2017 ANNUAL REPORT
DEAR WOODMONT, Every good story has a turning point. Great movies take you down one path and, before you know it, yank you in another direction you never saw coming. The best books deftly lead the reader in and out of a pivotal moment where it all changes. This… is the story of Woodmont Hills Church. Just as every good author features that pivotal turn where he or she swings you in another direction, I see God pivoting Woodmont Hills as the author of our story. Jeff Brown pointed this movement out in his first week here, when he asked us all to “Consider Him” and keep our eyes fixed on His purpose. From Hebrews 12:
Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. In this report, your leadership will be sharing the story of 2017 with you. We will outline the progress that has been made toward goals we have been called to pursue. We will illustrate the good stewardship over the monetary gifts you have given to the church. We hope to show that the story of Woodmont Hills Church looks more like God’s story than one we could have ever written for ourselves. With God as the author, one thing is certain: every turning point will produce a movement of hope. May God continue to move us toward His purposes in this next year of service.
- John Sullivan, Executive Minister Design by Brittany M Sullivan This publication can be found online at www.woodmont.org
LEADERSHIP & STAFF
SHEPHERDS Scott Mayberry, Gayle Crowe, Roger Wiemers, Rob McRay, Andy Hooper, Phil Meadows, Brad Fisher, Paul Smith, Ty Osman, Ricky King, Mark Phillips. Not pictured: Tom Lasley, Bob Kendrick. Also served in 2017: Damon Cathey
MINISTERS Back: John Sullivan, Executive Minister; Charlie Sells, Director of Student Ministries and High School Minister; Reid Hillin, College Minister; Jeff Brown, Lead Minister; Michael Slayton, Worship Minister Front: Meredith Moseley, Church Life Minister; Joan Gregory, Minister of Caring Services; Julie Tuley, Children and Family Minister; Chase Whiting, Middle School Minister SUPPORT STAFF Cindy Fehrman, Administrative Assistant; Ashley Hartfelder, Children and Family Ministry Assistant; Vicki Wilson, Caring Ministry Assistant; Amy Hillin, Administrative Assistant; Jan Pate, Financial Officer; Shirley Banning, Children’s Ministry Coordinator; Ginger Conner, Student Ministry Coordinator; Donna Masih, Accounting Assistant
DEACONS Meaningful Marriages: Ron and Sandy Joyner Women’s Ministry: Stacy Newsom and Betsy Fisher
Senior Adult Leadership Team: David and Chris Tomlin Missions: Howard Newsom and Marilyn Swing Men’s Ministry: Steve Johnson and David Gnewikow
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TEACHING AND LEARNING Sermon Series
Missional Living The Other Six Days- Holiness The Prophetic Voice Living Sacrifice Following Jesus Neighbors Preparing The Table Advent
Teaching Team
Rob McRay, Tim Woodroof, John Mark Hicks, Andrew Steele, Earl Lavender
Speakers
Jeff Brown, Michael Slayton, John Sullivan, Julie Tuley, Meredith Moseley, Larry Bridgesmith, Rebecca Lavender, Michael Kidder, Charlie Sells, Dan Bouchelle, Terry Smith, Alan Cope
Adult Bible Classes
Early Birds Text Messages God In The Middle Faithbuilders Seniors Christ in the Current The Table- College Gathering Seekers The Women’s Forum Christianity and Culture
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GATHERED TOGETHER
67%
ATTEND CLASS AND WORSHIP
217
PEOPLE ATTEND 19 TOTAL HOUSE CHURCHES AND SMALL GROUPS
320 VOLUNTEERS
741 AVERAGE
GREAT HALL
ATTENDANCE
424 FIRST SERVICE 317 SECOND SERVICE
482 AVERAGE
BIBLE CLASS ATTENDANCE 228 ADULTS 112 CHILDREN
61 MIDDLE SCHOOL 81 HIGH SCHOOL 524 ACTIVE ON REALM
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GIVING $2,184,000
$
2017 ANNUAL BUDGET
$2.22M
NET GIFTS UNDER BUDGET
$1,940,852
2017 ANNUAL EXPENSES
+$155,121
NET EXPENSE SURPLUS
$2.18M
$47.97
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741
$2.14M
700 690
$2.10M
$51.76
$55.06
2013
2014
2015
2016
$59.32
WEEKLY BUDGET
YEARLY BUDGET
WEEKLY GIFTS
YEARLY GIFTS
WEEKLY GIFTS UNDER BUDGET
YEARLY GIFTS UNDER BUDGET
$42,000
$54.40
$40,307
2014
2015
2016
600
BUDGET VS. ACTUAL GIVING
$1,693 2013
2017
Note: budget numbers presented do not include designated gifts or expenses.
