Dear Grace Family,

As we approach the end of the calendar year and prepare for 2023, we find ourselves for the first time in many years falling short of our financial goals for 2022. As of the end of September, we are around $10,000 short on our balance sheet. The reason is pretty simple: our envelope offerings have not met the expectations of our budget. While we did have an unexpected expense of around $10,000 for the air conditioning unit at the Preschool, that was not the culprit, because we used the facility renewal fund to cover the cost of replacement. Our overall expenses this year are tracking well within the range of what we expected when we did our budget for 2022.

If giving remains consistent the remainder of the year, we expect to have a $13,000 shortfall. Should that be the case, it will impact our budget planning for 2023. The challenge is we already have a pretty lean budget with very few options where cuts can be made. And with the addition of a new organist, we will have to add approximately $6,000 to our salary budget for 2023. We did not budget for an organist’s salary this year, so this will make cutting our expenses even more difficult. 

We understand that the cost of living has risen quite a bit this year; it seems everything is way more expensive than it used to be. And, of course, the pandemic has and continues to have a negative impact on some of your finances. With all that being said, this letter is not intended to make anyone feel obligated to help close the gap, but rather to inform you of our financial situation and to invite you to prayerfully consider what, if anything you can do to help us balance our books prior to the end of 2022. This congregation and its membership have proven to be faithful and generous givers for over 65 years. So, we are hopeful that by God’s will and your generosity we will find ourselves not only with the deficit eliminated by the end of the year, but with a bit of a surplus when we close the books on 2022.

Faithfully Yours,

Grace Lutheran Congregational Council