Church Board Secretary s ReporT Page 1

Sunday, February 14, 2021 Contents of Annual Report

1. Church Board Secretary’s ReporT… Page 1 2. Finance Committee’s Report… Page 2 3. Nazarene Missions International Report… Page 3 4. Sunday School & Discipleship Ministries International Report… Page 4 5. Buildings & Grounds Report… Page 5 6. Ushers’ Report… Page 6 7. WCNCS Director’s Report… Page 7 8. Pastor Of Visitation’s Report… Page 8 9. Pastor Owen’s Report… Pages 9-12 10. Communion & FAITH PROMISE DATES… Pages 12-13

Dear Pastor and Congregation,

It has been my pleasure and blessing to serve on the Board of The Church of the Nazarene in West Chester, PA. We have a wonderful, much loved congregation here at this church. The Board Members are able to work together very well: agree at times, disagree at other times but always with a spirit of God’s love and always with the intent of putting His kingdom first. We can do nothing without the Lord. This is His Church and we are His servants.

We have had the following board meetings this year: ● Board Meetings: April 2020-2; May 2020-1; June 2020-3; July 2020-1; July 2020-1; Aug 2020-1; Sept 2020-1; Oct.2020-1; Nov.2020-1; Dec 2020-1; Jan.2021-2; Feb.2021-1; Feb.2021-1

The past year has been a difficult one. Everyone has had to deal with the unexpected arrival of a world-wide pandemic. Lifestyles and schedules have had to be changed. It has not been fun, but God is always with us. He has supported our church in ways we could never have expected. The world is not always wonderful. Life is not always pleasant. But God is always with us and He has promised to walk us through everything, holding us up, carrying us as needed. The Bible tells us “this is God’s Church and the Gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” Amen and Amen

Sincerely, Jeanne A. Nornhold, Church Board Secretary

One of our Zoom Board Meetings

Finance Committee Report 2020-21

The Church Board maintains full responsibility for the management of the finances for both the Church and School ministries. A professional bookkeeping firm, LJT Accounting Services, continues to maintain the financial records for both ministries under the direction of the Church Treasurer and the Church Board. Joe Stoltz has been our Church Treasurer and continued in the Finance Committee Chair role over the past Church year.

The Committee continually monitors our overall financial position and did revise our annual School and Church budgets over the past year primarily due to having to close the school due to Covid in March as well as the decision to close the school for the Sept 2020 – June 2021 school year. The Committee is happy to report that over the past year, a significant plumbing project to install new external pipes to the borough sewer was completed, as well as reflooring the lower toddler room, although some other projects were deferred to meet the expected income. The proposed budget for the new fiscal year again includes targeted building maintenance but must continue to take the giving trends into account. Our independent scholarship fund at Eastern Nazarene College awarded approximately $ 9,020 to deserving students from the Phila. District for the 2020-21 school year.

As noted, the School has remained closed for most of the past fiscal year. We did apply and receive PPP funding in the form of a loan to pay our school staff for the balance of the school year, from April to June. Guidance received is that this loan will be fully forgiven. We continue to work on balancing the new financial model required for serving less students and planning on reopening our School for the Aug 2021 – Jun 2022 School year. In the interim, we will need to rely solely on the Church Operating Budget to cover what have traditionally been a number of key “Shared Expenses” for our Church building facilities and related maintenance. The School allocation of Shared Expenses was $ 33,807 for all areas of expenses, including 25% share of the plumbing project and 100% of the toddler classroom reflooring project mentioned above. The School is in receipt of approximately $13k donated in memory of our former teacher, Nele Van Hees to a fund called Nele’s Kiddos with disbursements managed with input from the Van Hees family.

The Finance Committee (and all financial activity) is governed by our Financial policies and procedures, which are reviewed at least annually.

Fiscal Year ending January 31, 2021 (12 months):

● Tithe and Offering + Other income - $128,241 (vs. $115,895 for prior full year) ● Checking Acct balance - $70,928.82 Money Market balance – $ 16,420 ● Mortgage indebtedness - $ 165,754. ● Helping hand benevolence fund balance - $ 2,311 (distributed $ 2,238 over 2020-21)

A complete set of financial reports is available on request. If you would like a copy of the full report, please contact the church office.

