Hope Lutheran Church seeks to strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ,
to proclaim the
gospel to others, and to strive for unity in Christ.
Copyright © Hope Lutheran
Hope Lutheran Church
113 South Jefferson Street
P.O. Box 87
Minneota MN 56264
(507) 872-
(507) 872-
Email Us:
Readers Needed: If you would be willing to read during a Sunday service, please
contact the church office at 530-
Coffee & Fellowship—Following services in the Fellowship Hall.
What’s with the coffee?
It’s our way of saying, Welcome home, we’re glad you’re here and we hope you stay
a bit. You sip your beverage and enjoy a quiet moment with God, or you chat with
your neighbor in the pew, we are delighted that you’ve chosen to participate in today’s
worship! THANK YOU to the generous folks who have donated juice, water, cups, etc.
to make this possible. We hope to see you again next week – we’ll have the coffee
on!
Remember Online Giving—Please remember that the online giving is always available. Go to www.hopeminneota.org and click on the green “GIVE” button.
Reminder—There are 150th Anniversary Ornaments, T-
Teen Power is doing their annual shoe collection through the winter months. Please clean out your closets and bring your new or used shoes, sandals, boots, and tennis shoes to Hope Lutheran Church to donate to people who need them. All shoes that are beyond reusable will be shredded and used for playground mulch.
Greetings,
A number of congregational members have been inquiring lately as to Hope Lutheran's financial position after my last letter to the congregation in early December. Unfortunately our financial position has not improved much since the last time I wrote the congregation.
On a typical week (weeks without special events or holidays) we receive between $1400 and $1800 in offering, most of the time we receive around $1600.This means that in a normal month without special events or holidays our church receives approximately $6500 in regular giving. Unfortunately our monthly bills total approximately $15,000 and can be higher depending on extra ordinary expenses.This translates to a shortfall of $8500 on a normal month.
Obviously, holidays and special events help offset this normal month shortfall, however even special events and holidays do not increase our giving revenue in the amounts necessary for our congregation to meet our financial obligations.At the end of the year, based on annual giving, inflation, and estimated expenses our congregation will have a deficit of approximately $20,000 to $25,000.This is on top of the $14,000 deficit from 2022.
From the Church Treasurer:
From a practical standpoint we are not going to increase church attendance by 125% overnight. Likewise I do not expect, nor am I going to ask, that families increase their giving by 125%.Our congregation is very blessed to have large endowments and scholarship programs.We now need to explore how we can create a revenue stream that will help supplement the operations of our congregation so we may all continue to come and worship.
The trustees have cut all expenses that can be cut without affecting how we worship.If we cannot find an alternative revenue source we will need to reevaluate staffing, church hours, worship services, and how church assets are utilized going forward. I ask that everyone in the congregation think up ideas that would help our situation and provide those to me in writing.We may need to employ multiple strategies, so no idea is too small. I will be working on short term solutions in the interim that are focused on maintaining our current culture and worship practice, and will be updating the congregation monthly.
Thank you in advance for all of your ideas and prayers.
Barry R. Gronke, Jr.
Treasurer
