Judging by the attendance at our AGM, these could well be the 3 most unappealing letters in the English language – at least when placed side-by-side!
But we thought it’d be worth updating you on what was covered just so that everyone’s in the know…
We began the AGM with a summary of 2010 and then with a peek into the future, looking at the vision that Leadership Team has established for the next 5 years or so at Southern Cross. At the heart of that vision is the transition to forming our structures around gospel communities (GCs). We anticipate this shift will, in God’s grace, lead to substantial growth in our mission and it’s fruit. In order to cater for this growth and to meet the needs of SCPC, our plan is to add 3 extra staff over the next 5 years, starting with a women’s worker, followed by some admin support and finally a full-time youth pastor.
Obviously that sort of increase in staff will mean a significant increase in costs and so we continue to encourage generosity towards our mission from existing members. We also expect giving to increase as more and more people come under the Lordship of Christ and “put their money where their heart is” (cf. Matthew 6:21). This year we are aiming for a 20% increase in giving in order to cover all our budgeted costs. The main increase this year is due to employing Stew as a full-time pastor. The members of Leadership Team, wanting to lead our church in generosity, have decided to personally increase their giving in 2011 by 20%. We hope this encourages others to consider their ability to grow in this grace of giving.
Another important decision was to increase our giving to non-SCPC ministries over the next several years to reach a minimum of 10% of our total income from giving. In other words, we believe that recognising God’s generosity to us should result in us being generous towards others. I hope you’ll share our enthusiasm about being a church that celebrates God’s goodness in this way.
Well, that’s about it for the AGM update. Hope it didn’t put you to sleep! I’m sure it didn’t because the reality is that God is doing great things to grow his kingdom through our church and the AGM was yet another great reminder of that. Maybe next year you could come along!
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