please ignore any solely decorative, dysfunctional, monochromatic, androgynous busts
“Way before Abounding even started, the financial team started saying, ‘Y’know we should probably start putting some money away … so like if we launch a second campus, or we’re gonna launch out of here, we should have some funds put aside for that. So, while they did that, it accumulated over many, many years and then we started the Abounding Campaign.”
After four years of inquiry by GA™ and others, It was finally (and very appreciably) represented that years before current Senior Pastor Mitchel Lee was even hired:
- a Financial Task Force was created,
- a vision of a satellite campus or a church plant was shared, and
- a savings plan was fashioned to realize that vision.
Amidst an abundance of thorough and positive information, what follows is, in our opinion, the only “non-stellar” aspect of Chris Wolf’s financial presentation.
“That money that we were putting, eh, towards the land, to purchase that land, um, so we got that back.”
“We got that back” confers little. This phrase connotes a return of the title back to the “land owner” and a full refund of the purchase price to Grace Community Church in Fulton. Stakeholders are still flummoxed as to HOW MUCH ($0 ~ $1.8M) was returned from WHOM (e.g, the “land owner”, escrow) and FOR WHAT (e.g., return of premium, down payment, full purchase price). GA™ and others have been attempting to get Grace Community Church in Fulton to fill those holes for almost four years.
“And that was the money, um, it’s amazing. When the Financial Task Force came to us and said, ‘Hey there’s this money and this is how much we have to pay off to be debt free’, it was the exact same number. God is at work. It is pretty incredible”
Unfortunately, not even so much as an approximation of “the exact same number” was presented. This was seen as not only surprising given “the exact same number”’s instant availability but also a lost opportunity to poignantly encourage members. If the incredibleness of God’s work is related to the unlikelihood that the amount of money Grace Community Church in Fulton “got back” from somewhere was exactly the same as the debt payoff amount, then sharing this “exact same number” could be faith bolstering to many, particularly if it is as large as the purchase price. I.e., the larger and/or more precise the number (to the penny), the lower the probability those two numbers would be the same and the more incredibly “God is at work”.
The forgoing alone comprises the only weakness we observed in Chris Wolf’s presentation.
A slide of the three Abounding Campaign objectives was projected and dollar amounts were presented. One set of numbers indicated estimates for·
- solely the “build-out” (not including the land purchase) of the West Friendship Campus - $6M,
- debt reduction - $1.5M, and
- Fulton campus improvements - $500K.
Another set of dollar amounts summarized the outcomes of the $8,000,000 campaign:
- total pledged - $4,890,709, and
- amount given to date - $3,659,899.
Being able to instantly cite historical amounts down to the dollar is due not only to Director Mackin demanding fastidious bookkeeping but also to her requiring it in a manner allowing immediate and facile access to actual dollars for meetings such as these. If one wants to demonstrate how sacrificial members have been with their money, making sure every dollar is represented thanks everyone who gave, no matter how little they may have donated (Mark 12: 41-44 & Luke 21: 1-4).
As it frequently is with churches, Chris Wolf understandably returned to the “debt free-ness” as the most significant of the financial news.
“None of the Abounding, um, Campaign money was used to pay the debt off. So that money is still sitting there. And if you, if you recall, Abounding was a three year campaign, started in 2019, we had three objectives …. to launch out to the West Friendship campus, that was to make some improvements around here and then we were going to pay down debt so that we could be debt free in seven years.”
Chris Wolf again faithfully clarified three things:
- The Abounding Campaign was not general fund raising, but was only for specifically identifiable objectives: the “build-out”only of named, undeveloped and acquired real estate, improvements to the Fulton campus, and elimination of debt.
- As a result of the debt payoff having been accomplished with funds from other sources and with plans for a “launch out to … West Friendship” scrapped, the only objective to be addressed by dollars given to the Abounding Campaign is improvements to the Fulton Campus.
- There is at least $3,659,899 “still sitting there” in an “Abounding” account (ideally earning interest), $3,159,899 of which might be returned to donors or might be repurposed to new objectives with their consent.
