Finance Committee: Manuals, Deficits, and More
The Finance Committee oversees the congregation’s fiscal health and stewardship. Each year, we prepare and submit an annual budget to the Church Council for review and adoption. We also review financial reports monthly and monitor actual versus planned expenditures and income, as well as examine funding requests for unexpected expenses. One of our primary tasks is to run the annual Stewardship Campaign each fall to ensure funding for the coming year.
Over the last 12 months, the committee has been developing a Financial Policy Manual, which was encouraged by our auditor. This manual includes how we process incoming funds, such as designated and memorial gifts and grants, and how we process expenditures, such as reimbursement requests and debit card expenses. We hope to finalize this document at our next meeting and recommend its adoption to the Church Council.
The Finance Committee has acknowledged that we have been blessed by several large undesignated memorial gifts, including the Mittelstadt and Sharrard funds, which we received in 2024, and the Goodrow Memorial Funds, which we received in June of this year. While we continued to draw on the Mittelstadt and Sharrard funds, the committee felt it was important to invest the funds that we were not currently using. Thus, we transferred the Goodrow and the remaining portion of the Mittelstadt and Sharrard funds to the Faith Foundation.
Because we have been blessed by these gifts, which have allowed us to continue to have a full-time pastor, the Finance Committee has been discussing the need to raise awareness of both regular giving and estate planning, as endowments have been critical to our ability to continue operating and providing ministry to our community.
As we look toward the Stewardship campaign, our Finance Committee has been reviewing our current budget and the need to reduce our 2027 deficit. Over the last two years, we have budgeted more than a $50,000 deficit each year. We cannot continue this much longer as our expenses continue to rise. For example, in the last 7 years, our utilities cost has gone from $27,190 in 2018 to $62,606 in 2025. At the same time, our income has decreased significantly. One of our committee’s tasks in the coming year will be to help the congregation establish a more sustainable budget. This will likely require many difficult decisions.
Our committee is so grateful for every member of our congregation who gives of their time, talent, and financial blessings to sustain our community. Without you, there would be no Sunday School, worship, fellowship time, MEET Groups, Monday Night Suppers, Project Hope, and the roof from Pastor Cara’s office to the Kitchen would not have been repaired. Because of your gifts, we have made a difference in our church members’ lives and in the lives of people in the wider Auburn community.
If you have any questions regarding the Finance Committee or the church’s finances, please reach out to any one of our members, who are: Dick Koch, chair, Ariel Bender, Shana Friend, Joyce Wright, Phillip Stephens, Darla Schutten, Leila Booth, Jason Koenig, Kathie Price, Ashley Gyland, and Pastor Cara. Everyone is invited to attend our meetings, which are on the fourth Tuesday at 6 pm in the Rainer Room and via Zoom.