Hope Central Church 2015 Annual Report

Annual Report 2016

Submitted for the Annual Meeting;

Sunday, February 5, 2017

Seeking ultimate meaning, moving toward the heart of God, repairing the world.

Hope Central Church 2015 Annual Report

Table of Contents

Items for Congregational Vote 3

2017 Proposed Amendments to the Hope Central Church Bylaws 3

Separating Stewardship and Finance 3

A New Policy for Distribution of MJC Funds 4

Changing the Wording of Finances, Budget Process, and Tithing 4

2016 Slate of Candidates 5

Candidate Biographies 5

Leadership Circle 5

Nominating Committee 6

2017 Annual Budget Cover Letter 7

2017 Budget 9

Reports 12

Moderators’ Report 12

Pastor’s Report 13

Associate Pastor’s Report 15

Music Director’s Report 16

Clerk’s Report 17

Team Reports 19

Building Ministry Team Report 19

Called to Care 20

Discernment for Ordination Team 21

Finance Team Annual Report 22

P&L Statement 23

Hospitality Report 24

Ministry of Justice and Compassion Report 25

Nominating Team Report 27

Personnel Team Report 28

Racial justice Team Report 28

Rogerson House 29

Sacristans’ Report 29

Stewardship Report 30

Worship Planning Team 31

Appendix 33

Bylaws of Hope Central Church 33

Hope Central Church 2015 Annual Report

Items for Congregational Vote

2017 Proposed Amendments to the Hope Central Church Bylaws

Separating Stewardship and Finance

The current bylaws state:

VI. Standing Committees

A. The following are the committees required to be active in the congregational life of Hope Central Church.

iv. Stewardship and Finance Team: will be comprised of six Covenant Partners chosen by the Leadership Circle. Duties include:

a. Determining the total anticipated revenue each fiscal year and submitting to the Leadership Circle a budget based on anticipated revenues and the priorities of the church as submitted to the Leadership Circle by the various committees, staff, and ministries.

b. Organizing and facilitating an annual stewardship drive.

c. Taking responsibility for developing sound financial policies and procedures to be used by the church.

The proposed bylaw change would separate the two teams so that Stewardship can operate year around:

iv. Finance Team: will be comprised of six Covenant Partners approved by the Leadership Circle. Duties include:

b. Taking responsibility for developing sound financial policies and procedures to be used by the church.

v. Stewardship Team: will be comprised of six Covenant Partners approved by the Leadership Circle. Duties include:

a. Organizing and facilitating an annual stewardship drive.
b. Responsible for promoting year round stewardship awareness in the congregation.

A New Policy for Distribution of MJC Funds

Reason for clarification:

Historically, except in 2016, MJC has given away 10% of the current fiscal year’s pledge and plate donations. MJC allocates this money at the beginning of the fiscal year based on the year’s promised pledges and a budget estimate of the plate offerings. No attempt has ever been made at the end of the fiscal year to reconcile or adjust the MJC giving based on the actual plate and pledge offerings.

We propose:

A) That the MJC budget be based on 10% of an average of the prior three years’ pledge and plate offerings.

(B) MJC funds would be allocated on a quarterly basis. This allows us to ensure the any unused funds are released at the end of each year on December 31st. In the event that the MJC has not allocated all of the funds by the December Leadership Circle meeting, the Leadership Circle will determine the distribution of the remaining funds.

Changing the Wording of Finances, Budget Process, and Tithing

The current Bylaws:

X. Finances

B. Budget Process:

vi. A minimum of 10% of actual annual income will be tithed to Social Justice and Outreach ministries.

The proposed Bylaw change:

vi. A minimum of 10% of the average of the prior 3 years income will be tithed to social justice and outreach ministries.

