Society Meeting 2022

State of Work

When we look back on 2022 for Compass Church, we saw a lot of change. I have been here now for 6 months, and in those 6 months we have seen some good things happen and still have some challenges we as a church need to pray through to see how God might be leading us.

Let’s first look at some of the positive things I feel happened in the last 6 months:

• We started a Children’s Church this fall!!! We are getting somewhere between 5-10 kids every week which is super exciting. Thank you to Jen Bessert and Marcia Jordahl for helping us start this and feeding into the lives of our kids.

•  We started a youth program with Bible Quizzing. Under the coaching of Matt Coakley, Harmony and Payton are doing well and are both really enjoying it.

•  I feel that Celebrate Recovery is one of the most fruitful ministries we have in our church. With the leadership of Kelly and Terry Justus they are seeing some really good things happen and have developed a great team as they meet every Thursday night.

•  I was really encouraged with our Midweek Bible Study we started in the fall. We had good participation and always good to study His Word together and pray for one another.

•  I am also encouraged with our weekly worship services. I feel we have a good service where people can come, get encouraged, get fed spiritually, and grow.

We have two main obstacles in our way that we will need to pray through and work through as a church, which are Saturday Night services and the mortgage of our building.

• Let’s first talk about the mortgage of the building. We made a smart decision with the Conferences help to take them up on the offer to freeze the Conference loan so we can put all that payment in the Foundation Loan which is a much higher interest so we can pay that off much sooner. Even though this plan is a great plan and helps us, we still are struggling financially with that mortgage payment. I will be starting up a task force strategy team that will be praying and strategizing through this. It is my goal to do whatever we can to grow and make things work in this church building, but the truth is we can’t continue to be a church of our size and still pay for this building. If God does ever call us to change buildings in the future, it will be ok because the building is NOT the church, WE ARE…and God will lead us through that.

• Now about Saturday Night services. I understand there are a handful of people that don’t love meeting on a Saturday Night, but the truth is we have to financially right now to maintain the cost of the building with the rent we get back for renting it out on Sunday mornings. Since we are one of the only services in Janesville on a Saturday night, let’s do whatever we can for now to use that so we can grow.

As we move forward together, we still need to stay focused on our vision at hand, to be a church devoted to prayer, fellowship, discipleship, and outreach. As I expressed before, if we truly do those four things well, we will be a healthy church that will grow. I am excited to see all the ways God will move in and through us in 2023.

Pastor Paul

Treasurer's Report

2023 Budget: The proposed 2023 budget of $309,397 was affirmed at the December 10 th Society Meeting. This is less than the budget for 2022. We remain dependent on rental income and memorial giving to make our budget.

Looking Toward the Future: The society was informed that if financials continue on the current trajectory, we expect to meet the 2023 budget with tithing, memorial giving, and the rent. Our scheduled memorial giving will end sometime in late 2023. To meet budget needs in 2024 we will need to continue renting and use up the memorial money in the long term fund. We project that we will no longer be able to sustain our ministry in this building by the end of 2024. Pastor Paul is planning to assemble a task force to look at our options.

However, we were reminded that this building is not THE church, WE are the church! And the building, our finances, and our lives all belong to the Lord! So no matter what building we worship in, we are the same church called to minister here in Janesville! Your tithes and offerings are a gift to God that we prayerfully use for that work, and for which we are thankful and appreciative. So do not be dismayed!

“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” Psalm 24:1 (NIV).

Cheri Coakley, Treasurer