“That money is still earmarked, um, for multiplication, um, and to expand God’s kingdom and share the Gospel in other parts. … We went to the land owner and an amiacable [sic] agreement was come to and we got our money back. That’s how we used that to pay down the debt.”
Five things clarified here:
- Chris Wolf again assured that “the money [$3,659,899] is still sitting there”. This is also good (or at least not bad) news. Many churches indiscriminately repurpose money away from the objective for which it was raised without even notifying donors, much less obtaining their consent. As with any specific donation, moral, ethical, legal (state and federal) constraints (additionally with churches, membership requirements in the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability) demand that donations for one specifically identified objective may not be used else wise without donors’ specific consent.
- Accordingly, since all of the money necessary to address the Abounding Campaign’s only remaining objective ($500,000 in capital improvements to the Fulton campus) has been well excededed, the above restrictions also precluded Grace Community Church of Fulton from accepting any more donations to this campaign once the West Friendship outreach was cancelled.
- Chris Wolf was understandably vague about substitute objectives for the remaining 3,159,899. Senior Pastor Mitchell Lee opined later in the Family Meeting they are still researching possibilities.
- At this point Grace Community Church in Fulton can only either obtain each donor’s written permission to repurpose their sacrifice or return no less than than 86%[2] of it. If a donor cannot be reached, the refund will go to their most recent address. If a check remains uncashed, the funds will be sent to the State of Maryland Unclaimed Property Section (Recovering money from this organization makes the movie Brazil look like a Chik-fil-A drive through. Lore indicates one individual may have retrieved money from that section. We exaggerate, …slightly). Accordingly, if you are certain you do not want to wait for new objectives to be identified, request a refund from Chris Wolf or from Director Mackin. This will be of great service to let them know how much they have to repurpose.
- Lastly, Chris Wolf indicates an agreement with the landowner was what led to Grace Community Church of Fulton getting their “money [identical to the loan payoff amount] back” from somewhere.
The adjacent slide indicates that members are sacrificing 2.6% more than this time last year. Also good news given the economy.
Chris Wolf put forth even more favorable numbers: “We do this thing in the fall, right before Thanksgiving and Christmas called Joyous Giving. You know this past year was the largest number ever given by y’all? It was $245,000. Yeh. … The year before it was 180 [thousand dollars]. The year before that 160 [thousand dollars], the year before that was 120 [thousand dollars]. The year before that was 80 [thousand dollars], and then the year before that it was 60 [thousand dollars].”
These amounts indicate that Joyous Giving more than quadrupled in 5 years (an average annual growth rate of over 30%). This should be heralded, particularly in this economy.
Chris Wolf indicated multiple times that if anyone had any questions, he could be contacted at Abounding@Grace.Community.
Chris Wolf concluded with the proximate slide.
All you need to know about finances from the Family Meeting is contained herein. It is as objective and positive a summary possible. We think the report reflects a lot of good news. In our next article we will address these statements and ask questions thereabout. A number of inquiries have already been presented by our readers.
Footnotes: (DO NOT JUST BLOW BY THESE.)
[1] There is elasticity regarding the mortgage’s term and “earliness” of it being retired. Grace Community Church in Fulton refinanced the Fulton Campus in April 2018. (Since July 2021, Grace Community Church in Fulton has been uncooperative in revealing this data; it was obtained from an individual with knowledge of the refinance). “Ten years early” may be according to the lender’s timetable. If the expectation was that the mortgage would be retired immediately upon raising enough money, then Grace Community Church in Fulton is arguably no more than four years late. If the expectation was that Grace Community Church in Fulton would be debt free 7 years after raising enough money, they are no less than 1 year early. Regardless of that 14 year swing, it is virtually always great news when a church is debt free.
[2] $500,000 of the amount given may be used for improvements of the Fulton Campus, the only specified Abounding Campaign objective to be addressed. This amount is 14% of the actual amount given.