2021 In Review
In custom, the beginning of a new year is a time to do planning for the coming year of ministry. It is also a time to review where we have been. Just as the Scriptures affirm that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, it is appropriate that we look at where we have been, where we are, and where God is leading us. Let me offer some humble thoughts and reflections.
COVID: The global pandemic that broke out in February of 2020 has changed "life as we know it." We have learned how to navigate this environment by (a) humbly honoring the priority of keeping people safe and (b) still providing the vital ministry and changing lives. Our continued prayers and support go out to families negatively impacted, as so many have been. Nevertheless, balancing the risk of exposure in our everyday lives remains.
Our Child Enrichment Center has been most impacted by COVID. It is a miracle (not an exaggeration) that this ministry has stayed open and available for families who depend on us. Long's Chapel staff, leaders, and families have been so patient and faithful in managing the changing requirements. I can't say "thank you" enough on behalf of our working families who depend on this care for their livelihood. It's a holy privilege to surround these young ones with the love of Jesus during weekdays.
COVID has altered patterns within our church, but the pathways to vital ministry have remained. If you recall, we closed the inside of our campus early on in the pandemic for several weeks and transitioned to "tent and car church." In 2021, that flexibility remained. We meet hundreds weekly on the worship live streams to engage people in on-campus activities. ZOOM education seminars helped many of our small groups stay vital - and some are still hybrid meeting groups to catch people in different locations.
WORSHIP & SMALL GROUPS: We continue to engage more and more folks each week in worship and discipleship through small groups and worship services. We have also had a steady stream of new and younger visitors exploring their faith. Long’s Chapel is unique in that we have so many different generations, diverse backgrounds, geography, and life experiences. Folks from every segment of our community connect to Reach, Grow, and Serve here – which is a beautiful thing. It is worth noting that engagement and attendance at every level grew last year - especially in the areas of children’s and student ministry. We’re excited to also have Wednesday nights back in 2022 (midweek has been amazing - doubling in those attending just in the last 2 weeks)! We encourage you and your families to come to be a part of Acts 2:42 dinners and small groups on Wednesday night. There is something for everyone to take part in. And you gotta eat anyway, right?
Finance Update: Given all the things pushing against us last year, 2021 was supernatural. Your financial faithfulness and generosity are a story to celebrate. In 2021, we functioned on a “faith-based budget.” We did a bit of stretching together. Here are some results: Total giving for 2021 (designated, building, and mission/ministry) was $2.04M. The Mission & Ministry budget's giving increased by 9.1% in 2021, leaving a surplus of approximately $20K at the end of the year. Revenue not reflected in those numbers: $77K of donations/grants/fundraisers for The Open Door and Second Blessing had sales of $211K - all of which supported the mobile food mission.
The impact you have had on- and off-campus is changing lives and changing stories of families to the Glory of God. That impact includes:
Mobile meals through The Open Door Ministry.
Shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.
Jail Ministry.
Supporting local mission partners like Haywood Pathways Center, Haywood Christian Ministries, Pigeon Center, Camp Ability, Christmas Angels and Life Works.
Congregational Care.
Equipping leaders and servants in Long's Chapel to live out their faith and gifts.
Regular worship offerings meant to connect us to the Holy Spirit.
Supporting families trying to navigate their way through these exciting times.
Our building is being used as a Spiritual Center for our county and community.
Adding back on-campus activities along with virtual options.
Providing coordination and space for Restore Haywood and the United Methodist Committee on Relief response to Hurricane Fred (you provided meals and needed supplies for residents, volunteers, and disaster civil servants).
New families of all ages.
Significant growth in our Modern Worship experience.
We are blessed to have such amazing congregants, leaders, and staff.
EACH: We are still fighting the good fight of ending child homelessness in Jesus' name by operating a church-owned duplex in Jonathan Creek for transitional housing. In 2021 - you supported five families. EACH is no longer a ministry partner. An internal ministry named Phoenix is taking over the cause with a partnership with Haywood Pathways Center to help case-manage families we serve. (Our first flood surviving family just moved in this past week under the new program - Praise God!)
Despite the unrest in the United Methodist denomination related to identity, we have stayed the course to lead with love and honor our historical Wesleyan faith grounded in the grace of Jesus Christ. Scripture is still inspired and relevant, and the deep-reaching hands that offer the broadness of God's mercy to ALL are our compass. All people matter to God.
Renovations and Building Stuff: Our Building and Grounds Team, led by Dean McMahon in 2021, was phenomenal. After concluding the Imagine... building project, it has been a priority to transform a space for our older children. The old "Fellowship Hall and Underground" areas have been renovated and paid for with cash reserves! Many conversations, lining up contractors, and constant volunteers helped make this happen. This space has been transformed to accommodate LCKids, LCStudents, and The Hangout - including access to it all! If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to check it out soon. It is flexible, versatile, and partially designed by students for students.
