On Sunday, January 31, Bethlehem’s congregation gathered for our first All-Church Quarterly Strategy Meeting that included all-church and campus-specific segments. Below are highlights from the all-church portion of the meeting. Highlights from the campus-specific segments will be posted when they are prepared.

Meeting Highlights

• Welcome and Opening Remarks on Bethlehem’s 150th Anniversary
• All-Church Membership Report
• “Fill These Cities: 25 x ’25” Updates
• Treasurer’s Report
• Presentation and Vote on 2021 Operating Budget
• New Business

All-Church Membership Report

Pastor Ken Currie gave the all-church membership report. We began the meeting with 2,573 members.

At the end of the December 13 Annual Meeting, the membership stood at 2,536. Since that time, 38 new members have been added. One member was removed due to a discrepancy in our membership records.

The details of the membership changes at the Downtown, North, and South Campus meetings will be included in a future update.

‘Fill These Cities: 25 x ’25’ Updates

Global Outreach Report

Pastor Brad Nelson shared an update on the current Global Outreach pastoral staff, staff assistants, and ministerial coordinators. Last year, 15 global partners came off the field, and nine  global partners were commissioned. In total, we have 112 Global Partner “units” in 44 countries: 205 adults, 227 children.

Church Planting Report 

Pastor Kenny Stokes shared an update via video greeting to highlight the recent seminar for church planters in California, a prayer request and update for Adam & Molly Pohlman (church planters in Rochester, Minnesota), and a video update from Ryan Eagy and Table Rock Church in Boise, Idaho.

As many have been praying for the Pohlmans, Adam & Molly’s son Ethan was born on Saturday, January 30, and is more stable than anticipated. They are enjoying time together as Ethan’s heart is monitored for surgery options.

Treasurer’s Report

Tim Brinkmann presented the Treasurer’s Report with details on the 4th quarter of 2020 and a summary of the year.

Summary of Fourth Quarter 2020

Giving was $2.90M

• Down $577K when compared to Q4 2019 giving (-16.6%)

Spending was $2.80M

• Down $65K when compared to Q4 2019 spending

Giving exceeded spending by $100K

• In Q4 2019 giving exceeded spending by $612k

2020 Summary

Giving was $9.33M

• Down $968K when compared to 2019 (-9.4%)
• $1.07M below 2020 budgeted giving of $10.4M (-10.3%)

Spending was $9.95M

• Down $235K when compared to 2019 (-2.3%)
• $448K below 2020 budgeted spending of $10.4M (-4.3%)

Spending exceeded giving by $619K (before PPP Grant)

• In 2019 December YTD giving exceeded spending by $111K

Presentation and Vote on 2021 Operating Budget

Pastor Jon Grano presented the 2021 “Fill These Cities: 25 x ’25” Operating Budget overview and summary with the following motion: “The Council of Elders recommended at their 11/3/2020 meeting a 2021 ‘Fill These Cities: 25 x ’25’ operating budget of $10,200,000 for the congregation to approve at the Winter Quarterly Strategy meeting on January 31, 2021.”

The budget motion was approved by the assembly.

New Business

Two new motions were made, both by Downtown Campus members. The first was tabled for discussion at the next All-Church Quarterly Strategy Meeting. The second requested that the elders share a report that was drafted for them by the Ethnic Harmony Task Force, which they commissioned in early 2019. 

Update From the Elders: The elders are gathering for a summit this upcoming weekend (February 5–6) on ethnic harmony—please pray for us! This summit is part of our response to this Ethnic Harmony report. The summit had been planned for the latter part of 2020, but has been rescheduled twice because of COVID-19. We are very grateful that we are able to proceed at this time. The elders are eager to share with the congregation the report and outcome of our summit.

Thanks to Church Clerk Bobby Ratliff for his assistance in preparing this update.