Hey Journey Church family!
We’re doing something a bit differently this year as we wrap up our fiscal year on May 31. We thought we’d give you a financial and budget update online in with the video above.
Everything that happens here and through our involvement with our global partners comes from the giving of those who attend The Journey, so thank you for your faithful giving! We couldn’t do what we do at The Journey, in our community, and around the world without you!
At The Journey, financial integrity is super important. We have set up systems and processes to protection of the dollars that you bring back to God so it's used for max impact. This is why we use accountability systems for our counting teams, work with an outside bonded and insured companies for our bookkeeping and payroll, and why we have an open books policy.
Every year our team puts together a budget that balances giving from the past year, projected giving, the needs of the church and the community, and a desire to be as lean as possible while still accomplishing significant impact. Most years we do not meet our budget. Although this means that some areas of ministry don’t get accomplished, we work hard to do what’s most important and tighten things up where we can.
We’ve been in a unique season of ministry with our All In Campaign as so many of you have faithfully given to The Journey’s general budget needs and given extra to the All In Campaign. We are grateful. This next year we are settling back into a normal budget pattern. With the unknowns of a new facility, we wanted to be as conservative as we could yet still looking to accomplish significant ministry, therefore we kept our budget almost unchanged from the previous year, actually lowering it a few thousand dollars. Would you pray with us that we will actually meet or exceed the budget in this coming year?
Our budget for this year is $655,000. That may seem like a lot of money but with around 650 people attending each week and well over 1000 people who call The Journey their church, this budget is lean. It's actually 15-25% less than most churches our size.
Our budget is broken into 4 major categories: Personnel, Operating Expenses, Facilities, and Outreach as you see in the charts below. Personnel includes our 10 staff members, insurances, taxes, etc.; operating expenses include everything it takes to run the day to day operations of The Journey including Journey Kids, Teens, Classes, office expenses; Facilities includes mortgage, utilities, maintenance, insurance. And outreach includes our partnerships in this community, helping other churches start and some of our Global Partners.
What isn’t included in our Outreach is the $94,000 a year that Journeyers give to Compassion child sponsorships – sponsoring over 200 children a month- and our Hope Christmas Project gifts to Global Partners. When you add those together with our $37,000 in our budget, together we are giving away over $150,000. Way to go Journey Church! We're so proud of your others-centeredness and commitment to those outside of the walls of this place.
We want to be a place that you can trust that your dollars are making a real difference. We are making a real, tangible impact because of you, our ministry and your giving so you can feel good about bringing back to God your gifts. We are so thankful for you and for your partnership. If you haven’t jumped in yet, we would love to have you partner with us & we could use your partnership. Please consider your next step in the giving process. We are praying for resources that would match our dreams for this community. Would you help us meet or exceed our budget this year? It’s a big goal, but one that can bring a big impact and change lives here, in this community and around the world.