2025 Financial Narrative

2nd Quarter, 2025

Welcome to the quarterly Money Matters – where we hope to share with you the way that your giving – giving of time, resources, and money – impacts the ministries we do here at Elk Grove UMC. Every dollar is connected to ministry. Every volunteer gives their time and their spiritual gifts to support ministries relationally. In essence, we would not be able to be the hands and feet of Jesus without you! We hope this helps you to continue to prayerfully consider your gifts to EGUMC.

In this email, you will find a brief narrative of the Second Quarter of 2025 (April-June) with a few items that are also present in the Third Quarter (July-September). Please look for Quarter 3 narrative in late October.

Over the past few months, we have accomplished many things.

First, our roof repair, which was started in June, is now complete. What started out as a 1-week job turned into 1.5 months, and on July 16th, the City Building Inspector gave a final inspection and saw that it was good! It is important to note that this repair was necessary, and we are now ensuring the longevity of our facility space for the next 30 years. Thank you to our amazing trustees for getting this project taken care of as quickly as possible, even with delays, and especially for Juan Fernandez and his work with the City, Giles Popish who came out regularly to work with the crew and the City, and Dana Badley with the help of Bruce McKinnie for covering up all the equipment the many times that we thought work would be done. Additionally, thank you to ALL the volunteers who helped clean the sanctuary during the initial mess from removing the old roof. Next Money Matters will focus on other updates finished in July and August!

What follows is a Narrative Financial Statement that will go over more highlights of all that we have accomplished in the 2nd Quarter of 2025 and how your giving has made an impact now and for the future!

And finally, one important bit of information to note – on July 27th, we announced that MaryAnn Blohm-Craig has agreed to take on the task of Treasurer for 2026. There is a lot of training to be done for this, so she has begun training with Mary Popish and will continue throughout the end of the year. We are thrilled to have MaryAnn on the Team!

Blessings,
Pastor April

EGUMC Mission

To spread God’s unconditional love and Jesus’ teaching to love our neighbors through our faith and work in the Elk Grove community.

Missional Area Highlights in THIS narrative

 

Children, Youth, and Families

Every quarter we will highlight our work with Children, Youth, and Families, because this was one of our primary goal areas identified in 2024. By focusing on young people and families, we are focusing on the whole church, thriving and growing into the future.

Our Sunday School program ended for the school year in May and teachers are already gearing up for the 2025-2026 school year, which will begin on September 7th. It takes approximately 10 adults to run our Sunday School program every Sunday, and there are a variety of ways that one can volunteer. In fact, each year, we hold a training for Sunday School volunteers, and even if you cannot attend that training, you can help as a volunteer in any classroom, help with our sign-in process, or support our ministry in other ways. At the Church of the Resurrection Leadership Conference in September 2024, one speaker noted that if you are a member of a church with children, then you are already a part of a children’s ministry – just by your presence. It takes a village to grow our young people into caring individuals who will stand for justice and love the way Christ would, and you can be a part!

In the 2024-2025 Sunday School year, we logged over 360 hours in volunteer hours alone for our Sunday School ministry!

And if you missed it, the June Young People’s Sunday was probably the pinnacle of the 2nd Quarter. The story of Jesus flipping over the tables of the money changers in the temple is probably the theme scripture for our Sunday School kids, and they enjoyed sharing that story with the entire congregation. Our next Young People’s Sunday will be in August!

Throughout 2024 and 2025, we have been raising money for 6 youth and 3 adults to attend Sierra Service Project (SSP). The cost of the trip was $700 per person, and each participant contributed their own deposit and the remainder of the funds were raised through our Youth Auction Fundraiser, our Loose Plate donations and the Art Fundraiser. In mid-July, they left for Crescent City in Del Norte County, the most northern area in the state of California, to build, paint, and do work for the community and native tribes in the area. The youth will be giving a report on Young People’s Sunday in August.

In this area, we raised over $5,000 to help send youth to Sierra Service Project and received a $5,000 grant to provide childcare for the Parent’s Collaborative.

Pictured: SSP participants, July 2025.

Ministries Outside the Walls

April-June saw a push for support of our covenant ministries with Katherine Parker in the nation of Nepal. Each year, we agree to support her with an amount of $10/member, which for 2024-2025 calculated out to $2100. Unfortunately, we did not quite meet our goal this year. Our total giving from August 2024-mid July 2025 is $1744. That’s 83% of our goal. However, due to a generous memorial donation, we were able to make up the remaining 17% and fulfill our covenant with Katherine Parker for 2024-2025. In August, we will discuss our ongoing efforts in this area of global ministries.

Pictured – Katherine Parker, Nepalese Missionary.

Community Ministries

The Saturday Morning Breakfast ministry continues to go strong, even in the Summer months, where volunteers are hard to find and attendance is low due to vacations. Thanks to the many people who contribute in some way to this ministry, we are able to fee people – not only physically, but spiritually and emotionally as well. This breakfast is for ANYONE in need – the lonely, the lost, the broken hearted, the financially burdened, the houseless. It’s also for those who appear to have it all, but deep down know that they need community too. This means it’s for you! Even if you cannot volunteer, even if you cannot give financially, please consider attending this breakfast, bringing a friend, and maybe making a few more in the process. This program is funded by a grant from the City of Elk Grove, which we received more for the upcoming year, as well as donations from this church and the wider community. Volunteer hours make up over 900 hours each year!

Qmunity

June was Pride month, but here at EGUMC, we celebrate Pride all year round, it’s just extra joyful in June! Qmunity sponsored a special fellowship hour, we participated in Elk Grove Pride, and supported our 2nd Drag Story Hour. Each time we go out into the community in this way, someone sees that there is another way to live in Christ – that you can be queer, and ally, and Christian. That Jesus not only encouraged us to love our neighbor, which includes our Queer neighbor, but that Jesus also included all of us at the table, that grace is for all, not for a select few. The Qmunity leadership team meets monthly and is fully funded by special giving.

General Operating Finances

The majority of the above focus ministries of the Church for this 2nd Quarter are not attached to our General Operating Spending. The exception is some of our young people’s ministries. When it comes to the general operations of the church, we rely on your generous giving without restrictions or designation. This means any regular monthly and annual donations, also known as tithing in scripture, allow us to create a spending plan that supports Connectional Ministries, Worship, Family Ministries, Facilities maintenance and Support Services, and overall needs. Many other Non-Profits might call this overhead, for us, it is the general operating functions of what we do in the Elk Grove Area. Below is what we have spent in these areas and what operating function is included for each ministry area. For a more detailed list of finances, like the exact amount used for utilities, insurance, curriculum, etc. Please contact our Finance Committee to receive a detailed financial report. You can do that by attending our Finance meetings, send an email to finance@elkgroveumc.org or attending our next “money talk” during worship and fellowship time on September 7th. If you would like to help us work on the spending plan for 2026, we will have a workshop on November 9th. More information on that to come soon.

Spending Plan – January– June 2025

Connectional Ministries – Includes tithing to the Annual Conference – $15,564

Worship – Includes music, worship supplies, upper room devotionals – $24,807

Family Ministries – Includes leadership training, Christian Education materials, Hospitality and Youth/Young Adult ministries – $12,182

Support Services – Includes facilities maintenance, custodial, communications and utilities. $41,763

Support for ALL areas – Includes Payroll taxes and Administrative Assistant and Pastor’s Salary. $80,427