We are updating the financial side of Stewardship in this newsletter. This will include three areas:
1. Update on our 2020 Financial Picture
2. The Paycheck Protection Program
3. Plans for 2021
First, the financial picture for 2020 is very encouraging. Through the first six months we are right on budget. This is the result of all our parishioners continuing to pay their pledges as we have spent the last 3 and ½ months with no services at the church but an excellent Sunday Zoom service and supporting meetings on Zoom. As of July 1, we are about $6,000 behind in income, primarily because of lower plate offering and less use of our building with the coronavirus. Our expenses are about $8,000 below budget with less use of our building and some anticipated projects on hold or delayed. Therefore, through the first six months of the year we are right on budget as our actual pledges are slightly ahead of the budgeted pledges. THANK YOU!!
As most of you know we were successful with obtaining a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan of $55,000 and as long as we account for this money correctly by keeping our staff in place we will not be required to pay back this loan. We are hoping this loan can offset our lower plate offerings and any lower pledges later in the year. You may be interested to know that 18 of the 24 Episcopal Churches in the High Plains Region have received the PPP loans for close to $1.1 million dollars. In the Episcopal Church in Colorado, 50 Churches have received the PPP along with the Office of the Bishop and three Diocesan Institutions (Brigit’s Village, Cathedral Ridge, and the Colorado Episcopal Service Corps) for total PPP loans totaling in excess of $2.7 million dollars. GREAT STORY!!
Finally, as we begin to make plans for our 2021 Stewardship program, we ask you to be open to our requests of our Good Shepherd family. This will be my last year working on the Stewardship Committee and you all have been generous and willing to support your Good Shepherd family financially in ways I could only dream about. We will be asking people to be Ambassadors on the Prayer Team and Speakers to our Good Shepherd family on what Stewardship means to them. We hope you will say yes when we call on you, just as you have said yes in the past. God Bless you all and thank you for your support and love over the years. THANK YOU!!
Jim Lee Wolfe for your Stewardship Committee and Team, Keith Anderson, DeeDee Atwood, Nan Behringer, Tom Billings, Rev. Gary Brower, Griffin Bridgers, Andy Folkerth, and Anne McMahon.