Church Council – October 2017

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Church Council Updates

On Tuesday October 10th, our Boards, Committees and Church Council all met on one night. We start with a 30-minute Bible Study, broke out for Board and Committee meetings, and then Church Council came together for their meeting to close out the night.

This was the second time for the new meeting format. We have decided to start the meetings at 6:30pm from now on, on the second Tuesday of each week. It continues to be a great blessing – being in the Word together, consolidating our schedule and working together at the same time and place. Please keep our leadership, their work and our ministry in your prayers.

Attached you will find a summary of our Council Meeting Minutes. Please note that our Council Meeting have a new revised format and not the traditional format you may have seen in the past. This new format was adopted based on input from the WELS Grace In Action team that worked with our Council back in March 2017.

Resurrection & Life Lutheran Church Council Meeting – 2017_10_10_master

Also attached is a Financial Summary. This is a simplified summary view. When reviewing the Financial Summary, there are some key notes to understand as you are assessing our current outlook.

  • September Financial Summary shows School Tuition ahead of budget. This is due to some families selecting to pay a more significant amount of tuition up-front in the school year. This will average out over the full year. No issues relating to school tuition at this time.
  • The Duel Site Revenue is a summary of the various grants we have received in the past for the Life Site and the ECM (Early Childhood Ministry). This is currently on track. Going forward, the Finance committee decided to rename this line item from “4600 Dual Site Revenue” to “4600 Special Grants”. The dual site naming was a carryover from several year ago when we received a grant for our new dual site. This label change will make it easier to understand this specific line item in the summary report.
  • Offerings in the month of September are typically slightly less than normal month but tend to start showing an increase since we are moving out of the Summer month. We are showing our actual offering income down from where we have set our budget. We know members have been increasing their offerings to the pledge drive which is an awesome blessing. We also encourage members to consider increasing their offerings to the Unified Budget. We have been able to make our cash flow commitments, but will be monitoring this carefully over the next month. Please keep this in your prayers.
  • The Finance Committee is noticing more members are using the Simply Giving. We continue to encourage members to consider moving to the Simply Giving.  This is the program which you can electronically set up your offering giving. This helps our congregation see the offering income spread more equally across the year, as well as use us better forecast our full year outlook.
  • In looking at the year to year comparisons, it may look like our current year is running significantly behind last year. This is primarily due to $80,000 in offering income which ended up in July 2016 instead of June 2015. The end of June is the end of our fiscal year, so when we compare between the years, we need to account for this anomaly. So we were to adjust last year’s offering number, we are actually ahead what we received in offerings at this time last year.
  • From a compensation view, we will see some slight savings due to not have a full time School Principal. Currently Ron Helmers is providing part-time Principal support and Beth Laska was brought in this year as a supplement teacher helping out with the upper classes.
  • Currently, we have $13,964 in our Reserve Fund.

Draft 1 Page Financial Summary Sept2017

Overview from a financial outlook, we need to focus on our Unified Budget giving. Currently our actuals compared to the budget, we are starting to run behind in our monthly offerings; however, we are spending less than what we have budgeted. We are making our cash flow needs at this time (able to continue to pay our monthly bills), and we do have a bit left in the Reserve Fund. With that said, we encourage members to consider their regular offerings to ensure we meet the needs of support all the various Resurrection & Life Lutheran ministries and mission work.

If you have any questions, please contact Doug Broeren (Treasurer) or Daryl Schultz (President).

In Christ Alone,
Daryl Schultz, Resurrection & Life Lutheran President

Master Site Plan: OPEN FORUM Update (10/10/2017)

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Mission & Plans

On October 10th, we held an Open Forum for the Congregation to provide any additional input as well as ask questions about the proposed Master Site Plan for the Resurrection Campus. Attached is the handout from this meeting which outlined some of the comments received over the past three week, as well as questions that various members had.

RLL Open Forum Handout 2017_10_10

In addition to the discussion on the Master Site Plan, there were questions on the overall plans for both campus, school, and potentially a third site.  There were very good questions brought up by members. The discussion of the Master Site Plan has lead to a lot of good discussion on our various Ministries at Resurrection & Life Lutheran, plus the need to have an outline of our 10-year plan. The general feeling from feedback received is that there is still a priority to improve our entry and fellowship area at the Resurrection campus. Also, there is a need for expansion at the Life campus for Early Childhood education purposes (related to Monkey Junction during the week and additional space for Sunday morning education space). The Third Site discussion will be part of the RAMPART (Rochester Area Mission Planting Action Response Team) that is currently being focused on as a collaboration effort across all the area WELS congregations. There is also a strong desire to expand the Preschool, however, more planning will need to be done before formal plans are put into place for any school expansion.

