As you can imagine, planning a budget in the middle of the current circumstances has been quite a challenge. How do you plan for the future, when the status of future events seems to fluctuate from week to week. Even as we see promising signs that the pandemic is starting to lose its grip on our community, the economic and spiritual effects of being scattered for a year are going to stick with us for a while. So as we approach the 2021 Budget, we recognize:

1. This is simply a tool and a sheet of paper (or pixels on a screen). If we get to July or August and the church has experienced significant increases in attendance, then we will need to come back and revisit our budget plans.

2. The LORD ultimately has all the resources he needs to accomplish his plans. We as a church have the privilege of pooling our resources together to avail ourselves to the work that he is doing.

3. The members of CVBC were incredibly generous during 2020. Even with reduced capacities, online-only worship, and all of the disruptions of the last 12 months, church membership gave generously, funding over $660,000 of a $690,000 budget. To say the least, this was unexpected. It speaks to your faithfulness as a Body and we are thankful for you.

So please take some time to look over this proposal. We have included some commentary to anticipate any questions that you may have as you prayerfully consider this budget. We have included numbers from the last two years for comparison's sake. If you have any questions, please contact our finance committee chairman, Terry Massey. His email address is terry.massey@ameristride.com.

Missions

No significant changes in our mission endeavors. You will notice some changes in the "Account Titles." "Community Outreach" was renamed from "Trunk-or-Treat." It is hard to anticipate the possibility of Trunk-or-Treat simply due to volunteer availability. However, we do feel it is important to have funds available for Community Outreach efforts even if Trunk-or-Treat is not feasible.

Also, "International Mission Trip" was renamed from Uganda. We are exploring possibilities based on how the pandemic is progressing in other countries. It is important that we continue to be a people mobilized for missions, even if our efforts are kept closer to home.

Benevolent Causes has been increased simply due to the anticipation of economic fallout from the pandemic. We also expect that we will see a higher prevalence of unemployment in our community if the current administration's efforts to raise the minimum wage are successful.

Church Growth Ministries

We have made reductions in some of the line items from Church Growth Ministries due to the anticipated low participation rates during the first half of 2021.

For those ministries that have continued to operate throughout the pandemic, we did make an effort to maintain their funding at current levels. You will notice some reductions in "Next-Gen" ministry simply due to the cancellation of events.

Personnel Ministries

We do work to honor the privacy of our staff in terms of their salaries, but we do want to make you aware of a couple of changes in the Personnel section of our budget proposal.

First, our personnel team is actively looking for a person to serve as our permanent Kids Ministry Director. In the past, this has been a pastoral role, however, it has become very clear that this position, as it currently stands, can be filled by a part-time Director. Heather Carroll has been serving in this role in the interim. The ideal candidate would be an educator, so if you know anyone who is interested, please contact Pastor Brian or Larry Kisor.

Also, the pandemic has exposed a vulnerability for our church that the Personnel Team has requested that we address. In the event of a long-term illness of a member of our pastoral staff, the church really has no contingency plan in place for how to respond. On one hand, we as a church have a moral obligation to care for our pastors. 1 Timothy 5:17-18 says, "Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, 'You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,' and, 'The laborer deserves his wages.'" If one of our pastors became critically ill, we do not want to bring harm to them or their family by reducing their pay. However, the church only has limited resources. So we can't pay a pastor who is battling cancer while also paying someone to fill in during his absence. That may work for a season, but funding will become a problem.

To overcome this issue, the Personnel Team has asked that the church provide disability coverage to our pastoral team. That will allow for our team to continue to receive financial support AND will help to protect the church from unnecessary burden.

Operational Ministries

Changes in Operational Ministries are based on 2020 expenses and the anticipated expenses leading into 2021. Again, reduced capacity and fewer meetings reduce the overall cost of keeping the building open.