Thursday, October 6, 2011

Our Stewardship Strategy

At Crossroads, we have a comprehensive strategy when it comes to stewardship. It is comprised of four (4) key elements. Each element is critical to the overall success of our congregation financially.

The first element is that we, as a congregation, tithe of our income. Ten percent (10%) of every dollar we receive in our general offerings goes into a separate checking account to be distributed by the missions team. The purpose for this is simply to honor God as the source of all our resources.

We also want encourage all of our members to be tithers as well. While this would obviously bless the church, the greater benefit would be to the individual member. If you are not currently tithing, it will take you to a whole new level spiritually speaking as well as financially.

The second element of our strategy is debt reduction. The wise leadership of the past has provided us wonderful facilities with a manageable amount of debt. Our current mortgage balance is around $480,000. While we have always made our payments, we feel strongly that we need to pay off this debt as quickly as financially feasible.

To that end, we have committed three percent (3%) of every general fund offering to reduce the principal balance of our mortgage. This might not seem to be a big amount, but every dollar paid now saves us a great amount of interest over the length of the loan. Coupled with that commitment is our pledge to never borrow money to pay operational expenses. This is why we have an emergency fund set aside to handle unexpected expenses.

The third element of our strategy is prioritized spending. Our annual budget is divided into two (2) sections. The first section is essential expenses. These are the basic necessary expenditures of the church. These include such things as insurance, mortgage, utilities, and staff salaries. These are fixed expenses that really must be paid.

The second section is what we call discretionary expenses. These are resources we give our ministry coordinators to carry out their individual ministry. While they are somewhat flexible and less time sensitive, they are important. For example, teaching materials are a discretionary expense. Our coordinators work hard to get the greatest value they can out of each and every dollar spent.

The final element of our stewardship strategy is radical generosity. Twice a year, we provide any opportunity to outrageously give to God through a special Sunday offering. Our first special offering of the year is taken on Easter Sunday. This is dedicated to special purpose or project. This year's offering was used to replace our outside playground equipment. We received over $12,000 on that day.

The second special offering is taken on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. All the funds received go into our benevolence ministry called "My Brother's Keeper". These funds are combined with proceeds from our garage sales and the Pay Less gift card program to help those with financial needs. We have expanded the program to provide assistance to both non-members and members of Crossroads.

Just like the legs of a table, these four elements provide a solid foundation for our stewardship. However every member of Crossroads has a critical role to play. Unless everyone does their best to become effective stewards of what God has given them, we will not have the proper amount of resources to operate effectively. We have provided tools to help you manage your giving to the church. One of those tools is online access to your giving record. Once you enroll, you can check your giving at anytime, print a statement, and even set up automatic drafting of your giving.

I especially like this feature of online giving and highly recommend it. Never again do I have to remember to write out a check before leaving for church. All I had to do was set up how much I wanted to give and how often I wanted to give it. Dave Ramsey calls this "automated discipline". It also benefits the church as well because there is no paper check to mess with and take to bank. My giving record is updated automatically and the funds instantly available to be used.

If you ever have a question about your giving, contact Stephanie Guinn. If you have any questions about our stewardship strategy, feel free to ask me or one of the elders.