Finance Report

As you can see from the Financial Report Summary below, Lakeview UMC had some disappointing results in October, as the monthly income was a little over $11,000 below what the Church needed to operate for the month and this caused the Year-to-Date to slip further negative a little less than $45,600.

Before anyone gets too excited about the negative numbers, let me break them down into some pieces that will help everyone understand where we are having difficulty with income. For Pledges that people made for the year 2019 (like we are currently doing for 2020), the income for the month is very close to what was expected and Non Committed Pledges are actually about $3,000 more than we expected and this is very good.

Where we fell short is in Loose Plate Offerings (people giving cash but are not taking any recognition for the amount given). This is where we are having a short fall of about $12,000 Year-to-Date and since we do not know who these people are, we must trust God to bring this back up.

The other area is, as I said last month we are about 5% behind in the pledged envelops and we have not seen that recover yet. But as I said before, 95% of the pledges are being honored and that is very good. Please do not be too hard on these 5% people as there could be very valid reasons why they cannot give what they said they would. Sometimes, like in my case, my wife, Ruth Ellen passed away in December 2018, therefore, I could say to the Church that since her income went away, I will give only based on my current income. But I believe in the work that the Church is doing through “Our Mission – Changing Lives: Caring for Mind, Body, and Soul,” therefore, I am going to pay the portion of Ruth Ellen pledge for 2019, ever though it will be a stretch, but I am trusting God to honor my finances since I am honoring what Ruth Ellen and I pledged for 2019. Now some people cannot do that and I understand but I am sure that God will continue to help our Church to cover all our 2019 expenses before the end of 2019.

The other area where the Church is falling behind, as I mentioned last month is Interest and Dividends, this is the biggest portion of the short fall, it is about $27,000 of $45,600 that the Church is behind Year-to-Date. While it was the right decision to make changes to the Church’s investment plan earlier this year, because it has saved the Church about $10,000 in Investment Management Fees, the buildup of interest and income from the new portfolio takes time to cycle and this is where we are right now. I am hopeful that soon we will see some Interest and Investment Income being added to the Church’s income.

One last area, the Church and all the Departments within the Church are continuing to do a great job of keeping expenses in check. Year-to-Date expenses are running about $25,000 less than budget and this really helps. Now before anyone starts adding all the numbers together, I want you to know that I just only picked a few key areas to highlight, especially areas where our people can have the most input to making everything work. If anyone wants to have more detail, please call or see me.

We are all working together and doing a great job, if you have the funds to help a little more than what you had originally planned on, this is the time to help, we are in the home stretch, we only have about a month before the year-end and I do believe we can end the year in the black, with God’s help and our good people at Lakeview UMC. I am continuing to ask everyone at Lakeview to pray for God’s Word to be fulfilled so that

“Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7).

I do believe we have cheerful givers at Lakeview. So continue to pray for God’s guidance, give what is in your heart to give, and God’s Blessings to All.

 Eli Reeves, Finance Chairperson

Financial Report