First Baptist Church of Norwich 239 W. Main Street Norwich, CT 06360
860-889-0369 fbcnorwich@gmail.com
Rev. Sam Chesser, Pastor Adele DiBiagio, Organist Jennifer Higgins, Admin. Assistant
Dated Material
The First Baptist Church of Norwich 239 West Main Street, Norwich, CT 06360 fbcnorwich@gmail.com 860-889-0369
The Ambassador March 2017
Chesser Chat Hello everyone! In lieu of my column this month, I wanted to get you some informa on that you might have missed. In January, we had our annual mee ng. At that mee ng, various commi ees presented annual reports. However, only a handful of people end up ge ng copies of these reports, which is a shame, because they provide valuable insight into what has happened at the church over the last year. As such, we have chosen to print the pastor's report, the deacons' report, and the trustees' report.:
Return Service Requested
Sunday School 9:15 Morning Worship at 10:30
Pastor’s Report from p. 12: How do we define the health of a church? I think [the Pastor’s report] should be approached almost as a doctor would approach a pa ent. Is it defined by its financial posi on? Is it determined by the health of the building in which the church resides? Is the health of the church defined by how many people darken our doors on a Sunday morning? Or is it defined by the spiritual growth of the membership? I think a composite picture is in order, and I will endeavor to cover each of these subjects.
Dick Luse Rebecca Reyes Nancy Oat June Deptulski Kevin Bell Andrew Kreger Doris Adams Simon Twitchell Christine Royce Betty Watson Marge Booth Beverly Campbell David Koch Pat Logan
Our Shut-ins: Lois Lopez In the Military Service: Michelle Chaffee Jeff Ferguson Brian Grillo Tim Rogers
Nicolas R. Muyres
Financially, we are a mixed bag. First of all, we lost the Hispanic church along with the rent we were receiving from them, which was a financial hit. Secondly, the broader trend (looking here over the past two decades) is that giving has been going down. I assure you this is a broad trend for nearly every church. Third, we have withdrawn more from our Trust funds than would normally be considered healthy in order to cover our bills. However, there are several bright spots in this seemingly bleak picture. First, we ran a series of fundraisers this year which were quite lucra ve. These were undertaken in part to make up for the deficit from the Hispanic church, and while they s ll have a long way to go to reach that point, we’re certainly headed in the right direc on. Second, while looking at broader trends (aka the past couple of decades) presents a depressed economic figure, our pledges have been steadily rising over the last four years. Again, the number is not rising as quickly as we might hope, but it is rising. We have also saved some money through a mix of cost-cu ng measures and the natural decrease in spending that comes with one fewer congrega on at the church. Finally, I challenged people to increase their giving by just a small amount ($5) each week, and there was a very posi ve response.
Canned fruits & Vegetables