20. Gettin' the Hang of It.

Year End Reports are done. Check out begins in five hours. I should go to bed, but experience has shown that after pouring over paperwork for hours on end--despite being boring and tedious--it tends to get my mind racing too quickly to fall right asleep. It was interesting to see how 2008 compared to 2009. Here's what I found out:

We audited the rolls this year and we got the numbers down from 94 to 65. Seven transferred and the others withdrew their membership after being contacted. Most of these should have been done several pastors ago.

We have three in confirmation, three adults joined by transfer, and three were baptised (two infants and a 2nd grader). We have 32 baptized preperatory members (this is UMC code meaning kids).

Somehow we've lowered our expenses by about $10,000. It came mostly out of programing, but our general operating expenses also dropped. With the programing, I think its from an effort to cut what we don't need and being more creative with our existing resources. There's a lot of borrowing used material from other congregations this year, too. I think we spent less than $100 on VBS, yet we went all out. We upgraded to timed thermostats, and I think that has drastically reduced our electic and gas bills.

For you UM church nerds, all of this means a smaller apportionment decimal for this congregation in a couple of years.

Giving was up, too. That may have something to do with average attendance jumping from 31 in 2007 to 42 in 2008. It may be from our first-ever capital funds campaign that we ran in November of 2007. Or maybe its just the fruit of Spirit.

People engaged in various programs went up about 15 people this year from 60 to 75. It'd be higher if the women's group was still meeting. We have two more Sunday school classes than last year and the youth group is now a year old.

I'm getting the hang of pastoring at Como UMC, and the never ending stream of paperwork that comes down from the Anual Conference. I pray that this year is as fruitful as the last. Thanks be to God!