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Music & Arts
2023 Goals
Launch a summer camp to bring in youth from the surrounding area to participate in all-day music education programs.
Begin building relationships between summer camp attendees and members of the congregation as a means of drawing interested students to DHPC youth programs.
Deepen relationship with Cave Creek Unified School District bands, supporting them with master classes, lessons and opportunities for ensemble playing.
Continue working closely with Carefree Christian Academy and other local private and charter schools to support and
Nomination Committee
Elder: Marcia Fishman
Staff Liaison: Pastor Jim Noble and Pastor
Brett Everett
Members: Tom Christopherson, Karen Paisley, and Myra Sherriff.
Mission Statement
To encourage and discover the spiritual gifts of leadership and membership in the context of God’s call on their lives.
2022 Goals
To identify, encourage and promote church members to accept specified roles as Elder(s),
Deacon(s) & Participants for Nominating Committee & The Foundation
As a committee, to grow in our relationship with God through prayer and scripture meditation, thus seeing God’s Sovereignty and His Timing at work
2022 Accomplishments
A Congregational Meeting for the purpose of voting the nominees into office effective (June/2023) took place on January 29, 2023. Unanimous yes votes were said for the presented individuals.
strengthen their music programs.
Launch a strings program and build the guitar program.
Expand the piano program by bringing on additional instructors and adding more group piano students.
Expand advertising/marketing efforts in order to continue driving steady growth of the school.
Take more music out into the local community as a means of raising awareness about the school and serving the local populations through live music.
Respectfully submitted, Heather Baldwin Director
of Administration
Finance
2023 GOALS Foundation Grant
The Foundation approved an unrestricted grant of over $57,000 in a letter issued in June 2022. Most of that grant remains to be used. Another Foundation grant should become available during 2023’ The Finance Committee will work with Task Force created by Session, and Session, to find appropriate uses for the funds that meet the grant policies of the Foundation.
Buildings and Grounds Improvements
The Foundation has indicated an interest in further improvements to the Memorial Garden from future grants to the Church. Finance will work with Session to suggest further improvements. The older A/C units will continue to be monitored and replaced as necessary. There is some difficulty in obtaining new units due to supply chain supply availability.
Replace Office Copy Machine
Because of continuing cost overruns in printing costs for the orders of service and bulletins during 2022, Finance is asking for offers to replace the current machine. The offer will include closing our current lease of our Kyocera copier and replacing it with a newer more cost effective model. We have received an offer from Kyocera that reduces our costs substantially and Session has approved the upgrade.
Stewardship Campaign
Finance will work to continue the success of the 2023 Stewardship Campaign for 2024. With supportive help from Pastor Jim Noble and Associate Pastor Brett Everett, we had a very productive campaign this year even though it had a late start. We hope that the 2024 campaign will enjoy the same degree of congregation participation.
Financial Condition
Elders:
Adult Discipleship: Brad Ghaster
Care Ministries: Marilyn Strohan
Children’s Ministries: Sharon Zinser
Family & Student Ministries: Michelle
Balestra
Deacons:
Administrative: Barbara Chamberlain
Care: Deb McDermott
Equipping: Rolene Dinsdale
Service: Min Damm
Nominating Committee:
Ron Bane
Tom Christopherson
Nancy Kinderman
CJ King
Dawne Pender
The Foundation:
Shelly Core
Marsha Lindquist
Respectfully submitted, Marcia Fishman
Nominating Elder
Budget Monitoring
The Finance Committee will work with Session on any budget requests that are outside those anticipated in the 2023 approved budget.
The Church’s 2022 financial reports are on the following pages.
Respectfully submitted, Oran Brown Finance Elder
Covered Parking and Solar
During the year, DHPC entered into an agreement to provide two covered parking areas that incorporate solar units on the roofs at no cost to DHPC. The solar will have the effect of reducing the Church’s power costs to APS over the 20year length of the contract. DHPC will own the facilities at the end of the contract.
