Dear Everyday Church family,
Welcome to the second Finance Update of 2021. Our goal in these updates is to keep us focused on our three key values on finance:
- Transparency
- Accountability
- Generosity
The aim of values, is that over time, and through consistent expression through real action, these values become our default culture. We are getting there in terms of our church culture and hope that you are seeing a similar culture develop in the handling of your personal finances.
We are still going through the strangest of seasons and for many of us this is putting pressure on our finances. Let’s keep being open and honest about our finances. If you are finding things tough, don’t suffer in silence, talk to someone. They may not be able to offer more than a listening ear in the first instance, but together you can pray and seek a way forward. Remember the Church Family Fund is available, just talk to your Life Group Leader. We also have people across the church who do have experience and training to help us manage our personal finances.
In the spirit of transparency and accountability, here are some figures for the first quarter of 2021:
2021 First Quarter Update
| Jan to March – Budget | Jan to March – Actual | |
|
Income |
£287,561 |
£297,483 |
|
Expenditure |
£300,926 |
£270,923 |
| Surplus/Deficit | -£13,365 |
£26,560 |
As you can see our income in the first three months has been slightly higher than we predicted and we have managed to keep our costs below budget. Thank you for continuing to be generous in your giving. Being generous with our finances is a key part of our worship as we reflect the generosity of God. Let’s keep worshipping God with our money. We are also so thankful to God for his provision in this season and to the staff team at Everyday Church for their diligent stewardship.
Weekly giving as we re-gather
As lockdown starts to lift in the UK we are starting to meet physically for corporate worship. Historically we have always had a physical offering as part of our worship. It has been a way of reminding us that our worship should touch every part of our lives. However, in a post-Covid world, it is unlikely that we will be able to pass a basket around on a Sunday. We are looking at the various options to keep us safe, whilst enabling people to give as part of their worship.
If you have been someone who has always given by putting cash or cheques into the offering on a Sunday, thank you! I know that for some of us we were taught to give physically each week so that our financial giving didn’t become automatic, but remained an active part of our worship. However, now might be the time to start giving in another way. You can find all the links you need on the Giving Page of the website at: everyday.org.uk/giving
May Special Offering
As God continues to bless us in so many ways, we want to continue to be a church that blesses others. We are committed to giving away 11% of our core income this year and, if we end up with a surplus at the end of the year, we would look to give away some of that as well. However, we also want to give away our Special Offerings this year, as we did in 2020. When times are tough it is natural to want to protect what we have, but we believe in supernatural generosity. Our next Special Offering will be on Sunday 23rd May and we will be partnering with Wycliffe Bible Translators to make the Bible available in a new language. You can find out about Wycliffe’s work generally by visiting their website: www.wycliffe.org.uk . However, they have asked us if we would like to play a part in a specific project to make the Old Testament available to a people group in West Africa. For security reasons, Wycliffe have code named this group the “Flame” people. They represent a large people group of about 500,000.
The New Testament has been completed in the “Flame” language, and as a result, there are some “Flame” believers who are beginning to gather as churches for discipleship together. The translation of the Old Testament into “Flame” has just begun. It’s going to be vital for all of the obvious reasons (how do you learn to worship without the Psalms? How do you understand God’s purposes without the history of Israel? How do you learn wisdom without Proverbs? How can you be discipled on just the New Testament, since all Scripture is God-breathed and necessary to equip the servant of God for every good work?). But it is also going to be particularly vital for reaching a poor, agricultural Muslim community, where the creation story, the story of Abraham, the story of God calling a poor, agricultural nation to follow him, etc, will build great bridges to the “Flame” people group.
Translating the Old Testament into “Flame” will take until 2030. It will cost about £80,000 a year to complete it. Bible translation is hard work and requires quite a large team – which is expensive, even though the locals are on local wages!
We have not committed to the whole project, but we would love to provide a chunk of seed money for the project.
We will give you more information in the coming weeks via the Online Church Services, ASK meetings, Life Groups and Social Media, but let’s start thinking and praying about the part we each want to play in making the scriptures, and the God they reveal, accessible to this particular people group.
Thanks again for taking the time to read this update and for playing your part in the local church and God’s Kingdom purposes.
Blessings
Simon Elliott
Executive Pastor