DECEMBER 2023
FINANCIAL UPDATES

Dear Every Nation Church,

As we approach the year's end and celebrate Advent together, I'd like to provide an update on our church's financial status. On behalf of our elder board and leadership team, it's our duty to responsibly and prayerfully oversee our churches finances while ensuring full transparency to keep you informed.

Our move from the historic UD building last year has led to transitions for some individuals and families—whether they moved away, changed churches, or stopped their giving.

What our church is experiencing reflects a common reality for many churches in our community. Other pastors in Seattle have shared similar challenges, citing rising costs and declining contributions, and the need to cut budget and staff.

For those committed and attending our church gatherings, giving is approached from a variety of perspectives. The result is we have some active givers with recurring giving who sustain and support the ministry, we have some who are giving infrequently, and some who don’t give at all. This is a current reality that makes it difficult to plan for, but it is something we hope to address in the upcoming email and seek to strengthen with financial education and discipleship.

Though our historical patterns have shown that we've overcome declines in the past, this prolonged trend necessitates we make some sizable adjustments so that we can continue to be faithful stewards. After prayerful consideration, our pastors and elder board have decided the following:

• Implement budget cuts:  We aim to reduce our 2024 budget by $120,000, resetting our budget to $600k, which is $50,000 per month.  We have worked hard to cut where it makes sense while enabling us to do viable ministry next year. 
• Cut Staffing: It is with sadness that we acknowledge that we cannot continue at this time to sustain two senior-level pastor positions. After much discussion and prayer, our teaching pastor Danielle has volunteered to be let go from her position by the end of the year. 

This decision aims to alleviate some of the deficit and ideally prevent layoffs among other staff members. Both for the church's well-being and Danielle's, we've mutually concluded that releasing her from her teaching pastor role by the year's end is the best course.

We understand that this may come as a shock, and it is difficult to hear, as Danielle has served for 9 years on staff. However, Danielle and I have discussed this over the last month - faced the reality, and we want you to know we have a lot of peace about this decision and we are trusting God for next steps.
 
Danielle will pursue other job opportunities, a necessity in the current economic climate but will continue to be an active member of our church, volunteering her gifts as she's able.

Pray: The elders and leadership team would deeply appreciate your prayers for Danielle and our family during this transition as we seek to provide continued financial support for our family, and lead our church through this moment.

I'm confident that we'll navigate this and restore our finances to a healthier state, but it will require time, careful stewardship, and greater generosity of our church family.

Plan: We will follow up with an additional email to explain our plans for how we can improve our financial health, and what role you can play in strengthening your church during this Advent Season. Be on the look out for that update later this week.

If you have any questions regarding this email or church finances, please respond to office@everynationseattle.org.

We love you and thank you for standing with us during this time.  

Sincerely,
Perry and the Elder Board

Dear Every Nation Church,

As we celebrate the Advent season, the elders and I, along with our leadership team, would like to make a heartfelt appeal, and share with you how you can help make a big difference in your church before the end of the year.  

The Bible teaches, “Where your treasure is there your heart is also,” implying that your money follows your heart.  

If you consider ENCS your home and your heart is for your church to thrive and grow, then we humbly ask:  

• Would you prayerfully consider giving a one-time, year-end generous gift to our general tithes and offering fund before the end of 2023? This will help us finish the year strong and set us up for a solid start to 2024. You can do so by clicking the link here and giving a one-time donation.

• Would you like to make your giving go further and help us save us thousands of dollars in 2024?  

Each year we pay roughly $8,000-$15,000 in giving fees. You can help alleviate these processing fees on your gifts by either covering the costs yourself or by switching your giving method from credit card payments to bill pay through your banking online.

Here’s how: 

• When giving through Subsplash, check the “Cover processing fees” box before submitting payment. 
• To give by bill pay, please follow the bill pay instructions through your bank. Checks and bill pay can be sent to Every Nation Church Seattle, PO box (4616 25th Ave NE, PMB #483, Seattle, WA 98105). 

Lastly, here is something to consider when thinking about giving.
  
At Every Nation Church, we believe tithing is a foundational biblical principle for responsible financial stewardship. It indicates that the first 10th of one’s income belongs to God and is to be given through the local church.  (See Malachi 3:9-10.  Jesus upholds it in the New Testament as well- see Luke 11:42, and Matthew 23:33.) All churches are sustained and grown based on people being faithful to Jesus with their money and tithing. No church can be sustained or grow without its members contributing. If everyone tithed, our church would have all the resources needed to not only sustain but grow our ministry.

Perhaps you are not yet convinced or ready to tithe, but you want to give regularly. You could start with a commitment of 2%, 5% or more regularly and step your way to faithfulness. Small steps are better than no steps. For example, if we had 50 more people giving $200 per month, we would return to a healthy budget.
 
For those who want to give but are not sure how to make ends meet if they did, we have something called the “Tithe Challenge” we have had in place for years. I want to invite you to read about it, and prayerfully consider it.

If you would like to discuss finances or the theology of financial stewardship with one of our leaders or would like more info on our finances as a church, please let us know by clicking the link below, “I have questions.”

Thank you for reading and for responding as God leads you. As always, we put our trust in Jesus and His provision for our church, and we are confident with your support, we can see our finances be stronger for 2024.

Merry Christmas,  
Pastor Perry, the Elder Board, and Leadership Team

Dear Church Family,

Over the past several weeks, we have sent out 2 financial updates explaining that for the first time in 14 years, our church is experiencing a financial shortfall.

Though our historical patterns have shown that we've overcome declines in the past, this prolonged trend necessitates we make some sizable adjustments so that we can continue to be faithful stewards. After prayerful consideration, our pastors and elder board have decided to do the following:

• Implement budget cuts: We have reduced our 2024 budget by $120,000. We have worked hard to cut where it makes sense while enabling us to do viable ministry next year.
• Cut Staffing: It is with sadness that we acknowledge that we cannot continue to sustain two senior-level pastor positions. After much discussion and prayer, our teaching pastor Danielle has volunteered to be let go from her position by the end of the year.

While there are several factors that have contributed to this shortfall, we want to make it clear that our faith is in God and we believe that he is with us in these circumstances. He is going to bring us through.

We also firmly believe that the church is made up of the people of God, not just the leaders. A local church lives and breathes from the gathering and support of God’s people. God provides through His people.

Historically, we have a Big Give at the end of each year where we raise extra funds to go to specific causes and needs outside and inside of our church. But in view of our shortfall this year and the challenging economic times people are facing, we chose not to do one.

Instead, we are simply asking if this is your church home, and your heart is for us to thrive, to pray carefully and think intentionally about end-of-year giving. Please prayerfully consider giving a one-time, year-end generous gift to our general tithes and offering fund before the end of 2023. This will help us finish the year strong, and set us up for a solid start to 2024.

Thank you in advance for your prayers and generosity.

We believe that God will continue to do amazing things through this church and improve our church’s financial health.

Will you join us?
Pastor Perry, the Elder Board, and Leadership Team