I am very pleased to report to you today on the financial results of our church for 2009.

Though it was a difficult economic year for our country and particularly for our state, we held our expenses in check and reported a  $69,000 surplus in income over expenses for the year. We received $1,283,679 in income and spent $1,214,197.

We have paid all of our debts and obligations, paid our apportionments to the conference 100% and have this large cash cushion to take us into 2010.

God has been gracious to this church. For the first time , in 2009, our actual pledge income  exceeded our pledged dollars. Typically , we collect about 94-95% of pledged income. In 2009, we collected 102.5% of pledged income. The Holy Spirit was working in the hearts of our church family to share their wealth where they could

We owe a great deal of thanks to our staff for watching their expenses so closely and yet putting together programs which have strengthened and enriched our church and church family.

I owe a great debt of gratitude to the Finance Committee for their steadfastness and faith in very uncertain economic times. Though we were in a $66,000 deficit at the end of October , the committee was confident that we would see improvement and they were proved correct.

We have converted to a new, and more comprehensive accounting and member database system this year which will provide us with new reporting capabilities and more accurate accounting than we have ever had before. Jennifer Dickson, our new part-time Financial Secretary , is doing a superb job in streamlining our reports and inputting accurate data and we believe she is the best and most competent Financial Secretary we have ever had. Many thanks are due to Bill Langley for his countless volunteer hours to help make this happen.

However, all is not good news. Our 2010 pledges have gone down in total dollars and number of pledging units for the first time in memory. Last year, we had pledges of $1.008Million. This year, our pledges amounted to $879K. This also represented a drop of 264 pledging units in 2009 to 201 in 2010. What does this mean for our church?

We believe that this means that many of our church family are still hurting from the recession. Either through lost jobs or reduced income, many families just don't know how they can meet all of their obligations. Please pray for those families, that God's grace will be upon them and carry them through these hard times. We know that when they are able, they will contribute again to the church's needs through Faith Income.

This does not mean, however, that we have to cut back. In fact, because we have saved our cash for the last 2 years, we have over $100k which we will be applying to the 2010 budget to make up for this shortfall. We will not need to use any of our Cash Reserve Fund, however, which was built up over the last 3 years to $110,000. Although the 2010 budget is not yet set in stone, it appears that we can comfortably project a budget which will represent a 3.8% increase over our expenses of 2009.

We will present this budget to the Church Conference in February. Pray for our church and our church family that 2010 will remove much of the strain of worrying about finances to doing what God intended for us to do in this world.

Finally, let me add some information which does not show up on our income statement. All during this year, Pastor Bruce and I have been privileged to be aware of countless donations to specific causes that our church family members have made. When the children or youth programs needed something, people came forth anonymously to provide the funding. When church members were hurting financially , many people brought cashiers checks to us with instructions to help those families with no recognition made to the donor. These acts of random kindness probably added up to close to $100,000. The Holy Spirit just moved these people to share their blessings. And for that, and their quietness in giving, we are moved and grateful.

As this year proceeds, Jo Ann Stephens will be taking over as Finance Chair. She has been a valuable and consistent contributor to the Finance Committee. We may face some tough times down the 2010 road but Jo Ann is a great leader to help us weather any storm or celebrate any sunshine.

If you have any questions, please contact me or Jo Ann and we will be happy to try and answer them. Let's have a great 2010 !!!

David Harrill

Co-Chair, Finance Committee