Additionally, a new walkway has been installed from the CEC to that building. A new patio with total accessibility is now completed on the western side of the building. In addition, the Venue was re-carpeted and painted, along with some baseline policies set for our new space as groups utilize the community space.
This past week is an example of our campus being used as a spiritual center. As a Valentine’s Dance was happening for LCStudents - we also had a memorial service, visitation, family meal, Voices in the Laurel rehearsal, and concert while offering a full morning of worship and hospitality. All in 30 hours!!!
SUMMARY INFORMATION FOR 2022:
In the first meeting of 2022, your Leadership Team decided to act on the recommendation of the Finance Team to use the 2021 surplus to prepay the first quarter of 2022's local mission commitments for Long's Chapel. Our total Mission and Ministry budget for 2022 is 1.78M with a quarterly evaluation of two overflow buckets for additional impact: community relief and debt reduction. There are a few things to remember about 2022 and the adoption of the "One Fund" accounting practice (which leads to less designated giving and more broad support of the priorities for the church):
We have been giving less designated and more total giving to the church for years now. A large majority of things that you have supported through “designated” giving are now incorporated into Long's Chapel Mission and Ministry Budget. This is part of why our budget has increased a good bit from last year to this year. We encourage you to support those missions through the One Fund as you have given designated dollars previously. It's worth stating that the more generous we are through the "One Fund," the more significant the missional footprint of Long's Chapel can be. As one Finance Team member has reminded us, “What’s important enough for one of us to fund, is important enough for all of us to support.”
Again, overflow dollars above One Fund - Long's Chapel Mission and Ministry expenses - will support "above and beyond" ongoing community relief from Hurricane Fred and debt reduction. The amounts of these overflow funds will be evaluated and communicated quarterly.
There are still a few designated funds within the life of Long's Chapel. It is important to remember that all of these receive substantial administrative support from the One Fund - but ministry costs are expended through these designated funds:
Child Enrichment Center
The Open Door/Second Blessing
Firewood Ministry (a partnership between Long's Chapel and Mountain Projects led by Richard Reeves)
The Long's Chapel Scholarship Fund (that Ron Jamison helped partner with Long's Chapel to establish)
There is a task force studying a recommendation for a columbarium and prayer garden on the campus - this will most likely be a designated fund because of the unique nature of this ministry/service. More to come.
If you want to make a designated gift to something not listed above, please contact the Finance Manager, Myra Steadman, or one of the pastors. We would love to discuss how you can have the intended impact of your generosity. We want to glorify God and honor your intent and motivation to be generous.
This will sound repetitive but given the conversations we have fielded about One Fund, it's worth repeating:
We want and need your generosity to be directed to our church-wide One Fund to make an impact in our community and beyond. Most questions are from folks who make payments directly to debt reduction. Two responses have been most common: 1) The more money generated through the One Fund the more will overflow to debt reduction, and 2) if you feel strongly about making that payment directly to debt reduction, then let's chat.
Our Financial Goals for this year are to raise support and fully fund the Mission and Ministry budget for Long's Chapel (1.8M/1.78M) AND have an overflow of funds for community relief efforts and reducing our debt. The Mission and Ministry budget is a bit larger than our 2021 budget. The increases are more fully an accurate picture of the mission we do together, just more of it included in the spending plan.
Three "nuts and bolt" reasons for the increase in the 2022 budget:
The facilities are seeing the continued growth of being used by local community partners and with our missions and ministries groups. We are excited that our campus has never been more of a spiritual center for our community, and yet part of our ministry investment is offering this building as a "home base" for our mission for and with our community.
We plan to pay 100% of the United Methodist Missional and Connectional Support to support the work of the general church to ensure we are faithfully represented in the conversations before the denomination.
Labor, energy, food costs - everything seems to be inflating slightly. A summary and rounded-off version of the Mission and Ministry budget are available at church Leadership Team meetings and through the financial office (Torry or Myra).
LEADERSHIP TEAM UPDATE: Our Church Leadership Team was so engaged in 2021! We had several folks rotate off the Leadership Team at the end of 2021. Words cannot express our gratitude for the countless hours and so many gifts used to the Glory of God. A special thanks to Katy Gould, Sam Lupfer, Dwayne Wiseman, Dean McMahon, and Ryan Jacobson for their faithful service. Your Leadership Team for 2022 includes Judy Dodson (Chair), Adele Gildersleeve, Amy Spivey, Bill Ashley, Dick Rogers, Jaci Reynolds, Jim Breitmeier, Katherine Hefner, Mark Teague, Mike Rowe, Sparty Valentine, Vickie Staib, Torry Pinter, along with Pastors Tom and Chris with Tammy Wright as Administrative Secretary. This team meets monthly (typically) on the third Tuesday of the month at 6:00 pm. Anyone can join the meetings (except during anything to be confidentially shared during the Staff Parish Relations report at the end). We also try to communicate with the congregation every 4-6 weeks to give updates and gather input.
