Please share this information with the appropriate leaders and staff in your congregation. There is a new requirement for overtime that goes into effect on December 1, 2016. It is important for all churches to be aware of the new law. This law will affect nursery schools and day care centers that are owned by...
November 22, 2016
New FLSA Requirements for Churches
Please share this information with the appropriate leaders and staff in your congregation. There is a new requirement for overtime that goes into effect on December 1, 2016. It is important for all churches to be aware of the new law. This law will affect nursery schools and day care centers that are owned by...
May 9, 2015
Congregational Giving Continues to Increase
Congregations’ mission support giving to and through the synod has been on a slight increase since 2012, Treasurer Janet Huber Neff, CPA, told the Assembly. In 2014, 81 of the synod’s 157 congregations maintained or increased their mission support, of which 50 percent is offered as support to the ELCA churchwide organization. Neff said as...
February 19, 2015
Thank You! For Mission Support
Thanks to the generosity of many of our congregations, there was an increase in 2014 in Mission Support for Synod and Churchwide ministry after years of declining or flat support. Mission Support from congregations totaled $2,148,000 — $48,000 over budget and $10,000 more than 2013, but still well below the $2.7 million received in 2006....
May 8, 2014
2015 Budget Approved Unanimously
The Synod Assembly unanimously approved a $3.14 million budget for 2015, which anticipates flat income from Mission Support and a $224,000 shortfall. Congregations’ Mission Support giving held steady in 2013 after declining at a rate of 4 percent annually since the 1980s, said the Rev. Karl Richard, finance committee chair. The new budget holds the...
May 2, 2014
Mission Support Stabilizes
Financial support from the 159 congregations within the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod was up slightly in 2013, to $2.139 million, allowing for continued support of the new faith communities and programs that are at the core of SEPA’s mission. After almost a decade of declining giving, Mission Support grew slightly, yet noticeably, last year, drawing praise...
January 29, 2014
It Pays to Collaborate
The 11 congregations of the Northeast Philadelphia Conference saved over $16,000 during a six-month period by working collaboratively to purchase insurance through one agency then negotiated with an insurance company on their behalf. “The pastors would do text studies and then talk about how they saw their congregations struggling to be sustainable and thrive,” said...
May 9, 2013
Balanced Budget Approved
The 2013 Assembly approved a balanced budget for fiscal 2014 that includes sending 50 percent of partnership support received to the churchwide organization. “We are committed to being a robust, changing church, but not a diminished one,” finance committee chair Rev. Christopher Weidner told the Assembly. Weidner called his presentation “Being the Church with Dollars...
May 4, 2012
Surplus 2013 Budget Approved
The Assembly overwhelmingly approved a 2013 budget that calls for ending the year with a surplus of approximately $10,000. The budget anticipates income of $2.26 million in partnership support from congregations and $1.36 million in additional income, with expenses of $3.61 million. The Rev. Christopher Widener, finance committee chair, outlined the committee’s guiding principles in...