$40
$20
800
$2,186,328 762
MONTHLY CONTRIBUTION PER WORSHIPPER
$60
$2,190,819
810
$2,095,973
>630 INDIVIDUALS OR FAMILY UNITS GAVE $54.40 AVERAGE GIFT PER WORSHIPPER
$80
ANNUAL GIVING
2017 ANNUAL GIFTS
-$88,027
900
$2,214,300 $2,202,600
AVERAGE ATTENDANCE
$2,095,973
889
TRENDS: ANNUAL GIVING & AVERAGE ATTENDANCE
2017
Follow along in the bottom bar for fun facts about 2016 at Woodmont Hills Church!
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This publication can be found online at www.woodmont.org
$2,184,000 $2,095,973 $88,027
ANNUAL EXPENSES BY MINISTRY A significant portion of money spent on Missions and Caring Ministry comes from designated gifts that are not included in these budgeted expenses.
TOTAL MISSIONAL PROGRAM EXPENSE: $919,422 Support for Mission:
ADMINISTRATION Support for Mission:
FACILITIES
$454,045 23% $336,562 17%
TOTAL MISSIONAL SUPPORT EXPENSE: $790,607 Annual
DEBT SERVICE
$
$230,823 12%
TOTAL REMAINING DEBT: $2,246,987
N · · · · · · · · · · · FAC O I ILI T TIE RA T S IS · N
Caring, Missions, Outreach
17%
23%
17%
20% 11%
ORLD · · · HE W · · ··· ET A OV D M ·L I
$207,640 11%
12%
··
LOVE THE WORLD
Children & Family, Students, Adult Ed, Fellowship
· LOVE EA C ····· H OT ··· H ER
$385,227 20%
ICE · · · · · · · · · LO ERV S T VE EB GO D ··
···
LOVE EACH OTHER
Leadership, Worship
··
$326,555 17%
D
LOVE GOD
TOTAL EXPENSES: $1,940,852
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NEW TO OUR TEAM
Jeff Brown Woodmont Hills Church welcomed the Jeff Brown family on August 1. Jeff, Ashley, Jaleigh (10), Aubrianna (6), Emory (4), and Beckett (1) moved to Nashville from Jackson, TN as Jeff became the Lead Minister. Drawn by Woodmont Hills’ desire for a strong ministry leader with visionary and missional calling and giftedness, Jeff knew early on that this work fit his talents and passion. Jeff formerly served as preaching minister, community outreach minister, and college minister at Skyline Church of Christ.
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New Support Staff Three new members of our support staff team were added in 2017. Vicki Wilson now serves in our Caring Ministry as ministry assistant, Cindy Fehrman serves administratively in the front office with responsibilities in design and communication, and Amy Hillin serves administratively in the front office with responsibilities in calendar and facility management.
NEW TO OUR TEAM
Charlie Sells Charlie joined our ministry staff in 2017 as the Director of Student Ministries and High School Minister. Charlie, Hayley, Everett, and Cavitt moved to Nashville from Greenville, SC where he served as Student Minister at Holland Park Church of Christ. With 12 years of ministry experience, Charlie brings great leadership and vision to our student ministry.
Chase Whiting Chase came to our ministry staff at the beginning of the Summer to serve as Middle School Minister. A recent graduate of Lipscomb University, Chase brings a relational approach to student ministry, hands-on training, and new ideas to our ministry. Chase and Olivia were married on July 9.
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COMMUNITY CARING Throughout 2017, the Caring Ministry was very busy. Thanks to the incredible giving of the Woodmont Hills Church family, much has been done and given in the name of Jesus in our community and miles beyond. We have been able to help our members address emergencies and needs. We have befriended the homeless, the distraught, the lonely, the immigrant, the HIV positive, the grieving, the dying, the rescued and the healed.
$34,000+ Disaster Response
Funds were distributed to Hope Force International; Churches of Christ Disaster Relief; schools, churches and individuals in Gatlinburg, TN; First Colony Church in Houston TX; Sunset Church in Miami FL.
$12,000+ Community Agencies
$3,100+ & supplies Middle TN Schools
$86,800+ given to support our local community & national disaster recovery efforts
Funds given to agencies including The Cookery, Faith Family Medical Clinic, Hope Clinic, Interfaith Dental Clinic, Operation Standown, Room in the Inn, The Bridge Ministry
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Supplies and funds went to special projects in more than 20 local schools. Little Red School House provided supplies and gift cards to WHC members working in area schools.
$10,000+ Miscellaneous Expenses
Include car payments, home repairs, gifts for shut-ins and special people, travel expenses, monthly meals for residents at Wedgewood Towers.
