BUDGET
Click the image to view the proposed budget
Questions?
Send in your questions and our Church Administrator, Pastor Tim Ferguson, will send an answer. We will build a FAQ section of previous questions below as they are submitted.
Questions and Answers
Under the Faith Promise Missions breakdown, why are there expenses for Personnel & Administration? Since Missions is part of the church as a whole, would not the operations expenses be covered by the church operations and personnel budget? This charge represents 13.5% of the total amount given to the Faith Promise. I would think that the whole donated amount would be disbursed to missions. - Steve
Great question! The church covers half of the personnel expenses for Faith Promise, and the Faith Promise funds cover the other half. The administration part covers items Faith Promise uses to administer the program. The method we use to cover these expenses has been debated in meetings since the inception of Faith Promise. Each of our committees has decided to have the Faith Promise Missions program cover some of its expenses to organize and operate this great missions program, while the church provides the other half. Each option has advantages, but this has been a consistent decision for over 30 years. Splitting the personnel expense ensures that the Faith Promise fund can help, in part, to maintain its operations, and sharing the expense with the church’s General Budget allows us to use most of what’s given to support our Sent Partners directly. – Pastor Tim
On page 3 of the Proposed Budget booklet, regarding Indian Rocks Eats, the variance for Expenses is shown as $172,600. Shouldn’t that number be $175,200 (891,300 - 716,100 = 175,200). This changes your total Expenses variance to $2,682,150 instead of the $2,679,500 shown. If all the other numbers are correct on page 3, then this must have been just a typo. I wouldn’t have normally sent this to you but you and Pastor Jeff both encouraged questions tonight.
There is a typo in the budget. The expenses budgeted for IR Eats are supposed to be listed as $888,700. The total expenses are calculated with the correct value, the prior year’s expenses are correct and the variation is calculated according to the correct $888,700 amount, but the listed expenses for that one line are incorrect. On page 9 of the budget booklet, the correct expenses are allocated and that shows that IR Eats is expected to net $2,60o to the positive.
I too thought you might be receiving too many questions. But.....Is the middle school construction above cafeteria done? 2) We are getting new furniture at right of stage/backstage. What budget category does this come out of? I Like beautifying God's House. 3) Those that bless Israel He will bless. On faith promise missions I know Israeli=Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria but why less for Jerusalem the beloved city of God then the other 2 area's. Just curious. - Thank you and God Bless, Kim
Great questions! The construction is 98% done. We are finishing up some small items and waiting on a few issues before we can apply for the Certificate of Occupancy. There are elevator and fire alarm issues holding this up and the inspections that the City of Largo requires in order for that to be done.
The new furniture for the backstage and green room comes from a capital expenditure budget one item and we are in need of updating that area.
Our missions department has adopted the vision of Acts 1:8 “and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and all of Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth”. Your question, I think, is referring to supporting Israel with Faith Promise. The way we apply this verse is we will be witnesses of Christ in our own area (community), then in all of Judea and Samaria (areas farther away than our local community), and to the ends of the Earth (overseas missions). So when we apply this we say Jerusalem is Pinellas County, Judea and Samaria is the State of Florida and the United States, and the ends of the Earth are our missions overseas.
The reason we spend less on what we consider Jerusalem is several reasons. The local partners we support don’t need regular support like our missionaries. However, we do support them in local ministry projects and fundraising. For example, the pregnancy center does their walk for life each year and we host one of those walks and are the number one church for raising money for them. We raised over $100,000 last year and that goes directly to them. Another reason is that our ministries, supported by our general budget, are focused on our community. We emphasize the Ends of the Earth in our Faith Promise giving, which is why more funds are allocated to reach outside our community and the United States.
We do also support two missionaries in Israel and they are doing great work.