Time for Prayer for Our Church Future

Sometimes it’s a bit hard to know what to write about when it comes to this note in the newsletter. However, there have been many discussions in the last few weeks over the state of finances at the church, and church leadership feels it’s important to be as transparent as possible. 

In February, at the last Town Hall meeting, it was discussed that we had about 4.3 years left to maintain, as we were financially, this would use the endowment funds. Since February, the church has had some significant expenses come up that have shortened that timeline. 

On May 6th, the boiler that heats the sanctuary and EV hall cracked and very nearly could have burned the church down. We’re lucky we have such a good fire alarm system in place because it was able to detect the issue BEFORE the boiler caught on fire. 

We’re looking at $40,000-$70,000 to replace the boiler as is. 

As all of you know, we had a windstorm in March, and with the hail last August, we know that we’re going to need a new roof for the church (and probably rental property) coming up. The estimate for this is over $100,000. The board has voted to wait to discuss replacing the roof until the fall. 

We also know that the asphalt in the alleyway, which is our responsibility, and the parking lots really need to be completely redone. To do it in parts, starting with the worst, we’re looking at about $20,000 just to redo the alleyway. 

The sprinkler system to water the lawn has been hobbled along with patches for many years and will need to be completely replaced soon. That would be close to another $20,000 expense easily, though no direct estimates have been gathered at this time. 

Last year, we replaced the AC unit for the kitchen and fellowship hall with 4 mini-splits, which was a vastly cheaper option, but still pulled about $25,000 from the endowments/trustee funds in order to cover this cost. 

These are all unexpected expenses that can’t be planned for. 

The board is doing its best to plan to pay for these expenses, but the board also understands that the cost of this building is draining what reserves we had very quickly, and that 4.3-year estimate we had in February is no longer accurate with these unexpected expenses dipping into those funds. 

The board is asking for the congregation to be in deep prayer over what this means for us as a congregation, what the future holds for this building, and how we can be creative in continuing the ministry Christ has called us for.