After the Open Forum, the Church Council met to discuss next steps on the Master Site Plan. We agreed that a small committee would be assembled to outline our current Ministry Plans which we can associate to our 10-year plan for facilities improvements. This plan and options will be reviewed with our Leadership teams over the next month, and then will be shared with the congregation.

One final request, members are encouraged to keep this planning in their prayers. We ask God for his continued blessing on our congregation as we focus on “To win and nurture souls for Christ!”

In Christ Alone,
Daryl Schultz, Resurrection & Life Lutheran President

Master Site Plan: Resurrection Campus (Update 9/17/2017)

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Mission & Plans

Resurrection Campus Site Plan

On September 17th, a Master Site Plan update was presented to the congregation.  Here are the highlights of the presentation.  Please provide any feedback or questions you have on this Master Site Plan.

First, let’s take a step back to highlight how we got to this point of requesting a master site plan update.  Back in April 2015, our congregation conducted a Self Assessment and Analysis session with Pastor Eric Roecker.  There were various action items that we identified in this assessment.  Of these items, we recognized key areas that need to be addressed if we are going to thrive and grow in the years ahead:

  1. Parking at both locations
  2. Entry gathering space and restrooms at Resurrection
  3. Faith Night bible study space for small groups

A Facilities Committee was formed to investigate solutions to these needs.  In the Summer of 2017,  we also hired an architect to help the committee evaluate the needs and possible solutions.  Here is the prioritized list which the committee focused on over the Summer.

  • Refreshed Facilities Master Plan
  • Expand/Remodel Church Entry/Foyer
    • Create a more welcoming entry and expanded room for gathering/fellowship
  • Expand/Remodel Fellowship Hall
    • Fellowship Hall is multi-purpose room used for many activities; room has become overcrowd
  • Expand/Remodel Church/School side entry (area between the two)
    • Open up for better gathering areas for various school/church events
  • Re-purpose space for additional Classroom
    • Looking to potentially double Pre-School, so need additional classroom to juggle classroom space to accommodate
    • Remodel existing lunchroom area to turn into future classroom
  • Create additional meeting spaces for Faith Night breakout rooms

As the committee was reviewing the options, they wanted to ensure we had a quality master plan so we do not just add square footage that will later get in the way of a good overall plan.  Also, our committee determined within the first or second meeting that the objectives given to them could not be accomplished by simply renovating, so additional square footage would need to be added.

In looking at our financial outlook as a congregation, we just successfully completed paying off our school mortgage one year ahead of time!  Since Debt Reduction pledges are still coming, we converted the Debt Reduction fund to become the Facilities Debt & Capital Improvements Fund.  This currently is being use to pay our monthly Life campus mortgage.  We pay about $72,000 yearly, and currently have a principal balance of $670,000.  If we proceed with any building or expansion, we would launch a new pledge drive.

Regarding existing capital improvements for the year, we will be applying blacktop to the new sections of the Life campus parking lot.  The current outlook for the parking lot update is October 2017.  In addition, this year we would like to determine the direction we take regarding the possible improvements on the Resurrection campus.

In our 10-year plan, what we have been refering to as our Vision/Traction Organizer, we have other future expansion under consideration:

  • Life Site Expansion (Education Center and/or Worship Expansion)
  • Purchase property/space for Third Site worship location
  • Expand Kindergarten & Middle School as enrollment grows
  • Explore High School/Youth Education and Activities Opportunities

In all the planning that our Facilities Committee has put into this Master Site Plan and all the discussion we have had at the Church Council, we have kept our focus on congregation’s mission.  To Win and Nurture Souls for Christ!   It is great to have nice new facilities and spaces, but if they are not furthering our mission, then we need to ask why persue any changes to our Master Site Plan.  In looking at our Core Values, we believe these improvements which are being discussed clearly do help us with our “Connect’ value which is to continue to strengthen connecting with God and others through the study of his Word!  This also ties into more serve opportunities, giving generously, and sharing our faith with more people in our community by using our facilities.