$13,000+ Rental Assistance
$7,100+ Utilities Assistance
$7,600+ Funeral Assistance
230+ First Fruit grocery bags distributed
640+ Harvest Sunday grocery bags distributed
160+ Food Pantry grocery bags distributed
GLOBAL MISSIONS EL SALVADOR Efrain Gutierrez and Boanerges Flores have over 20 years involvement with WHC as evangelists. In 2017 Eder Vasquez was added as a third partner to work in gang-infested areas and discipleship ministry. These men mentor several smaller churches. NICARAGUA Valentin Flores works with four churches in one of the poorest areas of northwest Nicaragua. A scholarship program enables 50 children to attend school each year. Two churches oversee agricultural and pig co-ops for self-sufficiency for families in the church. In 2017 WHC added Jaime Vasquez as a part-time minister to assist Valentin. GUATEMALA WHC supports Dr. Walter Sierra through Health Talents International. Dr. Walter rotates mobile clinics in rural Guatemala treating the Mayan Indian population. His team offers both physical and spiritual support. He also serves as medical director of HTI’s Clinica Ezell surgery center. PAKISTAN Eric Masih has been a Woodmont Hills partner for over 30 years. Always under a threat of violence, Eric has regular worship, prayer and Bible classes with multiple
PAKISTAN (continued) churches in the Lahore area. An audio ministry to the illiterate members of the churches is growing. Hundreds of Urdu Bibles were disseminated in 2017. GHANA Kennedy Osei-Hwedie has established many churches in the Kumasi area in his 30 years with WHC. He is a trainer of church leaders and operates the country’s only Christian counseling center. He and his wife established and now operate a private Christian elementary school.
Missions Budget
8%
Travel/Misc
14%
Guatemala
6%
6%
Tamar
12%
Ghana
Nicaragua
20%
Grace Home
23%
El Salvador
7%
Pakistan
$200,147 Total Budget $236,046 Raised Mission Sunday NOTE: Designated gifts are not included in the missions budget. Sites receive more support than shown.
INDIA – Tamar This ministry leads women out of prostitution and helps rescue trafficked girls. It has been growing in Mumbai for six years providing safe houses, medical care, and spiritual mentoring for the rescued. Sewing provides an income for many of the women. Outreach to victims in another city is already underway for 2018. INDIA – Grace Home This residential facility shelters 35 children and teens whose parents were victims of persecution for their Christianity. Social worker Steven Jyothi manages the program that oversees care, protection, and education of the children as they are taught the Gospel. Grace Home has received awards from the local government.
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CHILDREN AND FAMILY MINISTRY
A Note From Julie
2017 has been a year of immense changes, a year of great spiritual growth, a year of heartbreak for some and joy for many, and a year where God’s presence was made known to our community through the dedication and enthusiastic work of our volunteers and staff. Week in and week out, our amazing team of volunteers pour into the children and their families through learning scripture, Bible study, prayer, relationship building, and play. As I walk through the classrooms and hallways each Sunday, I am inspired and awed by how much our volunteers serve and give to our children. It is an honor to be a part of such a vibrant ministry at Woodmont Hills Church.
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Events:
Sunday Classes • Preschool Praise • Wednesday Night Classes • Nursery • Movie Night • Dedication Day with 17 children • Church Wide Camp Out • Summer Series: Draw Near To God • Camp SONrise: Follow the Master Builder • VBS: Gadgets and Gizmos • Promotion Sunday • New look to CFM: branding and hallways.
STUDENT MINISTRIES A Note from Charlie
First and foremost, I love working at Woodmont Hills. I love the team that God has put together to serve students. I want to thank you for the way you have welcomed me and my family into the family here. I am proud of all our students—I see them leading in worship, relationships, missions, and service to our church family and community. I continue to be hopeful and excited for all the Lord will do through these growing disciples.
A Note from Chase
Studies: Spiritual Disciplines • Surprise the World • Missional Habits • Life of Jesus through Sermon on the Mount • Changes: New branding and logos • New Middle School meeting space • New tech outfit • Events: Girls’ Retreat: Release • Dudefest: God Teaches Through Tough Situations • 18 grads for Senior Sunday • Nashville Workcamp • Camp Telos: Story • HS Impact: Seek • Mission Trips to Nicaragua and Albany, GA • Trail Guide Retreat • Fall Retreat: Stranger Things/ Kingdom of God • Y.E.S. Shopping • Life Group Christmas Parties
The best part of working with the Middle School ministry is that I am not doing it alone! Our ministry has incredible Trail Guides, support team, parents, shepherd leadership, and an amazing group of students. Middle school is one of the most formative times of a person’s life. When I sit back and watch our students love God, one another, and serve the community around them, it is impossible not to be filled with hope for the next generation. When I reflect on 2017, I will always remember watching sixth graders experience church camp worship for the first time and being touched by eighth graders’ tears as they finished serving in Albany, Georgia for the last time. The future of the Woodmont Hills Student Ministry is very bright!
