November’s Focus: Budget

It’s a new month and that means it’s time for a new focus for the leadership at Rocky Creek.  Each month, we are focusing on a specific area to really develop as a church body.  Just to catch you up, here’s what we have been focusing on at Rocky Creek:

  • January: Pastor – I am so thankful you allowed me to be your pastor!
  • February: Website – The staff did a wonderful job at overhauling the website and the content to equip you is growing by the day.
  • March: Services – We added an additional worship service and both of them are continuing to grow!
  • April: Guests – We created a “Next Steps” process that has served guests and members alike.
  • May: Leadership – We began the process of evaluating and equipping our staff and volunteer teams.
  • June: Campus – We focused on ways to make simple adjustments now and plan for future developments later that will cause us to be better stewards of the buildings God has entrusted to our church family.
  • July: Calendar – We finished a yearly calendar so you can plan your schedule around events and resources to help equip you in your disciple-making.  The calendar is available here.
  • August: Groups – We spent the month clarifying Gospel Groups and adding new ones that meet during the week.
  • September: Curriculum – We focused on the biblical content that we taught in our Gospel Groups.
  • October: Partnerships – We investigated how we further our Acts 1:8 strategy as it relates to our mission partnerships.

NOVEMBER’S FOCUS: BUDGET

This month we are focusing on the financial stewardship of our ministry budgets.

Our church leadership is currently walking through the budget preparation time.  Before you receive your copy of it, a substantial amount of time and a significant amount of people have prayed, talked, and worked hard to prepare it.

While there are many logistical tasks to be done, this endeavor is truly a spiritual exercise.  In preparing a church budget, it is so tempting to turn this into a pure financial exercise that we attempt to “baptize” with business methods.

A church budget isn’t planning how to spend our money – it is praying regarding how to steward God’s money.

A few things to note since this month has a lot of exciting initiatives taking place regarding ministry finances:

  1. We will be voting on our personnel recommendation this Sunday, Nov. 5th.  It has been so great to hear your excitement about the changes – we are excited too!
  2. The budget will be available the week of November 6th.
  3. This year’s budget will be a part of a 2017 annual report which will include ministry highlights, upcoming plans, and our financial picture.
  4. Waypoint is Sunday, Nov. 12 6PM where we will discuss the FY2018 budget and some very exciting plans as we go forward.
  5. I cannot overstate that you will miss some significant information if you can’t come to Waypoint.  Please make every effort to attend.
  6. We are going to encourage those who can to give over and beyond to an end of the year gift to the ministry of Rocky Creek.  We know you are approached by many non-profits in the last quarter of the year, but we want you to consider giving to some specific initiatives that we will highlight on the 12th.  I know some people who aren’t even RC members who are considering giving to the ministry going forward – we will share how you can specifically in the days to come.
  7. The giving at RC has been incredible as of late!  What started as a “dream” budget in a transitional year is turning into a reality.  You faithful givers and new givers have been stepping forward and we have been able to do some incredible Kingdom things together!

Let’s keep praying, giving, and partnering together for Kingdom work!