Hope Central Church 2015 Annual Report

2016 Slate of Candidates

Leadership Circle: Kathy Hanlan

Rowell Levy

Sari Mauro

Ash Temin

Nominating Team: Nancy Doherty

Sue Harvey

Christine Storti

Candidate Biographies

Leadership Circle

Kathy Hanlan: Kathy is originally from New Jersey, came to Boston for college and stayed, and currently lives in JP. She is the Clinical Supervisor for Psychiatric Occupational Therapy at Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital. Kathy first visited Hope Central for Laura Ruth’s installation. She began worship here regularly several years ago and is a Covenant Partner. She serves on the Rogerson House team, Worship Planning, and as team leader for the Discernment for Ordination team. Kathy is also a sacristan and volunteers in the church school. Kathy loves her Irish roots,a cappella music, murder mysteries, kitties, laughter, spirituality, and trying to make a positive difference in the world.

Rowell Levey: Rowell is from Swampscott, MA. He was born and raised Jewish, and studied world religions in college. He worked in public education as an elementary school teacher and community organizer and is now a psychologist in Boston. Rowell and his wife, Sue Harvey, have two children: McKenna, 7, and Tavish, 5. Rowell and Sue lived in Jamaica Plain for 10 years until l last year when they moved to Newton. They deeply value and continue to nurture their ties to Jamaica Plain. Rowell came to Hope Church first 10 years ago for the weekly Buddhist Meditation Sitting. Later, his children attended the Mosaic Preschool. Over time for different reasons he and his family found themselves drawn upstairs to the church community-- where they now feel interwoven into the community. Rowell enjoys home maintenance projects, cooking, meditation, and is a lifelong student of personal growth and relationships.

Sari Mauro: Sari has been a covenant partner of Hope Central for a little over two years. She is a (former) pastor's kid, an archivist, a dog person (though she thinks cats are okay), and her favorite Avenger is Hawkeye. Her interests include cooking (okay, food in general), crochet, probably too many TV Shows, and in using online platforms to build and maintain relationships of mutual care across physical distance. Within the context of church her interests include the website (ask her how you can join the web team!), singing in choir, and what faith has to teach us about justice and what justice has to teach us about faith.

Ash Temin: Ash is originally from Texas but has called Boston home for 6 years, and she lives in Roslindale with her husband Marlo and an extremely loud cat. She works for Harvard Divinity School, from which she also holds a masters in divinity degree. Ash found her way to Hope Central just over a year ago and is continually grateful for the vibrant love and honesty of this community. She is also a writer and has a small practice as an Ayurvedic health and wellness counselor, and she loves to hike, cook, and explore the confluences between contemplative practice and activism.

Nominating Committee

Nancy Doherty: Nancy lives in Jamaica Plain, where she has owned a home since 1966. Nancy lives with her husband of 39 years. They have two adult children and two adult grandchildren. Nancy works for the Boston Public Schools and has worked in many areas of education, including working with immigrant, ESL, and special education students. In the 25 years Nancy has been a member of the church, she has served on many committees and teams, and has been Treasurer, Secretary, a member of the Nominating Committee, served on the Ministerial Support Group, and was a longtime council member of Central Congregation Church. Nancy was a past recipient of the Fast Track Grant to assist in her volunteer work in the Dominican Republic working with middle and high school girls.

Sue Harvey: A Philadelphia native, Sue spent ten years in JP and now lives in Newton. She works at Blue Cross, focusing on making health insurance understandable (!). Sue is married to Rowell Levy and is mother of McKenna and Tavish, who can often be seen at church in their pajamas, refusing to let go of Courtney. Sue wants to learn to knit, is always looking for a new mystery series to read, and believes in everyday miracles. Sue came to Hope Central for solace after the marathon bombings, and found the church home she didn’t know she was seeking. She is looking forward to giving back to the community that has given her so much.

Christine Storti: A native of Plettenberg, Germany, Christine moved to Boston in 2009 for work as a furniture conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In 2012, she met her husband David, and they got married in 2014. Since 2013, she has been a member of Hope Central Church. After three years of occasional volunteering, Christine is eager to become more involved in our church by taking on a role in the nominating committee.Christine loves the arts and enjoys cooking.

Hope Central Church 2015 Annual Report

2017 Annual Budget Cover Letter

Dear Beloved of Hope Central Church,

In accordance with our bylaws for the fiscal stewardship of our community, the Leadership Circle (LC), in conjunction with the Finance Team, presents the attached copy of the proposed budget for 2017.

