Great News!

The response to this year's Stewardship Campaign (theme: Worship, Mission & Ministry) has been thoroughly overwhelming!

I shared the news this past Sunday, but wanted to make sure and share it again for anyone who might have missed the announcement.

But first, a little bit of background: The Budget Proposal that had been approved by the Administrative Council contained a $15,000 line for "Additional Fundraisers." We have been doing this for the last few budget cycles (remember "Dinner with the Stars" in 2013?). That "Additional Fundraisers" line has been used to keep our budgets balanced, but it does mean that we have been passing Deficit Budgets for the past few years. Okay, you got that? Now lets get out of the weeds.

Here is the Good News: Enough people increased their pledges for 2015 that we fully taken advantage of the $10,000 Matching Gift! (Remember: We had an anonymous donor who agreed to match any new pledge or increased pledge dollar for dollar up to a total of $10,000).

But there is even more Good News: We didn't just come up with $10,000 worth of new and increased pledges. In fact, we blew past that total. You see with the help of our Narrative Budget approach and the Matching Gift we were able to raise $30,000+ more than we were anticipating!

$30,000+ worth of new resources to support Worship, Mission & Ministry at FCC Scottsdale?!? That is amazing! That is incredible! That is overwhelming support for what God is doing here at FCC Scottsdale! (By the way, that number keeps going up. I had to write "$30,000+ because we continue to receive pledge cards and that number just keeps getting bigger!)

So what does that mean for our church?

Well, for starters it means that our days of passing a Deficit Budget are behind us! I'm excited to say that we won't need that $15,000 "Additional Fundraisers" line in the 2015 Budget that we'll be adopting at our Annual Meeting this coming Sunday.

More importantly, it means that we are actually forecasting a Budget Surplus for the coming year!

Which is why the Executive Team of the Administrative Council here at the church has already started talking about "The Dream Fund."

You see, we want to make the best possible use of those resources that our church members are so faithfully sharing with the church. Now that we have extra resources pledged for the coming year we want to started dreaming -- What new things can we do in 2015? What old projects can we resurrect? What ministries can we form? What partners can we start supporting again? What new outreach projects can we get started?

You'll be hearing more about The Dream Fund at the Annual Meeting and in the coming weeks (here is a sneak peak: It is going to literally involve a box where people will be invited to fill out "Dream Sheets" and submit their ideas for consideration by the wider church!). But for now I need you to start dreaming.

This is an incredible time in the life of the church. I could not be more proud of our church! I could not be more overwhelmed by the support that has come in through our Stewardship Campaign! And I can't wait to see what amazing things we will be able to do, to the glory of God, with the abundance of resources that you all have entrusted us with at the church!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!