Many of you have been praying about the renewal of our lease at Fair Oaks Point. I spoke with Mr. Cemo last week.
As we talked about our lease, Mr. Cemo made it very clear that he and his partner were not able to lower our lease payments. They are losing money on the center due to numerous vacancies, but we are not . . . paying our way either. He said if all the offices/spaces were full, then they could afford to be more understanding of our situation. The bottom line is that we will continue to pay $11,000 per month for our facilities.
Currently our financial picture is not a good one. Currently we have a $6,000 deficit and if the offerings due not increase, we will go deeper in the hole, to the place where we can no longer pay our bills. We are making as many cuts as we can, trimming back on everything.
We have three sources of possible income:
1. Regular giving.
We really encourage you to increase your giving if at all possible.
You can see in the bulletin each week, how we are doing.
2. We can increase our attendance. This is a must. Currently our weekly average is just under 200. In order to be viable as a church at Fair Oaks Point we need to have about 300 in attendance. The number one reason new people come to church is because they are invited by a friend. 85% of those invited will come at least once.
Be proactive in handing our a brochure and inviting people you know to come to Pathway. When they come, greet them, stay with them and introduce them to other folks.
3. Life Group & Care Ministry: The only way we can keep people once they come is to get them involved with other folks in the church. This can happen through ministry efforts, church events, small group activity, and our care team ministry. Relationship is the key ingredient. Small groups are essential to our growth. Everyone needs to be involved in a life-group. If you are interested in getting involved with either of these ministries, contact Wes@hispathway.org.
4. Fundraising is the other component. I can’t stress to you enough how very important it is to support our fundraising efforts. The up coming “car wash” and “Fireworks Booth” are two critical efforts.
Solid fund raising, with high profitability, can make up for the monthly deficit.
5. Recently we discovered that our name & logo do not communicate that we are a church. People are always asking “What is Pathway?” We have been here for one year now, and it is not obvious to the people in our community that we are a church. We are working on correcting that problem. The plans are in the works to increase our visibility as a “Church”. This will surely increase our visitor number.
We believe that God has called us to this site for a reason and a purpose.
We have just survived a brutal 1st year, so very difficult in a number of ways. But we are still here, a strong vibrant church. It is a great fellowship. I encourage you to pray, pray, and then pray some more about our financial shortfall.
Let’s all work together to grow, overcome this deficit, and expand our ministry.
Blessings, Mike