Respectfully submitted, Finance Committee Joe Stoltz, Chairperson Ric Moore & Susan Johnson, Committee members

Nazarene Missions International Report

The past year has been a strange and sometimes very difficult time for everyone. In spite of the challenges that we faced, much has been accomplished for the Missions efforts of our local church. In March we found ourselves quarantined and wondering how to have a Faith Promise service with Pastor Jung Mo Koo. Thanks to technology we were still able to have our services and were truly encouraged by Pastor Jung Mo! Our Faith Promise Goal for the year was $11,000. I am thrilled to report that we exceeded our goal and have actually received $11,260.01. Because of your generosity, we overpaid our World Evangelism Fund Goal and contributed $7,370.00 to support our Global Missions efforts. These funds provide financial support for our missionaries, as well as the expansion of outreach to those who have not heard the Good News of Jesus Christ! Thank you for your faithful giving to missions.

We were also able to hear from missionaries, David & Naomi Phillips via a Zoom call; another opportunity to learn about what is happening through Nazarene Missions in Southeast Asia. There are so many things that are being accomplished throughout our world for the cause of Christ and your giving allows West Chester to be a part of the work our general church is doing on the field. We continue to provide support for all of our LINKS families, five in total, as well as Alabaster, and local causes. We were once again able to provide support for the West Chester University Resource Pantry, our local Veterans Hospital, and gift baskets for our shut-ins.

The missions council has been active throughout the pandemic. I want to thank Susan Helmuth, Stephen LeVasseur, Charlotte Simons, Pat Verbovszky, and Peg Willis for their hard work throughout the year.

Respectfully submitted,

Susan Johnson, NMI President

● Financial support for Nazarene

Compassionate Ministries

Empowering Women with Dignity

Project ● Christmas gifts for LINKS families ● Alabaster Giving of $1,200.00 ● 30 Crisis Care Kits shipped to Fawn

Grove for distribution in time of crisis ● Gifts for local Veterans ● Collection for West Chester

University Resource Pantry

V acation Bible School: Jacob LeVasseur and Becca Stoltz and their team led an innovative on-line VBS this summer. They mailed packets of information to the children and posted YouTubes, which are still available. They had 19 families with a total of 32 children participate in the activities.

Young Adults: Jacob LeVasseur reported the following: ● in January and February (pre-Covid) nine young adults attended Bible Study. ● They also sponsored a Super Bowl party in January, 2020, and the Young Adults came and the rest of the church was invited as well. ● Jacob expressed remorse about the loss of Nele van Hees. Several of the Young Adults attended her service via YouTube. ● Traditionally, the Young Adults have attended the Renaissance Faire in October; however, because of Covid, that was impossible. Using innovation and technology, they sponsored an online game night and some of them dressed up in Faire garb. ● Several of these Young Adults are continuing to participate in Wednesday night Zoom meetings, church services and other special online teachings.

Sunday School

● Pastor Kendra and Jeanne Nornhold developed Sunday School lessons for the grade-school age children. They worked together to develop lessons that had links to music and videos. ● Charlotte Simons and I worked with the pre-school/kindergarten children. I developed Sunday School lessons and posted them on YouTube. Each lesson lasted between 5 and 10 minutes. I sent out the link to the lesson to families in our church that have children and grandchildren. Face-to-face lessons reached one to two children; however, the YouTube lessons reach between 0-6 children each week. Prior to the pandemic, we met face-to-face. The lessons are based on Dig-In Sunday School. Charlotte Simons sent cards to children to remember them for their birthday or special event. We plan on being more intentional about this activity in the upcoming year.

Bible Memory Verse - From April through December I created 26 Bible Memory Verse videos and sent them to the pastor who then sent them out to everyone. It is important that we hide God’s word in our heart, and if anyone would like to take over this valuable ministry please see either me or Pastor.

Advent Calendars - We distributed Advent calendars to several families who have children who are connected to our church in some way. The children colored in one page each day leading up to the birth of Christ. Most of the Bible verses emanated from the Book of Luke. At minimum children learned about the main characters in the Advent story and about some of the books of the Bible.

Season of Lent and Easter - We are looking at different resources to send out to families who have children who are connected to our church in a similar way that we disseminated the Advent Calendars.

Face-to-Face - At some point in God’s timing we will return to complete face-to-face children’s ministry. In the meantime, please continue to pray that God will reach children in ways that are new and different, so that they will know that Jesus is the Son of God, that He came to redeem us by dying on the Cross, and that He rose again that we might live eternally with Him. If anyone would like to work with children, please let me know. Thank you.