The online church council meetings have been different he last seven months, but the pastors are still impressed with the connections that are being made in spite of the fact that the congregation is still not meeting for services in person. With he advantage of having no debt and saving on the costs of that keeping the building open, the church’s financial situation is still pretty good. And with an empty building the bathroom construction projects were completed on. time and the facilities committee is working on immediate plans to update the air filtelatio systems I the older parts of the building.
Although there are some businesses and non profits who are dealing with the stand-by mediation concerns that face groups who have to do major layoffs, or even consider bankruptcy, it is important to note that your church is currently in a good place.
One of the areas of your church mission is having its biggest impact is in providing much needed food to the community. Seeing nearly a 65% increase in the number of people needed food assistance, the basement food pantry served 69 families just in the last week. The organizing group has applied for a $10,000 grant from a local foundation and has been able to remove the 30 day wait request that was in place before the pandemic. As the group has become more and more aware of the consumer credit problems that so many of these pantry guests are facing, it is important to know that the food provides much needed supplies
One of the reasons that the church has been able to operate so well and meet its obligations is that the group was able to apply for and received $110,000 from the payment protection plan. The money has already been received and is in the bank Already meeting the loan requirements, the monies will not need to be paid back. And given that the financial pledge amounts have slightly exceeded what was expected, the finances are in a good place. Taking advantage of the expenses being lower than budgeted, these monies are being used to help improve the facilities for when the congregation does return to in person worship. The employment descriptions for some of the staff have been temporarily restructured in an effort to cover some of the work that the absent volunteers would have provided. And while you have an attorney and stand-by mediation available if needed, so far thinks are as good as can be expected.
Even more encouraging, is the fact that the church has just ore than $500,000 in reserves. And while the plans from last month indicated that you might return to in-person services by the end of November, it is now more likely that this will not happen until the year 2021.
When the in person worship does begin, the service will still be recorded. With the additional step of making sure attendance is determined by RSVP, the number will be restricted to 110 people. The stand-by mediation team has been working with codes provided by the local and national health departments, and, as a result, the services will only about 30 minutes long, and there will be no Sunday School, nursery or cry room options.
As an additional way to improve the services provided for congregants, there have also been are cameras installed in the sanctuary. The worship committee reported that the cameras arrived last week and that they would be installed in the next two weeks. The church has hired a new employee record the service, as the staff knows that once in person worship services occur, there will still be many who will opt to still watch from home.
With the advice of the group that looks at the financial services of the church’s approval, it is exciting to know that the church will still deliver Thanksgiving baskets, but delivery volunteers this year will simply ring the doorbell and leave the baskets, rather than waiting for someone to answer the door. The group has also decided that reusable tote bags with the The organizing group says that they will have two or three Saturdays designated for food donation drop-offs and the turkeys have already been ordered. The stand-by mediation team has approved this approach.