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OUR STORIES Celebrate
“You are my God, and I will praise you; you are my God and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His loves endures forever.” This verse from Psalm 118 was the focus of our Celebrate Event. Our family came together to acknowledge what God has done, appreciate how God is working now, and anticipate what God will do in the future through His church at Woodmont Hills. Through worship, stories, and prayer we encouraged each other and praised our God for His provision in good times and hard times. Three generations pictured leading prayer: Joan Gregory, Brooks Randolph, and Wayne Randolph.
Holy Week Holy Walk
For Passion Week, Woodmont Hills shared in an experience unlike any other. We saw Jesus through a new lens as he took his final steps through Jerusalem, and then examined that story in our own lives and our own steps. Each night featured a vignette written by Greg Greene and acted out by various Woodmont Hills members. Participants were then encouraged to share their own reactions to Jesus’ last days as all grew more in their love with him. The Great Hall transformed into a coffee house with a stage where each night presented a different set of props on the tables to coincide with the story.
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Caring Ministry: Vicki Wilson
I have many sweet memories of my Aunt Ethel plus a vivid memory of her quoting one of her faith principals of life, “Just do your part and it will all work out!” When I participated in and witnessed my first Harvest Sunday at Woodmont Hills Church sixteen years ago it was a visual example and blessing of remembering my Aunt Ethel’s faith. As bags of groceries are placed side-by-side on the stage, each person gets to participate in “just doing their part” that altogether becomes an overwhelming number of people that are blessed. This church family feeds over 600 mostly unknown families a Thanksgiving meal they would not otherwise enjoy. This year as part of The Caring Ministry, I have been able to be on a different side of “my part.” Seeing the many requests coming in to us from all throughout our area of middle Tennessee without one request being turned away makes me realize even more what God does thru our hands at Woodmont Hills. And because this is done with no expectation of acknowledgement, all gratitude can in turn be given to God.
OUR STORIES Realm
In June, the new Woodmont Hills Online Community, Realm, was launched. Providing improvements in church communication, online giving, and the ability to connect with other members, Realm has been an excellent tool to help us become better connected with one another. Realm can be accessed in a web browser or in the phone App. Members can now sign up for events with payment, post in their house church message board, or contact other members in the interactive directory.
Search and Hire
SomAe of the hallmarks of 2017 were the two staff and three minister hires. 22 members, shepherds, and ministers served Woodmont Hills by conducting searches in several committees to fill these positions. The search for our new lead minister concluded in June, after almost 13 months. Our two new student ministers were hired in January and March, and the front office positions were filled in August. Special thanks to those who served as committee members and to the church as a whole for your feedback.
Missions: Walter Sierra, MD
A patient came to a mobile clinic to consult because of an illness. He shared that he was a member of a gang and asked me to pray for him. He asked for medicine for his illness but was afraid because the gang he was associated with forbade asking God for help, even for his own health. Yet, he wanted to be healed so we prayed for him. God regularly manifests His greatness among our patients at clinics; because of this we have become known as a clinic where God is present. It impacted me that this patient paid the consultation fee not because he needed medicine but because he wanted me to pray for him. He wasn’t just looking for a doctor, but for spiritual healing.
Adult Ed
The adult education program made great strides in 2017. With the completion of the middle school space, our 10 adult classes all have their own meeting spaces in the main building. Most classes have a membership that spans 2-4 generations. We have added a Connect Class for guests, a spiritual formation class in the prayer room.
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O Lord my God, you have performed many wonders for us. Your plans for us are too numerous to list. You have no equal. If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them. -Psalm 40:5
As we look back over 2017, I want to encourage us all to pause long enough to celebrate God’s work in us, through us, and in spite of us! God’s work is too vast to capture with numbers. His plans are richer than we realize, but we are witnesses to his perfect work in the world. Behind the numbers and graphs in this report are the lives of people God is pursuing and transforming. Celebrate this gracious work with great anticipation for the things that are yet to come. Though we have put last year behind us, we will never come to the end of God’s wonderful deeds! God is inviting us to participate in a redemptive story in which we receive and extend extravagant mercy. What is God doing around us? What does God long to do? How can we join God in this work? Find the answers to those questions and we will find our place in the story God is still writing. The best days of Woodmont Hills are in front of us!
- Jeff Brown, Lead Minister Can you find the... 0 Batman building 0 Piggy bank 0 Tennessee State 0 Red “S” 0 Three Stars 0 Great Hall 0 Doctor 0 Two Babies 0 World Map How many of each can you find? ____ Pie charts ____ Line graphs ____ Mountain Peaks ____ New staff and ministers ____ Countries supported by missions