House Donation & Audiovisual Upgrades
During the year, the Church and the Desert Hills Presbyterian Church Foundation (the Foundation) were recipients of the sales proceeds from a house donation. The Foundation received $1,000,000 from the sale, increasing its ability to invest and provide annual grants to the Church. At the request of the donor, a major portion of the Church’s proceeds of $365,215 were used to upgrade the Church’s audiovisual systems, including new outside and Fellowship Center streaming capabilities. The purpose was to upgrade and increase the outreach of the services being streamed to the public. The donation DHPC received also funded a full-time audiovisual position for 2023.
2022 Accomplishments
2022 Budget Results
The 2022 Pledge budget was $875,228 and the non-pledge offering budget was $300,000. Actual results for the year were $964,384 and $341,877 respectively, with total receipts from all sources being $1,351,119. Total expenses for the year were $1,200,656 leaving $150,463 to carry over to 2023.
2023 Budget Campaign
The 2023 Stewardship Campaign, using the working 2023 budget approved by Session, sought to raise $905,000 in pledges. The actual result of the campaign was $949,746 in pledges for 2023. The non-pledge offering budget was set at $300,000 for the new year. Total receipts from all sources were budgeted at $1,404,496. Between the excess receipts and the increased pledges, the small deficit of $18,418, after expenses expected in the 2023 approved requesting budget, would be eliminated. The 2023 expected expenses are shown below:
Elder: Tonya Jones
Staff Liaison: Pastor Brett Everett Members: Shelly Core, Donna Lando, Cindy Leek, Bobbie Morgan, Linda Stringer, Marilyn Strohan.
Mission Statement
The mission of the DHPC Outreach Committee is to build a positive reputation of DHPC in our community by encouraging and equipping the Church family to be ambassadors of DHPC, cultivating Christ-like hospitality, shepherding guests through to membership, inviting them to commit to DHPC by using their unique gifts in service to the Lord and to continue to grow in faith through worship, discipleship, fellowship, and service ministries of the Church.
2022 Goals
Recruit two to three additional members to our committee to expand our committee’s goals and projects for the church and community.
Expand our Adopt-A-First Responder and Adopt-A-Family Evangelism Outreach Programs.
Review the Marketing and Strategy report and develop an action plan for implementation for expanding Outreach Evangelism efforts in our church and community.
2022 Accomplishments
Recruited and welcomed two additional members to our committee, Donna Lando and Marilyn Strohan.
Adopt-A-First Responder program expanded to include four community fire stations. Provided updated informational flyers, prayer cards, Easter cards, Thanksgiving thank you cards, Christmas thank you cards, monthly visits, and gift cards to the fire sta- tions. Also expanded the Adopt-AFirst Responder program by providing a Thanksgiving thank you card, 150 copies of a book titled JesusIn HisOwnWords,and monetary support to engrave 150 Bibles to the Maricopa County Sheriff Office (MCSO). Assisted the Mission Committee with providing Christmas Cards, Joy To The World Salvation Tracts, Candy Cane Story Bookmarks, Nativity Stickers, and packaging support for the 20th Annual Food Bank Adopt-AFamily holiday program’s 600 gift bags.
Expanded visitor outreach by distributing special seasonal visitor gift bags for Easter and Christmas.
Expanded New Member outreach by hosting a new member luncheon. Expanded community outreach by hosting the “Filler Up! Faith and Fuel” gift card event in July and an Advent event to distribute gift bags, copies of a book titled JesusInHisOwn Words,and the church December activity bulletin to visitors attending scheduled weekly meetings at the church.
2023 Goals
Expand Outreach Ministry with two events at our church. Expand Outreach Ministry with two events in our community. Support the new Family Worship Service. Review current Outreach Ministry committee tasks and processes for improvement opportunities.
Respectfully submitted,
Tonya S. Jones Outreach Elder
Elder: John Thurston
Staff Liaison: Pastor Jim Noble
Members: Sue Beastall, Vicky Parker, Mike Popovich
Mission Statement
To represent the church staff and the needs of the church in all personnel related matters ensuring that we adhere to current governmental rules, restrictions and good sound common sense business practices. To do this we will examine files and systems for necessary improvement and maintain accurate personnel records.
2022 Goals
To continue examining key church documentation of personnel matters and update with improved processes.
