Wise Stewardship Brochure.pdf

Answers to Your Questions

The Basics

How much is the 2008 Church & Missions (C&M) Budget?

$8,600,000

How will these funds be allocated?

There are two helpful ways of thinking about how funds will be allocated in the 2008 Church & Missions (C&M) Budget.

The first is a "Traditional BBC View". In this view 47% of the funds are allocated for Staff, 30% for Missions & Outreach, 10% for Building, Property, and Leased Space, 7% for Ministry Departments (Family Discipleship, Adult, Worship, etc.) and 6% for Support Services (technology, general & administration, etc.).

A second way of looking at the budget is called a "Ministry View". In this view, staff costs are integrated into their respective departments, instead of being a separate category. Thus, 36% of the funds are allocated for Missions & Outreach, 35% for Ministry (Family Discipleship, Adult, TBI, Media, Worship), and 29% for Operations (buidling, property, leased space, office, technology).

2008 VS. 2007

How much is the increase in teh 2008 C&M Budget (compared with 2007)?

We are asking the Lord for an increase of $1.35 Million above 2007 Church & Mission giving, which is:

• 18.7% ($1.35M) above actual 2007 C&M contributions of $7,242,788.
• 17.8% ($1.3M) above our 2007 working budget of $7,300,000.
• 7.9% ($630K) above our original 2007 C&M contributions goal of $7,970,858.

By God's grace, we gave 11% more ($720K) to C&M in 2007 than in 2006. We look to Him to enable us to meet our goal in 2008.

Vision for Ministry

Where will the new $1.3+M in funds be allocated?

• $700+K for Staff Expenses
  • $350K for new/expanded positions
  • $100K for 3% staff COLA
  • $250K for other staff costs, including full year of expenses for staff hired last year (in 2007)
• $400K for Missions & Outreach
• $100+K for Building & Property, Office, Technology
• $100K for Ministry Departments

In addition to the existing ministries at BBC, these new funds will (Lord-willing):

• Support 13+ new mid-term & career missionaries
• Expand Short Term Ministry Mobilization
• Provide a Pastor for Adult Ministries at the Downtown Campus
• Provide a Pastor for Church Planting

• Support new TBI worship track with funded interns

• Continue to expand Latino Ministries

Wise Stewardship of God's Entrusted Resources

What efforts does BBC make to ensure wise stewardship of funds?

The elders and staff of BBC earnestly desire to glorify God and spread a passion for His supremacy through wise stewardship of His entrusted resources. Steps taken toward this end include:

• Detailed line-item budgets by department indicating where funds will be spent
• Monthly budgeting (to identify each department’s expenses by month)
• Managing expenses based on actual giving via an ‘adjusted’ or working budget
• Retaining an outside accounting firm for annual audits

How does the budget relate to TCT?

TCT is separate from the C&M budget. For each TCT gift, Campuses receive 80%, Church Planting receives 10%, and the Global Diaconate receives 10%. TCT needs $640K in 2008 to meet our minimum mortgage payments, and $9.4M to pay off our North Campus mortgage ($7.5M for the mortgage, and $940K each for Church Planting and the Global Diaconate).

God enabled you to give over $900K to TCT in the last two months of 2007 toward our goal of raising $4M by 12/31/2008 for North Campus completion, technology upgrades, and further debt reduction. Total TCT giving in 2007 was $1,635,897, an increase of 46% compared to 2006. Please consider extending your financial support of Bethlehem to include the TCT Fund.