Recap of monthly "State of the Church" conversation

On a day of unholy weather, the people of St. Olaf gathered, as we do monthly, to discuss what is going on at the church.  For those who haven’t been around, this is a chance to bring any questions you have about what is going on at your church and ask Pr. Mark directly.  Here are a few things we discussed this month.

·        A group of our High School kids are going to New Orleans for the ELCA National Youth Gathering!  Ben Pischke (chaperone) and Leah introduced the congregation to these happenings.  In order to make this happen, it will take a lot of work by the kids to raise funds and they have some good plans in place.

o   Congregation members will have the opportunity to buy stock in their trip.  Owners of trip stock will have access to a blog with happenings and pictures from the kids, a dinner with the kids after they return to hear first hand about what happened, and other perks. 

o   Other fund raising endeavors will happen throughout the winter/spring, stay tuned.

o   The group is flying.  After determining costs, it is more economical for our group to fly than get on a communal bus AND we will save time by doing it.  It is a win/win!

·        Trivia Night.  SOLC will be hosting a Trivia Night (general trivia, not Bible!) on Feb 9 from 6.30 to 9.30.  Childcare will be available through the High School kids (see above).  Our church has grown so much that a few households thought we should get together for some fun mid-winter fun.  The Church Council has suspended our no alcohol policy so people can, if they wish, bring an adult beverage for their table.  Apps and mocktails will be available.  RSVP’s will be appreciated, especially for childcare, but not required.

·        Organ renovation, part 2!  The Church Council has voted to sign the contract for work on the organ’s second phase renovation.  Total cost is $190,000, with a roughly $5,000 down payment.  Signing the contract today means that work can BEGIN in 2029.  The total amount of the work is high, obviously, but we also have 5 years to raise the funds for it.  Phase two will begin work that you will hear.  It will make the harsh parts of the organ less harsh.  This phase will be on the pipes you can see (in front and back) but NOT the pipes in the sides).  It will add pipes and revoice what is there.

·        Budget: the proposed 2024 budget is a bit scary.  Right now, it has a 160,000 dollar DEFICIT.

o   Why?  Many levels here.

§  General Fund giving is on par with last year, down a shade, but not much.  However, in 2022, we had a 105,000 dollar undesignated memorial that we used for operations, so our 2023 revenues were DOWN about that amount.

§  Also, 92% of our budget falls into two categories: building and related fixed costs and Staff.  You all know that we are at an absolute bare bones staff as it is.  The remaining 8% of budget is the Ministry.  There is really nothing we can cut.

§  Our Home debt reduction results will LIKELY have our mortgage payment reduce when the interest rate resets in February.

§  The debt reduction campaign has done wonders, but it has also resulted in reduced general fund giving, which is expected.  Our congregation has two groups of people who gave to that campaign.

·        The first group are those who kept their regular giving to the church as committed AND found extra money to give to Our Home.  For example, a pledge to the church of 10,000 dollars AND a gift to Our Home for more money on top.

·        The second is that group that has a set amount to give to the church.  Let’s say 10,000 dollars.  Instead of giving the whole 10 to the church, the split it up; 5,000 to general fund and 5,000 to Our Home.  This is what is called diverted giving.

·        We have had enough diverted giving that the general fund has suffered.

·        We have also had many members move away in the past year who gave VERY generously to the church.  Conversely, we have had a bunch of new members, but you generally don’t expect new members to give a very high levels right away.  Call it a honeymoon period.

o   So, the budget looks bad and it is.  But we need to keep the above perspectives AND note a few other things.  In EVERY SINGLE MEASURABLE CATEGORY except giving, St. Olaf is growing.  Largest Sunday School in a decade, largest VBS in a decade, worship attendance is up 10% from previous year, average children’s sermon on Sunday is nearly 20.  Giving is the only thing not growing.  It will.  But it will take all of us.  We WILL NOT and CAN NOT wait for some new wealthy person to move to town and give massive amounts of money.

§  Can those giving 50 a week give 60?  Can those doing 500 a month do 550?  We all must commit to this. 

o   We can do this deficit budget for one year, our general fund balance allows that.  We do not have two years.

·        Last question of the day was about my vision for ministry for the next 8 years.  I LOVE this question.  The answer, is easy and complex at the same time.

o   If we look at where St. Olaf was eight years ago and where we are today, we see that A LOT has changed.  We have kids now.  We have outreach ministry now.  We are getting control of our debt now.  So where to next.

o   Because of the monumental changes in the past eight years, I don’t want to do anything drastic, I want to scale what we have begun.

o   I want the church to partner even more deeply with the Austin Hometown Food Security Project.  We already do meal prep for them, let’s do more.  We already partner with many community orgs that do good work, we need to do more.

o   The future as I see it isn’t about what new things we can do, it is about what can we do that we already do but more deeply. 

o   Outreach ministries have two components, Justice and Charity.  Justice is the why.  Why is there poverty, why is there hunger.  Charity is the short term piece.  Hungry? Here is food.  St. Olaf isn’t in a place, yet, to do the justice side.  But we do Charity really well.  For the next eight, let’s ramp up the charity while we prepare to work on Justice.

 

Ok, that was the monthly state of the church.  It was great conversation.  We named some challenging realities, but also saw that we are still a healthy church with a bright future of ministry.  We have to get a hold of our budget, but we can and will.  We have done it before, we will do it again; it will just take all of us.