The Finance Team and LC worked vigorously to formulate a budget that shows our financial responsibility as our congregation continues to move towards the vision of Hope Central Church as a nurturing, sustaining, and growing community. This 2017 budget continues to reflect the “true cost” of operating our growing church as we continue to focus on our Program Centered Congregation where in which the pastors set the vision with the Leadership Circle to past down to the various ministries, and the work of the congregation is done by the pastors, the staff, the lay people, each according to their gifts.

The “true cost” objective involved a critical and detailed review of the following areas: 1) review of our church employees including last raise received, 2) the cost of maintaining our church including the grounds and our ministries, 3) our renters, 4) the amount pledged by our congregation and plate offerings, and 5) sabbatical coverage costs. I will explain in detail these areas of review while walking you through the new 2017 budget.

We reviewed our employees’ pay including last noted raise with the guidance of our Personnel Team. Currently, we have the following paid staff: Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor, Building Manager, Church Administrator, Director of Music, 3 Musicians, Custodian, and Audio/Visual. This year, we increased the Senior Pastor, Associate Pastor, Building Manager, Director of Music, and Custodian’s salaries. We also included holiday pay for all employees and vacation coverage. This is significant work for us because we are continuing to move towards better reflecting the personnel costs based on the overwhelming amount of work our staff achieves. However, we have yet to reach our dream of having competitive livable wages for all of our employees. The chart below shows a breakout of what our Personnel wages.

The cost of maintaining our church including the grounds and our ministries encompasses the utilities, repairs and maintenance, religious education supplies, worship supplies, hospitality supplies, music ministry expenses, ministry of justice and compassion expenses, and administration expenses. The cost to maintain our grounds and provide our ministries with the tools they need to do the work within the Hope Central Church mission and vision were budgeted based on last year’s actual costs and new contracts which are detailed in the chart below.

The status of renters will increase in 2017 from 13 long-term renters to 18 renters. This is excellent news because we open ourselves to the potential of gaining more in rental income than in previous years. Also, we will continue to rent our 40 parking spaces at $70 per month and look to gain an additional $6,500 in 24 hour parking. Lisa Pilat, our Building Manager, works robustly to maximize our income for the space we have available, which has been consistently reflected in our actual rental numbers. We trust that we will continue to meet our expectations in this area. The chart below shows a breakout of what we believe, firmly, to be possible and what we must anticipate from a conservative viewpoint based on previous pay history.

The amount pledged by our congregation, this year, was $185,169. We had 68 pledging units compared to last year’s 72 units. We calculated our budgeted pledge income to be $180,849 using an average of the past three years’ pledge fulfillment percentages (2014-99%, 2015-102%, 2016-92%) multiplied by our 2017 pledge amount (97.67% x $185,619). Our fulfillment rate is based on the remaining balance pledged over the total pledged amount excluding any units that gave over their pledged amount. This year, our fulfillment rate was the lower than it had been in the past couple of years as well as the total pledged. In taking a closer look, in previous years, we ran a Capital Campaign, which we $42,697 a year in Furnace fund income based on 3-year commitment pledges. This campaign has ran its course and moving forward, we include the cost of the furnace payments into our operating budget which means that, in previous years, the total pledged including the Capital Campaign was well over $200K for roughly the same amount of pledging units. So in 2017, we are reflecting a decrease in the amount pledged that ultimately affects our bottom line. Plate offerings were budgeted at $13,400 based on a three year average ($14,400-2016, $14,400-2015, and $11,400-2014).Plate offerings are a best guest estimate as we assume the last year’s plate givers turn into pledging units in the following year.

Lastly, Laura Ruth will have a sabbatical lwavein 2017, per her contractual agreement. We must find coverage during that time, which we have budgeted $5K for. This includes Courtney’s increase in hours as well as any additional costs that may arise.

The pledge offerings combined with plate offerings and rental income comes to a total income of $362,584. We have budgeted for our expenses based upon the “true cost” of operating our growing church, which amounts in $406,026. This budget presents a net deficit of -$43,442. With the knowledge of this deficit, the LC as well as the congregation must commitment to looking towards all available options and avenues such as grants, increasing pledge amounts, and fundraising events.