Monday Reflections...Tough morning...

Yesterday was draining for me...The atmosphere was amazing, the service was GREAT...the people incredible as usual, BUT I had to share with the church some major changes that will be happening at our campus over the next 4-5 months...The changes are VITAL to the future of our campus, but they will not be easy...they will be worth it!

Here is the deal...we launched our campus with a 3 year plan financially...and the bad news is we are not meeting the budget end of that plan. We must be proactive in making changes TODAY, so that we can make an impact in the future...if we continue as we are, we will end up hurting ourselves...Better to have short-term pain for long term gain!

Here is the good news...we are growing...attendance is up over 30 people a week from the beginning of the year and we are still seeing people come to Jesus and growing closer to him!!

So, the TIME IS NOW to be proactive...we have the funding (through the sale of church property from a church that merged with Grace 3 years ago) to make our budget for 2009, but in 2010 that $ stops and we will need to cut back so we live within what we are bringing in, plus a portion from our Goshen campus. (HEY...what a blessing by the way that we have had funding to get started this way AND we have another campus to help us! I PRAISE GOD FOR THAT!)

What will this look like?!?! (GREAT QUESTION...glad you asked!) The WHOLE budget is being cut back and the ones that we are feeling the most will be Jerimae moving from 1/2 time to receiving a stipend to lead worship, I will move to between 1/2 and 3/4 time and we are looking hard for a more affordable location. It is GREAT being in the theater, but it is costly...We have a GREAT team of leaders at Grace...they have worked hard to help come up with this plan...I'm grateful that I'm not in this alone!!

Our plan for this has been:
1. Identify our priorities (Outreach/Key Ministries/Staff/Location)
2. Put a Budget Team in place (Group of Goshen and SB/Mish leaders to walk through the budget...AMAZING GROUP!)
3. Communicate with the Church Body
4. Implement a plan for scaling back
5. Present phase for launching forward

BOTTOM LINE? This is HARD...VERY HARD...BUT WE MUST continue to impact our community...we are working hard to get an outreach going in August...we REFUSE to let up in reaching our community...So although it is difficult to go through change...I CANNOT WAIT to see how God blows our minds through this!