Two men were stranded on a desert island. One man paced nervously back and forth, anxious and scared. The other man sat idly with his back against a palm tree, sunning himself. "Aren't you afraid!?", asked the first man, "Aren't you afraid that we're going to perish here on this deserted island?" "No," said the second man, "you have to understand that I make $100,000 per week on my job, and I give 10% of that to the church every Sunday. My pastor's going to find me."
Ok, ok, that's an old church joke, but a good one! And it leads me to this week's pondering topic which will actually be part 1 of 2. Today I want to share with you a couple of statistics about Family of Christ's offering income. Then next week, I will follow up with a word about summer stewardship and evangelism.
First, let's provide this reminder of where our ministry funds come from, especially since some might wonder if we ever receive support from either our local synod or the national church offices in Chicago. The answer is no, it works the other way around. We actually completely fund ourselves around here, and then share some of our gifts with our Minneapolis Area Synod as well as the national ELCA( (Evangelical Church in America). Here are the sources of our church income:
97% comes from members and regular attendees
3% comes from guests and preschool rent
0% comes from ELCA national or synod offices
Now, here's some more interesting statistics for our church, provided for us by Kris Spangrud our church's Minister of Finance. In a typical year at Family of Christ:
10% of our member households provide 54%
of the funds for ministry
60% of our member households provide 45%
of the funds for ministry
30% of our member households provide 1%
of the funds for ministry
The good news here is that 70% of our households are involved in really fueling the ministry we undertake together. The challenging news is that we do need to keep connecting and encouraging that 30% of our membership so that they feel more able to be engaged and involved in our mutual work together as a congregation.
The final set of statistics I'll share in this pondering is a comparison of our giving over the past three years. The church council has been working with these numbers and share a concern about this trend. As of the end of the first quarter of 2016, offering income was...
10.4% less than offering income in 2013
1.0 % less than offering income in 2014
5.4% less than offering income in 2015
We can indeed note that there has been a slight decline in worship attendance and offering income. That is a reality that we are facing together at Family of Christ. I don't share that statistic with you to scold, cause guilt or lament. But I do want to be realistic about it, and invite your prayers about it. And to invite your faithful participation and full engagement in all that we do together. Your pastors and staff are motivated to keep growing our ministry, striving to implement programming to the best of our ability, and seeking new ways to reach members, guests, neighbors and newcomers. We want the congregation to be equally motivated in its spiritual and financial support of our mutual ministry!
(Now I must get going, and I might be gone a few days. I've got to try and find a guy on a desert island!)
See you in church ~
Pastor Josh
