During the past few months, we as a congregation have been talking about focusing our time, effort, and financial resources on engaging with and within our community in service and outreach. At our Voters’ Assembly in September, we discussed some of the reasons for this new focus, including …

• God calls us to serve others (Luke 10:25-37) and to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). Our job is to bless the world. When we do, people are turned toward God.
• People are hurting. Poverty, job losses, health issues, addictions, emotional issues, family conflicts, and many other challenges afflict the people in our community. When we serve, we reflect the heart of God for all people.
• The days of “build a church building and they will come” are over. The culture has shifted. Most of our unchurched friends, family members, neighbors, and coworkers will not wander into our church building. We must be willing to go to them.
• When we engage the mission to which God calls us, and as we lose ourselves in service to others, we experience more of the abundant life of which Jesus spoke.

Our fiscal year 2015 budget – which was unanimously approved at the meeting in September – reflects this new focus, including the addition of two key positions:

• A new Community Service Coordinator, whose role will be to identify service opportunities in our community and connect our members with those activities. We will also invite our neighbors to participate with us, providing us with opportunities for outreach.
• A new Associate Pastor to lead our outreach ministry, which will focus more on going OUT into the community in addition to inviting our neighbors to come into our building.

The assembly provided an opportunity for attendees to pose questions to Pastor Flammann and the Board of Servant Leaders. Below are responses to some of those questions.

What is the status of process to call the new Associate Pastor? We are moving forward with all possible speed to call the new Associate Pastor. We have refined the ministry description to reflect our new focus on reaching out into the community, and have reconfigured the call committee to involve more “at large” members of the congregation. We are waiting for the Southeastern District to provide us with a list of individuals to consider, and we hope to receive that list within the next few weeks. Once we receive the list, we’ll set up telephone interviews, followed by candidate visits to Good Shepherd.

What happened to tithing 10% of our income to mission, outreach, and service organizations? Good Shepherd is looking to DO more of the mission and outreach work in a hands-on way, rather than simply providing charitable contributions to third parties so that they can do mission and outreach work on our behalf. We want to be the hands and feet of Christ as we engage with our community, reflecting the heart of God as we serve others and providing us with opportunities to share the good news of God’s love with our neighbors. In fiscal year 2015, we are planning to spend a little more than we did in fiscal year 2014 in the traditional “Mission, Outreach and Community Service” budget category, so we are NOT reducing those expenditures. In fact, we are substantially increasing expenditures on mission, outreach, and community service – and in a hands-on way – with the addition of the new Associate Pastor and Community Service Coordinator, both of whom are primarily focused on those activities.

We have over $500k in reserve funds. Are we putting those funds to their best use? We are so blessed with the financial generosity of our members! Although setting aside a certain amount of reserve funds is appropriate – to handle short-term cash flow issues or help us through a down economic cycle, etc. – the Board of Servant Leaders recognizes that a substantial portion of those funds can and should be used on activities that support what God is asking us to do. One possible opportunity might be to use some of the reserve funds to pay down our loan “D,” which would result in an annual savings of $67k per year that we can use instead to fund activities that support our mission. The board will keep an eye out for other opportunities to responsibly use our reserve funds.

From the board, thanks to everyone who attended the Voters’ Assembly on September 28. Your questions, thoughts, and input are important to us.

As always, we invite you to share your thoughts and feedback with any of us on the board. You can also email your thoughts and questions to the board at any time.

In Christ,
Brian Cors
Chairman, Good Shepherd Board of Servant Leaders