I heard somewhere that our leaders are considering changes in our annual financial reports to better reflect what missional churches spend on "congregational purposes" and missional work. I hope so.
Our congregation, for instance, reported something like $10,000 being spent on RCA missions, assessments, and non-RCA causes. We reported something like $200,000 spent on "congregational purposes."
The current catagories do not take into effect over half of our Youth and Outreach Pastor's time ($16,000) spent with "at risk" youth who don't come to church and would not have any contact with the gospel in any other way.
Neither does our current reporting take into account the half of my salary and benefits ($36,000) formally dedicated in my call to community work, i.e. Pomona Youth and Family Master Plan, Weed and Seed, Neighborhood Improvement Task Force, Pomona Cultural Equity and Race Relations Workgroup, vigils and pastoral care to families and communities which are victims of violence, and numerous other collaborative involvement in which we represent Christ and Christ's Church.
Our method now does not take into effect the 5/7 days we turn on the lights and run the air for our on Campus Community Center. It doesn't factor in the $13,000 in grant money that we use to staff our Casa Grande Neighborhood Center in a nearby apartment complex plagued with drugs, blight, crime, and violence nor the $9000 annual rent for an apartment to serve as the center.
We estimate that about half of what we spend on "congregational purposes" is spent on missional efforts to "touch and transform lives and communities" in at-risk areas so loved by God.
Kudos to those who may be thinking about ways to reflect/measure our commitments to local missional efforts.