To successfully complete the annual performance evaluation system.
To prepare necessary files for new employees while maintaining the Personnel Files of the Church.
2022 Accomplishments
Completed the 2021 staff evaluation process placing appropriate documentation in all personnel records.
Completed the rewrite of the Employee Manual. Reviewed and advertised Office Manager opening advertisement and job description.
Reviewed and upgraded job descriptions for Controller and Organist.
Prepared job description for Director of Operations job posting.
Reviewed the process of converting Assistant Pastor Brett Everett to Associate Pastor.
Approved new job description for Associate Pastor.
Reviewed need for Church Secretary and/or Office Manager.
Reviewed job descriptions and prepared updates for Family Service Worship Leader, Director of Family Service Ministry and Student and Children’s Ministry Intern.
Prepared job description for Director of Audio-Visual Technology.
Clarified difference between PTO and Sabbatical Leave while encouraging our pastors and particular members of the staff to take their allotted time off.
Began preparations for the 2022 staff evaluation process.
2023 Goals
Review organization structure of the staff. Review all job descriptions and update with staff interviews.
Conduct goal setting training.
Prepare a Session Training Program.
Respectfully submitted, John Thurston Personnel Elder
Finance
Elder: Oran Brown
Staff Liaison: Pastor Jim Noble
Members: Scott Core, Lisa Loran, Allan Watson, Gary Zimmerman, Jenifer Zylwitis
Mission Statement
The Desert Hills Presbyterian Church (the Church) Finance Committee is responsible for encouraging financial contributions to the church by both members and others (stewardship). The committee makes the initial decision on how the Church’s funds will be spent subject to Session approval.
Finance Committee
As Finance Elder, I am privileged to chair the Finance Committee. The committee’s members provide the Church with the benefit of collective talents, talents that come together to bring wisdom and the ability to make decisions that would not be available with any one of us alone. Allan Watson, a current member, acted as Finance Elder for four years, ending in June 2022. He has provided a valuable continuity in the committee’s functions and goals for 2022. The Finance Committee reviews the Church’s financial statements each month after they are prepared by the Church’s controller, Bobi Tomlon. Bobi also provides information on Church expenditures, and tracks pledges and member contributions. She keeps track of member contributions that are restricted to specific Church ministries, and she provides a statement to every member showing their contributions for the year.
The committee creates a suggested budget each year based on requests by the Church’s elders and Church staff for their ministries and areas of responsibility. The budget is based on the anticipated resources that will be available for budget expenses. The committee selects individuals that will be responsible for the annual stewardship campaign.
Pastor Jim Noble, an ex officio member, is essential in providing an in-depth overview of the Church’s ministries and the vision that directs the Church’s efforts in outreach and bringing God’s Word to our community.
2022 Notable Events
The Fellowship Center Elevator
Due to exposure to the outside, the Fellowship Center elevator was subject to wear and tear from the elements. Session approved a project to enclose and make necessary repairs to the elevator. The congregation was asked to contribute the necessary funds to the building and grounds repairs and maintenance account to cover the expense, estimated at $157,000. The congregation responded within two days with donations of $216,000. Weitz Construction was engaged as general contractor to build the enclosure. The project is under way with some delays due to the difficulty in finding subcontractors, but it should be completed in 2023.
Buildings and Grounds Improvements
Buildings and Grounds requested that the kitchen ice maker be replaced due to age and wear and tear. Session approved the replacement, and the ice maker was replaced with the cost of about $5,200 paid out of prior year excess receipts. Amid an evaluation of our A/C needs, Unit 12 failed, and a new unit has been ordered. It is pending delivery as soon as parts for its manufacture are available. Supply chain problems continue.
The Charles B. Jennings Memorial Garden
Since the niches in the Memorial Garden (Garden) were almost sold out, an expansion of the Garden was requested. The expansion was for three new columbariums with 144 new niches, plus changes in the sidewalks and benches. Total cost of the project was estimated at $82,910 and was financed with $45,000 from the Memorial Garden fund plus $37,910 from a loan from the Church. The loan will be repaid from niche sales.
