We continue our series of articles about how our church works. Each month we will look at one of the ministry teams, who is on the team, what they do, and how often and when they meet.

Last month our focus was the Committee on Trustees. This month our attention is on the Committee on Finance and Memorials. The goal of this ministry is to ensure that all of our bills are paid at the end of the year. Our discussion focuses on stewardship and specifically the acknowledgment that what we have all comes from God (Psalm 50.10). We believe it is a blessing that we receive a paycheck and a retirement account and have food in our bellies, a warm place to sleep. When we understand that all of this comes from God we feel we have done the work of the Lord who loves us. Our stewardship moments are an acknowledgment of just this.

The committee also looks at the expenses of the church to ensure that we are using your gifts responsibly. Financial reports that include income and expenses or in church speak – gifts and obligations – are commonplace at our gatherings.

It is always our goal that our tithes and our gifts meet the obligation of the budget. However, the committee acknowledges that there are shortfalls. Since it is the obligation to raise the needed funds for the church, members of this committee do focus on fund-raisers.

The work of acknowledging memorial gifts falls under this ministry team. We have a dedicated volunteer who works on acknowledging all gifts to the church.

It is also our policy that all gifts to the Memorials of the church that are undesignated – meaning that no decision has been made to these funds – are forwarded to our Endowment. This only takes place after a six-month grieving process.

  Meetings for this ministry team usually take place once-a-month on the last Tuesday of the month at 7:00 pm and held in our overflow room

Members of the Committee on Finance and Memorials are: Dave Duffy (chairperson), Kariann Thaut, Vicki Kestle (Treasurer), Bruce Schuelke (representing the Trustees), Brad Belke, Gerry Allen, Barry Kippen, Bill Rhoads, and Phylis Rice.

Next month we will look at the ministry team known as Barnabas.

Seth