Important Financial Update

From the Combined Faith Promise Service, 2/4/2024

By Tim Barnes

Click the logo above to watch the Happening @ Heritage recap video from Sunday morning, 2/4/2024. Click here to see the whole service.

Good morning everyone. I am Tim Barnes and serve on the Leadership Board.  The board wanted to provide you with a financial update and I drew the short straw…  That’s not true, I volunteered to make this presentation.  

But before we get into that, the Leadership Board wanted to congratulate you.  The video showing some of the things this church has been involved in over the last year was AMAZING!!  When you came in, you were given a card detailing how our community has been affected by what we have done as a church.  Those things were all accomplished because of YOU.  Volunteering your time, skills and finances, but most of all your heart for seeing God’s will in this community come to life.  Ghandi famously said to “Be the change you want to see in the world” and you are doing that, so give yourself a clap praise.

I don’t want to take anything away from the staff.  They are an integral part of coordinating those events and making them happen.  I think we are blessed with a fantastic staff and the Board is so grateful for the TEAM that we have.  This church is moving forward under their leadership, impacting our community and making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.  A HUGE THANK YOU to the staff.

And now let me get to the financial update.  As you know, we have been in the process of closing on the sale of building D for some time now.  Last year at this time, the plan was to close on the sale of building D in July or August.  The closing of the sale has been delayed for several reasons.  

The part of our property being sold is circled in red.

These delays have been related to issues with the city.  The first was a requirement to have the survey updated.  It took the surveyor a couple months to make that happen.  The second had to do with the city requesting that the access road between the main church property and building D be rerouted to match up with Haverford Drive on the other side of Landmark.  The buyer is in the process of getting a waiver of that requirement and hopes to have that accomplished by the end of February.  That would enable us to close on the sale of building D by the end of April.

As a result of the delay in the sale of building D, the results for 2023 were not as good as we were hoping they would be.  However, we were very close to budget.  We had an operating deficit for 2023 of $173K compared to a budgeted deficit of $166K.  The sale of building D is an important issue because every month the sale is delayed, it has a $31K impact on the operating results.  Had we been able to close on the sale in July, our results for 2023 would have been $155K better, or almost break even. 

The tentative budget for 2024 shows a deficit of $224K.  Of this amount $124K represents the cost of maintaining building D for the first four months of the year.  Excluding building D, there is still a deficit of $100K for the year.  We will need to bridge that gap through increased contributions or a reduction of expenses.  We will continue to look for ways to reduce costs and operate more efficiently, but any significant reductions would have to come from staffing.

The leadership board is asking you to pray for this church and its’ impact on the community over the next seven days.   On your way out, you will be given a faith promise card.  After prayerful consideration, we would like you to complete the faith promise card with the amount you believe you can increase your financial commitment to the church in 2024.  Whether that is by a one-time gift or increase in weekly or monthly giving.  This is a covenant between you and GOD.  Do not put your name on the Faith Promise card.  We will be collecting the Faith Promise cards in the service next week.  You can also drop them off in the mailbox outside the front door or in the office.  For those watching online, you can print the Faith Promise card from the website and mail it in or drop it by the church.  The Leadership Board will accumulate these cards and use the results to appropriately adjust the budget in a fiscally responsible manner.

Thank you for letting me take a few moments of your Sunday morning worship to keep you abreast of the financial happenings here at Heritage.