Revenues: We are five months into the year and you may be wondering, “Does the church still anticipate having a $100,000 cash shortfall by the end of the year?”  Honestly, it’s hard to say.  Our revenues are currently higher than we budgeted as of the end of May, however, it is important to note that our budget assumes an even revenue stream each month and our actual monthly revenue fluctuates from month to month. The following graph shows the fluctuation of income received by month in 2022 and 2023 compared to the evenly-spread budget of $86,980 per month.

As you can see, this is not an area that is easy to draw conclusions based on month-to-month activity.  But we’ll take the good news as just that – good news and hope that we continue to receive more gifts than we budgeted. Giving normally goes down in the summer as many folks are away from church on vacation, so we would like to take this opportunity to encourage you to set up routine giving in Realm if you have not done so already.

Expenses: Year-to-date expenses also provide good news, as we are operating at less than we budgeted.  Some of those savings are temporary, based on the expenses occurring after they were budgeted, and some are permanent.  We also find that expenses increase as the year progresses.  By the end of the third quarter, we should have a better understanding of what total savings we may have, if any. 

Hasn’t this been a conclusive update, with no answer provided?!  In today’s world, this gets a LOL – laugh out loud.  The true purpose of the update is to share that we are reviewing our revenue and expenses each month, we are always looking for ways to save money, and we are always available to answer any of your questions.  If you have a question, please contact your Finance Elders:  Kathy Hostetler, Bill Muth, and Claire Grossman.