Trinity Together | March 2016

SETTING A NEW YEAR'S BUDGET: How DOES IT WORK?

PREPARED BY DREW FIELD, EXECUTIVE PASTOR

During the fall, all of our church’s Leadership Teams, along with related staff, prayerfully set goals and corresponding priorities for their spending in the year to come. Then, in the first week of January, the Finance Team, comprising officers and lay people in the church, set an overall budget goal based on giving and spending from the past year. For 2016, the goal was to keep the giving target at $2,350,000 (the same as the 2015 budget).

With this overall budget goal set, the month of January is then spent by Ministry and Leadership Teams working to adjust their budgets as needed so that all of our various ministry budgets can coexist under our overall budget target. This is a process where different Ministry Teams or committees give recommendations, and where teams needing increases in one area may work to cut back in others to reduce their overall budget impact. The portion of the budget relating to staff salary and benefits is proposed by the Personnel Committee of the Session, with final Session approval.

In February, the budget approved by the Finance Committee for the year is made available to the congregation, both electronically and through a congregational budget meeting, during which the Finance Committee presents and fields questions about the budget. If you were unable to attend Budget Night a few weeks ago and have not yet seen the budget, you can access it here. The packet includes a detailed FAQ covering the most common questions about our budget. This budget will be finally reviewed and approved by the Session later this month.

FEBRUARY MEETING NOTES

The Session met on February 11 for a long meeting with many items. After welcoming visitors and praying for the congregation and ministries of the church, the Session processed the basic administrative matters of minutes, reviewing the deacons’ minutes from the previous year, heard the report from the latest Presbytery meeting, and transferred members.

The Ruling Elder Oversight Committee (REOC) led the Session to assign elders to care for other elders in their region, granted a sabbatical to David Turner with thanks for his service and proposed a policy on disclosure of competing interests. After discussion, the new policy was adopted.

The Session then discussed the contours of a potential policy for additional unordained deacons with respect to our denominational boundaries and current structure. This was a preliminary discussion, with hopes to carry on further discussion in the coming months.

A new parish care plan was discussed at length and then adopted. The CCLT, which developed the plan, will test it during this year and then refine or improve it as needed. The CCLT will communicate the plan to the congregation. The plan redraws the boundaries of the parishes, to help balance the number of congregants and officers in each region. It also clarifies the roles of elders in providing care.

The Session then went into executive session to review the budget and continue a set of personnel committee items.

Next Meeting: Thursday, March 17, 7:00PM in room 201 as a full Session meeting.

Questions? Email: session@trinitycville.org

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Session FAQ

We’ve run out of questions that people have asked about the Session. Do you still have a question about how our Session or CGC works? Let us know by emailing session@trinitycville.org and we will address it in future issues of the Session update.

Nine men nominated as officers last fall are completing their time of training and prayerful consideration for this undertaking. The congregation will be asked to elect them at a meeting on May 15. Click here to see their names and faces so you can get to know them and pray for them.

MEET ELDER MICHAEL MARTIN

Michael Martin has had connections to Trinity since his second year at UVA, first attending a worship service at St. Anne’s School auditorium in 1978. He became a Trinity member before he graduated, and over his moves of the next 14–15 years he maintained his membership and visited frequently. During that period he obtained a master’s degree in communications from Regent University in Virginia Beach and cared for his mother during the last two years of her lengthy battle with breast cancer. Just over 20 years ago he returned to live full-time in Charlottesville and reconnected at Trinity, where he served with the Stephen Ministry and discipled young men through small groups.

Michael now works as a mortgage consultant. In 2005 he and his business partner established the local office of Crown Mortgage and have expanded with more staff over the years. In a prior career Michael was a writer for several television shows, and he continues to find a break in writing as he works on a novel. He also enjoys watching movies and working out. For eight years he has given time to serve as the president of his homeowner association.

MEET DEACON BOB MUIR

Bob and Nancy Muir moved to this area in summer 2008 from Northern Virginia, where they had spent most of their married life raising their son and daughter. Sending both children to Mr. Jefferson’s University, the Muirs found the area to have increasing appeal with each visit. Son Drew first brought them to Trinity on Easter 2004, and they began connecting with people they met here.

In NoVa Nancy had a private practice as a registered dietician, and Bob worked for AES Corp., an international energy company. To escape the NoVa pace, they bought a home in Afton on Route 151. Bob was on the road most of the week during their first three and a half years here, while Nancy began work with Legacy Hospice. Together they found serving on the local Young Life committee an important activity as they reflect on its role in their daughter Missy’s life. She now lives with her Ecuadorian husband, Francisco, in Quito and is the mother of two young daughters. Her brother, Drew, is an executive consultant with CEB and lives in San Francisco with his wife, Sharyn.

In 2012 after retiring from AES, Bob began to have time available during the week, and he accepted nomination as a Deacon and was ordained the next year. He immediately found a call to the Facilities Committee as the Diaconate grappled with the need to spend increasing time and resources for upkeep of our building and its systems. Bob was initially contracted to assess and catalogue the immediate and longer-term facility needs and to plan with our leadership how best to address them. He later joined the church staff on a part-time basis to continue that process and oversee ongoing maintenance and periodic special projects.

Bob is grateful to have been given this opportunity to use his gifts for the service of our church and for the way the church with its members and staff have ministered to his family. He comments that as Trinity reached out with its Sunday morning van to serve his children while they were at UVA, he wants to help see that activity and many others continue for the advance of the Kingdom.

 

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