The Master Site Plan has two options for considering how to open up the entryway and expand our Fellowship Hall.

Option 1: Full Remodel – Completely tear down the existing structure between the worship area and school/kitchen area.   Estimated Cost: $2.4M

Option 1

Full Remodel 3D Views

Option 2: Remodel Existing Structure and Expansion on Back – Estimated Cost $1.8M

Remodel on Existing

Remodel on Existing 3d Views

School Expansion & Kitchen Renovation – Options added to the overall Master Site Plan  School Addition Estimated Cost: $1.9M     Kitchen Renovation Estimated Cost: $337,054

Master Plan with School Kitchen optionj

Next Steps

Please provide feedback and post any questions you may have about the various site plan options as well as any of the future expansion under consideration in our 10-year plan.  Additional plan views will be in the entrance ways at the Resurrection and Life campuses.  There is an open forum scheduled for Tuesday, October 10 at 6:00pm

In Christ Alone, 

Daryl Schultz – Resurrection & Life Lutheran Church President

Church Council – September 2017

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Church Council Updates

On Tuesday September 12, our Boards, Committees and Church Council all met on one night. We start with a 30-minute Bible Study, broke out for Board and Committee meetings, and then Church Council came together for their meeting to close out the night.

We received a key presentation between the Board/Committee meetings and the Church Council meeting. Our Facilities Committee presented the initial master plans for our Resurrection Campus. We had some excellent feedback and discussion. We’re excited to share these plans with you on Sunday, September 17, after each worship service. We’re eager to hear your feedback, too.

The first night of this new meeting format went very well. It was a great blessing – being in the Word together, consolidating our schedule and working together at the same time and place. Please keep our leadership, their work and our ministry in your prayers.

Attached you will find a summary of our Council Meeting Minutes.  Please note that our Council Meeting have a new revised format and not the traditional format you may have seen in the past.  This new format was adopted based on input from the WELS Grace In Action team that worked with our Council back in March 2017.

Resurrection Life Lutheran Church Council Meeting – 2017_09_12 Congregation Update

Also attached is a Financial Summary. This is a simplified summary view. When reviewing the Financial Summary, there are some key notes to understand as you are assessing our current outlook.

  • August is the start of a new school year. Tuition is starting to come in, however, there are sometimes slight delays in the full payments showing up in the August statement. There is also a slight delay in reporting the actuals verse budget for the School Affiliate funding.
  • The Duel Site Revenue is a summary of the various grants we have received in the past for the Life Site and the ECM (Early Childhood Ministry). There are no more funds in the Life pledges as that was officially completed last year.  Also, the ECM grant is down to $25,000 this year. To date, we have not yet transferred any of the grant dollars to the UB income, but that will happen over the course of the year.
  • offerings in the month of August are typically slightly less than normal month due to it being a Summer month. We usually see an increase starting in the month of September. We do encourage members to consider moving to the Simply Giving. This is the program which you can electronically set up your offering giving. This helps our congregation see the offering income spread more equally across the year, as well as use us better forecast our full year outlook.
  • In looking at the year to year comparisons, it may look like our current year is running significantly behind last year. This is primarily due to $80,000 in offering income which ended up in July 2016 instead of June 2015. The end of June is the end of our fiscal year, so when we compare between the years, we need to account for this anomaly. So we were to adjust last year’s offering number, we are actually ahead what we received in offerings at this time last year.
  • From a compensation view, we will see some slight savings due to not have a full time School Principal. Currently Ron Helmers is providing part-time Principal support and Beth Laska was brought in this year as a supplement teacher helping out with the upper classes.
  • Currently, we have $16,691 in our Reserve Fund.

Overview from a financial outlook, there are no major issues we see this month. We will need to continue to monitor the School income over the coming months, especially the school affiliate support. We also encourage members to consider their regular offerings to ensure we meet the needs of support all the various Resurrection & Life Lutheran ministries and mission work.

Draft 1 Page Financial Summary Aug2017

Church Council – August 2017

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Church Council Updates

In August, the Church Council did not have a formal meeting. Action items and issues were shared amongst Council members during the month.  The attached August summary show an update to our scorecard information as well as our 90-day “Rocks” (which are quarterly objectives), and our open actions and issues.

Resurrection Life Lutheran Church Council Meeting – 2017_08_28