Ministry Attendance and Financial Update For the Year Ended December 31, 2006
Apr 14th, 2007 by bob
Review of Ministry Attendance:
- 79,135 people took part in Fellowship’s two Celebration Worship services on Sunday mornings in 2006 compared to 74,125 in 2005.
- Average worship attendance increased 3.4% from 1,445 in 2005 to 1,493 in 2006.
- Adult discipleship classes increased their attendance from an average of 175 per week in 2005 to 260 per week in 2006.
- Student Ministry increased average weekly participation from 243 to 248.
- Children’s Ministry increased from 437 to 444 children and teachers per week.
- New this year on Sunday mornings, CollegeLife averaged 32 students.
These are just a few glimpses of the lives being changed through the worship and disciplemaking ministries of FEFC.
Year-end report of Giving and Spending for Ministry as of December 31, 2006
Ministry Operations
Giving in 2006 was $75,500 greater than spending for the year.
God certainly blessed Fellowship Church with generous people in 2006. Your outpouring of giving in December made that month our best single month since 2002; giving in December 2006 was over $100,000 greater than in December 2005. This meant that Ministry Operations Giving exceeded spending for the year by $75,500.
Last fall we announced that we would reduce certain areas of the 2006 budget in order not to spend more than the church received during the year.
We also promised at that time that if the giving trend changed in a positive way, the excess at the end of the year will be restored first to missions and outreach in the amount of $37,000. Your generous giving has helped us to keep that promise.
- $25,000 is designated for Habitat for Humanity house and $12,000 for short-term missions in 2007.
- $18,000 will be set aside to fund a full time worship technical director.
- $20,500 will be used for building improvement projects in 2007.
Giving
Giving towards the Ministry Operations Budget for the year increased 5.7% ($156,000) over giving for 2005.
Ministry Operations Giving was $20,560 less than the budget for 2006.
Spending
Local Missions and Outreach:
Local missions and outreach is under budget $28,900.
$25,000 of this is because Habitat for Humanity did not have a house for FEFC to build. We’ve set this money aside for a future house.
Administrative Expenses:
Fellowship Administrative expenses are under budget $8,300 due to a combination of items over and under budget.
$5,400 is due to necessary computer network upgrades and software services in excess of budget.
Church office supplies ran over budget $3,300 due in part to increased ministry activities.
These over-budget items were offset by a refund in postage due to an error in billing charges during a previous year.
Facility and Grounds:
In total, facility expenses were over budget $10,900 for the year. Utilities were over budget $13,800 due to rate increases and extended building hours. We decided to have traffic control on Sundays throughout the year to handle increased attendance. This added to our budget $4,400 that had not been anticipated. Several accounts were reduced to make up for some of these increased expenses.
Communications:
Bulletin expenses have been less than anticipated, saving us $9,900. Art projects for the lobby were not done reducing expenses $4,300.
Capital Improvements:
Capital improvements are represented in Ministry Operations and in Designated Expenditures.
Ministry Operations:
Plans to cap and seal the upper east parking lot were scaled back to sealing and re-striping it when the lowest bid came in at $57,000. The budget for the project was $25,000 and it cost $7,100 to seal and re-stripe. (The lot will need to be capped and sealed in the next two years.)
The 600 rooms were carpeted at a total cost of $13,700.
Age-group Ministries:
Year-to-date combined expenses for age-group discipleship ministries were under budget $29,600. Children, Middle School and High School Ministries were all significantly under budget for the year, largely because we had new pastors in children’s and high school ministries.
Designated and Restricted Giving and Expenditures
Giving:
Designated Giving for missions and outreach consists of general missions and outreach giving as well as the individual funds raised by short-term trip participants.
Funds received for short-term trips in 2006 totaled $231,900 compared to $179,100 in 2005.
In 2006 we added two small trips to Mexico. We also incurred increased travel costs (and more travelers) on trips to Mexico, Southeast Asia and Central Europe than last year.
An auction for the Women’s shelter in Mexico raised $15,000, funds that were not included in the 2006 budget.
Another $4,500 was received in contributions for Agape Mundial, Pastor Albert’s church in Tijuana.
Restricted receipts totaled $136,300 in 2006.
- $83,000 of that is from student and women’s ministry retreats.
- $10,000 is designated towards the worship pastor search.
- $12,900 is for benevolence.
- $15,200 was raised by the Missions Yard Sale.
- $10,400 was to help fund the position of college intern.
Expenditures:
Designated and Restricted Expenditures: The modular building cost $64,000 to set up, equip and install. This was considerably more than expected due to the City of Knoxville’s requirement to install the restrooms.
