prayer and tearful discussions, it became evident that we would need to eliminate and/or reduce several positions. So that is what we did. The breakdown of those adjustments is as follows:

Pastoral Staff:

Eliminated positions: Bryan Hansen (Full-Time Administrative Ministries) and Harry Engstrom (Part-Time Children’s Ministries). 

Reduced Positions: Tim Quick (Discipleship Ministry) reduced to half-time. Worship and Young Adult ministries have been reduced to half time positions and may be filled by one person doing both or by two people working half time. Pastor Paul does not feel called to fill these positions as they have been redefined but will continue serving until both positions have been filled.

Support Staff:

Eliminated positions: Melissa Priel (Assistant Early Childhood Director), Dawnielle Brannum (part-time Nursery Supervisor), Ed Nemitz (part-time seasonal maintenance), Pennie Hunt (prayer ministry)

Reduced Positions: Carrie Ross, Susie Green, Tamie Edens, (40 to 32 hours); Sharon Graff (Life Groups/Adult Ed) reduced from 40 to 20 hours per week.

These changes would take effect March 1, 2009. For our eliminated pastoral positions we will be paying a 3-month severance, with up to 6 months of insurance beginning March 1.

All of these people are valuable to our church body and have served faithfully here. It is with tremendous sadness that we have made these decisions that obviously affect their lives and involvement in this church that they care deeply about. But we are confident that God is able to meet both their needs and ours as we move through this difficult transition. Pray for these staff families and for our church. 

Next Steps

In a couple of weeks, on Sunday, December 14 at 6:30PM, we’ll be holding a Loop Live for the specific purpose of explaining more of the details of this budget proposal, as well as address your questions and concerns and get your feedback.

If you have questions about this before the Loop Live meeting, please contact a Governing Board member or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Moving Forward

We have walked through a difficult season as a church family over the last several months. Your leadership team is eager to move on to do the things God has set before us to do. “Celebrating the supremacy of Jesus Christ and leading people into a growing relationship with Him” is not simply a statement. It is at the very heart of what we want to be about: Jesus seen and celebrated in our hearts and through our lives.

We believe God has brought us through this very season in order to be used by Him to accomplish His will. He has been at work in these trials, refining his church and preparing his people for what he wants to do in and through us in the future. There are thousands of people in our community who need to put their hope in Christ. We want to be a church of people that God uses to do that.