A note from the treasurer...

The trees are bare and the days of 60 degree weather seem to be behind us. However, this is an exciting time at St. John's where all the programming is in full swing. And I must say that as the "budget warden," it is one of the most challenging times of the year! While history shows that giving "grows" toward the end of the calendar year, we also spend a lot of money for the sake of faithful, successful programming in the fall!

My concern? That we come as close as possible to "breaking even" at the end of the year. My dream? That we show a surplus at the end of the year! Our month of greatest giving, however, is December, and at the end of October we show a significant deficit that we need to overcome. In years past we have successfully ended the year on a good note despite the deficits we tend to see in October, and this success is all due to the congregation's faithful commitment to St. John's.

A budget team will soon be formed and numbers scrutinized as we prepare the 2007 budget. The budget will be approved at the Annual Meeting in February. In years past, the budget was approved in December and, thus, had to be established before we knew how the previous year had ended and what income was projected to be for the next year. Now that we approve the budget in February, if we end 2006 with a loss, we will take that into account as we budget for 2007. And having your estimates of giving (what we used to call "pledges") will help the budget team enormously when it comes to their work for next year.

So, what am I trying to say as Treasurer? I would like to stand up in front of the congregation next year and shout loudly that we not only broke even in 2006, we had funds to invest in new ministry & mission! I can do this with the continued support of our staff and the faithful commitment of the congregation to the ministry of St. John's.

- Ken Kamba, Council Treasurer