Sometimes I receive critique about being "too positive.” I'll take that criticism because I have authentic hope about who Jesus is and how the Holy Spirit empowers the local church to be an agent for God’s reconciliation on earth. We continue to have very faithful and honest leadership conversations that take concerns and challenges seriously. Some of them (but not limited to) currently are:
Having such a diverse congregation means needing communication in many ways to get the word out about who we are and what we are doing.
The Open Door/Second Blessing handed over the keys to 32 Commerce St. on February 1, 2022. Fruitful conversations are being had about the future of the ministry. This transition season has been hard for so many involved in these ministries, but we hope to find some renewal in a transition towards a new future.
The Leaders of our Deaf Ministry decided to pause existing services based on our deaf congregants connecting to other churches that offer broader benefits for The Deaf. A special thanks to Kay Free, who has led this ministry at Long's Chapel for so long.
STAFF: Our Staff Parish team worked hard to review, realign, and organize a staff structure that resulted in minimal job loss and an increase in fruitfulness. Culture is calling this season "The Great Resignation.” We had much staff turnover in the Child Enrichment Center, respected Rev. Tim McConnell's retirement plans, and welcomed several new staff to our Ministry Team. Notably, Lori Prickett and Brenda Israel served more than 25 years combined on our staff serving Jesus through Long's Chapel. They are now blessing other organizations with their gifts. For our Leadership Teams to manage this level of turnover was challenging but essential for the future of Long's Chapel. We are now almost fully staffed for the first time in three years. Even when circumstances have challenged that value, the word "engagement" has been our staff's priority. Thanks to the hard work of the staff and the volunteer servants that really make Long’s Chapel “tick”. Long's Chapel continues to grow in its vibrancy and activity. Our current staff team are energized and eager for what God has planned for our future.
PASTORS’ UPDATE: New to our pastoral team in 2021, Rev. Betsy Caudill has been a fantastic addition to our church staff and pastoral team. She came here from the Virginia Conference and serves part-time as our Congregational Care Pastor. She is the "running point" on most of our congregational care needs and prayer team matters. Other pastors and staff support her through an "on-call" system established in July 2021. We are currently reviewing pastoral duties for 2022 to ensure that Betsy, Tom, and Chris have their "bases covered" in supporting our church. Your pastors feel very blessed to serve in this dynamic and exciting season of ministry for this vital church!
A FEW STATISTICAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2021 FOR YOU TO CELEBRATE:
$76K for UMC Connectional Support Missional Giving, which was 65% of what was requested by the General Church.
Market Value of church property, vehicles, etc. - $12,760,649
Additions to membership - 13 joined by profession of faith with 12 others joining from other congregations and an addition of 4 baptisms.
Subtractions to membership (locally and folks that have moved) - 4 to other UMCs, 12 to non-Methodist, and 10 deaths.
Total membership to start 2022 - 1,132 "souls on board" (this is a straight membership number and does not include the constituency of Long's Chapel of those who connect to ministries but aren't members).
2022 AREA OF PRIORITY AND FOCUS
Our mission is constant and there are lots of ways we talk about it. Biblically we describe our mission how Matthew describes The Great Commission in Matthew 28:16-20. Denominationally - the UMC says to "make disciples for the transformation of the world." Our mission statement is Long’s Chapel exists to worship and serve God by reaching others and growing together as passionate followers of Jesus because all people matter to God. We are called to Reach others, Grow together, and Serve passionately.
A specific area of focus for 2022 is an attempt to deliver the hope of the Gospel deeper into the households and individuals of our church and community. Have you noticed? There is a lot to juggle lately. This season is one where there is so much difficulty that nobody really asked for or desires. God is doing good stuff in the midst of the challenges - but challenges abound. Yet, it provides an incredible opportunity to lead people to the Hope of the Gospel revealed in a relationship with Jesus. For that, there is no substitute. God is with us, friends.
In 2022, we get to be even more intentional about: community outREACH, GROWing through more excellent in-person worship and small group experiences, and SERVE(ing) to create a welcoming connection to Jesus Christ.
This year we will focus on helping folks remove the obstacles to receive God's grace in their life and lead toward God's abundant love and friendship that is emotionally and spiritually uplifting and encouraging. We hope to do more of anything that lifts or attends to the broken spirit. We need to ask why we are doing anything that doesn't. Many good-hearted folks in the world are doing really good things - but there is only ONE Church of Jesus Christ. Our mission is to deliver and lead people to the saving HOPE of Jesus Christ.
May God bless us in any work that joins the spirit to build God's kingdom on earth.
Pastor Chris
