Financial Update:
Hey Riverside,
It’s been a wild 3 1/2 years since Covid hit. Everything has changed and everything has gotten more difficult for many of us and churches are not immune. Churches all over are struggling post pandemic because the people who attend the churches are struggling themselves. It’s not a mystery but it is cause for concern for all churches and Riverside is no different. When the pandemic struck in 2020 Riverside was on solid footing. We brought in enough money to cover all the programs we put on and pay our ministers with enough left over to help out people who were in need.
But over the last 3 1/2 years the cost of living has gone WAY up, Riverside’s attendance has shrunk (for a variety of reasons) and the number of people who are in need has gone WAY up. We’ve always tried our best to help out where and when we can with folks who were struggling and that didn’t change even as the amount of money we bring in from week to week has gone down and the things we continued to buy have gone up significantly.
We knew that the amount of money we were spending was beyond the amount we were taking in almost immediately but it was our goal to see Riverside through the pandemic hoping that when things got back to normal we’d be able to catch up. Unfortunately that doesn’t appear to be happening and so we are at a point where we need to make some changes. We’ve already cut an awful lot out of the budget and we’ll continue to cut as necessary but we’ve got a fairly big hole to crawl out of that is left over from the pandemic.
From its inception Riverside has avoided talking about money much at church- other than when the topic came up in the course of a lesson series. We are still committed to that but wanted to make sure everyone who calls Riverside home has an idea of how things are going at this point. The good news is we own the building we meet in and have always been able to meet our obligations and help those in need with the donations we receive from our members. Riverside is a non-denominational, independent church which means we don’t receive any money from outside sources- our only source of money is the generous donations of the people who call Riverside home.
If you donate to Riverside I want to first say, “thank you”. Truly- from the bottom of my heart, “thank you!” Your generosity has made Riverside Community Church possible and I can’t tell you how much that means to me. If you’ve never donated regularly in the past we’d respectfully ask you to first pray for Riverside’s finances and secondly to consider donating on a regular basis whatever God may put on your heart- and if you’re someone that does end-of-year-giving for tax purposes maybe prayerfully consider Riverside in your charitable giving this year. Again, we know that many of you are in the same position that Riverside finds itself in with the cost of living rising dramatically and your paychecks remaining the same so I hope nobody feels pressured- that is not our intent. But I felt like it was time to update everyone who calls Riverside home on how things are going since this is your family too.
I do want to say that I am not worried- which is probably how we got here in the first place ;0) Rest assured I’ve got a team of folks helping to navigate all of this and I truly believe that the future of Riverside is bright. God has always been extravagantly generous to Riverside- maybe because we are reaching a group of people that no other churches are reaching out to- and I believe He’ll continue to make sure we have everything we need to operate for as long as He’s still got a purpose for us here in Eagle River.
Please be praying for Riverside’s finances. And whether you can help out financially or not, know that we love you and that we always will. In fact since we don’t keep close track of who gives how much to Riverside (other than to make sure you get an IRS donation receipt at the end of the year) nothing will change in how you’re treated or seen. If you have questions let me or Janet Wells (markwells@gci.net) know . And thank you for helping to make Riverside Community Church the awesome place that it is, was and will continue to be.
Jesus is awesome!
Pastor Ed
It’s been a wild 3 1/2 years since Covid hit. Everything has changed and everything has gotten more difficult for many of us and churches are not immune. Churches all over are struggling post pandemic because the people who attend the churches are struggling themselves. It’s not a mystery but it is cause for concern for all churches and Riverside is no different. When the pandemic struck in 2020 Riverside was on solid footing. We brought in enough money to cover all the programs we put on and pay our ministers with enough left over to help out people who were in need.
But over the last 3 1/2 years the cost of living has gone WAY up, Riverside’s attendance has shrunk (for a variety of reasons) and the number of people who are in need has gone WAY up. We’ve always tried our best to help out where and when we can with folks who were struggling and that didn’t change even as the amount of money we bring in from week to week has gone down and the things we continued to buy have gone up significantly.
We knew that the amount of money we were spending was beyond the amount we were taking in almost immediately but it was our goal to see Riverside through the pandemic hoping that when things got back to normal we’d be able to catch up. Unfortunately that doesn’t appear to be happening and so we are at a point where we need to make some changes. We’ve already cut an awful lot out of the budget and we’ll continue to cut as necessary but we’ve got a fairly big hole to crawl out of that is left over from the pandemic.
From its inception Riverside has avoided talking about money much at church- other than when the topic came up in the course of a lesson series. We are still committed to that but wanted to make sure everyone who calls Riverside home has an idea of how things are going at this point. The good news is we own the building we meet in and have always been able to meet our obligations and help those in need with the donations we receive from our members. Riverside is a non-denominational, independent church which means we don’t receive any money from outside sources- our only source of money is the generous donations of the people who call Riverside home.
If you donate to Riverside I want to first say, “thank you”. Truly- from the bottom of my heart, “thank you!” Your generosity has made Riverside Community Church possible and I can’t tell you how much that means to me. If you’ve never donated regularly in the past we’d respectfully ask you to first pray for Riverside’s finances and secondly to consider donating on a regular basis whatever God may put on your heart- and if you’re someone that does end-of-year-giving for tax purposes maybe prayerfully consider Riverside in your charitable giving this year. Again, we know that many of you are in the same position that Riverside finds itself in with the cost of living rising dramatically and your paychecks remaining the same so I hope nobody feels pressured- that is not our intent. But I felt like it was time to update everyone who calls Riverside home on how things are going since this is your family too.
I do want to say that I am not worried- which is probably how we got here in the first place ;0) Rest assured I’ve got a team of folks helping to navigate all of this and I truly believe that the future of Riverside is bright. God has always been extravagantly generous to Riverside- maybe because we are reaching a group of people that no other churches are reaching out to- and I believe He’ll continue to make sure we have everything we need to operate for as long as He’s still got a purpose for us here in Eagle River.
Please be praying for Riverside’s finances. And whether you can help out financially or not, know that we love you and that we always will. In fact since we don’t keep close track of who gives how much to Riverside (other than to make sure you get an IRS donation receipt at the end of the year) nothing will change in how you’re treated or seen. If you have questions let me or Janet Wells (markwells@gci.net) know . And thank you for helping to make Riverside Community Church the awesome place that it is, was and will continue to be.
Jesus is awesome!
Pastor Ed