This past week you should have received your end of year contribution report from ABC’s Finance Office. We recently upgraded our church database system, and our new software now allows us to send those documents via email. If you did not receive your email, or if you need a hard copy, please email Jennifer Koret and our team would be happy to assist you.
As I look back to 2023, I am blown away by God’s provision to our church. In total, ABC received over $6.5 million in total contributions. That total includes our general fund contributions, but it also includes nearly $1.3 million in designated gifts for debt retirement. I am happy to announce that those designated gifts have now accelerated our debt payoff schedule.
We now carry about $5.5 million in total debt as a church. This is a remarkable number considering that our church has paid over $25 million in principal and interest since 2010. That $5.5 million in remaining debt is carried across two notes, one of which (a floating rate note) is now down to about $240k on the balance. By God’s grace, we plan to pay off that note by this summer, which will leave our church with about $5 million remaining in debt on one note.
I write this report to celebrate this remarkable progress and to publicly give glory to God! But I also give thanks to each of you for your faithful stewardship. Your general fund contributions not only finance all the ministries of our church, but 18% of those general fund gifts help us pay down our debt. I encourage you to continue to give your tithes to our general fund this year as those gifts fuel all the ministries and operations of our church.
However, I also encourage you to prayerfully consider giving an offering above your tithes towards the debt this year. Eliminating this debt should matter to each of us because it will open up new doors to impactful ministry. As stated earlier, 18% of our general budget currently goes toward debt payments. Imagine the ministries and missions that our church could begin to fund if that money was freed up each year! Eliminating this debt will help our church become even more impactful in our mission “to lead people into a life-changing relationship with the Light of the World, Jesus Christ.”
May each of us continue to do our part to cultivate a culture of generosity here at ABC. “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).
Onward and upward,
Jonathan Spencer
www.jonathanspencer.org 