.png)
Dear Gateway,
Can we have a family chat? A chat around the family table?
There are great needs in our church and in our surrounding community. There are amazing opportunities for us to have a greater impact in our city, our nation, and overseas.
As I reflect I am filled with gratitude for the people who have faithfully, regularly, and generously given – over many years – to ensure our church family has the resources needed to be the church we believe God is calling us to be - so much faithfulness. Particularly, I think of those who have one household income, those whose partners do not attend, those who are single parents, students or are on pensions. We see the generosity. And we are thankful. We are not a perfect church, but we are stronger because of you.
We see that our church family is growing again, and that God is moving in our midst, calling us to partner with Him for the sake of the Gospel. But to do this, we must put our House in order. So over the next three weeks we are inviting everyone to “Come To The Table”. It’s not a building campaign. It’s a Kingdom call to meet the challenges set before us.
We want to have open discussions about the state of our church ministry, our finances, and what it will take to go beyond surviving to a place of thriving. We want to listen to each other, pray with each other, and respond together.
Because at this table God has nourished us in ways we could have only dreamed. At this table people have met Jesus. At this table our kids have been dedicated. At this table our family members have declared their faith through the waters of baptism. At this table children in PNG receive education and healthcare – people in our city receive shelter – and we experience community and connection and purpose.
Now is the time to act. And it will take all of us. At this table there is still so much more to be done. This is your invitation, to come to the table.
Our needs are great with our current weekly tithe falling below budget by $6000.
We need to meet this gap in the next three months by choosing to either:
Start our giving journey
Lift our current giving
And for those able to give more - provide a one off gift
Commit to pray
Pray for our church family in this season and pray for our church leaders
Prepare to give
Talk to your family about how you can respond to the needs of our church
Expect God to move
We have seen God’s faithfulness and we know that He is more than able to do exceedingly more than we could hope or imagine
There is always a gap between vision and resource in growing churches. And in a church the size of Gateway (which also has national and international responsibilities) there is a minimum resource requirement to maintain its operations. However, in recent months the gap between church needs (budget) and church giving (tithes and offerings) has significantly widened.
There are 4 major events that have combined to create a financial crisis for our church...
First, there is the ongoing negative impact of the Pandemic which has weakened the fabric of our church community (in attendance, serving, and giving).
Second, there is the growing uncertainty around the rising cost of living for families, so even though our church is growing in number, we are not growing in financial resource.
Third, unforeseen economic changes beyond our control have significantly affected church finances (eg. rising interest rates on our building mortgage; increases in Government Superannuation requirements; Award wage increases due to CPI; inflationary pressure on general church expenses).
Fourth, an unexpected change in settlement date of the factory (The Active Hub) has brought forward the need to fund the purchase by 12 months, depleting our cash reserves.
As church leadership we have been doing what we can to closely monitor and manage the gap but it has now gone beyond what we can do from our side only, which is why we are coming to the church. We need our church community to know so they can help bridge this gap.
As the gap between church needs and church giving widened, the Leadership team implemented several plans of action:
Budgeted expenditure beyond essentials has been put on hold; the budget has been revised down, and staffing levels have been reduced
Forward planning and growth projects have been postponed
The factory (The Active Hub) at 16A Heversham Drive has been sold to inject funds back into church operations (Gateway still maintains occupancy)
All tithes and offerings are closely managed and wisely allocated according to Annual Budgets approved by the Board.
Monitoring of church finances happens on a weekly basis and are reviewed by the Finance Committee each month.
For a breakdown of expenditure, our church financial statements are prepared annually, audited, and are publicly available via ACNC (or by contacting the Church office).
Church budgets are already at subsistence levels, and if our giving does not significantly increase by Christmas, we will need to make cuts to staffing and therefore cut basic programming.
This will limit our ability to spread the Gospel and expand the Kingdom of God, and ultimately change the shape of our ministry model.
The Church Board oversees all church operations, including financial management via the Finance Committee, and the Pastors and Directors Team. Gateway also has financial accountability with auditors and other external financial advisors.
Church Board Members:
Rick Paynter (Chairman)
Mark Ansell, Craig Reeves, Marcy Paynter (Directors)
Kerri Binks (Secretary)
Finance Committee:
Rick Paynter, Kerri Binks, Travis Whelan