Introducing the Resilient Partners Program!
April often brings a sigh of relief, as winter comes to a close and ushers in Spring showers, bird songs, and flowers.
And just as April signifies the turning of one season into the next, it is also in April when one fiscal year turns over to the next. It’s budget season! As Fiscal Year ‘23-’24 is coming to a close, it’s time to report the state of Resilient’s finances, and the plans for what’s next—especially in light of the launch of our Resilient Partners Program.
Let’s start with the report.
May ‘23 - April ‘24 Financial Position
Budget: $200,000
Money Spent: $201,164.85
Income: $254,456.54
Revenue: $53,291.69
Total In The Bank: $292,775.68
FY 23-24 Giving Breakdown
The numbers don’t lie—The Lord has continued to bless substantially with our finances! Our tithing base continues to grow, we hit our fundraising goal for our missions trip, and our institutional partnerships continue to give us an incredible financial foundation.
May ‘24 - April ‘25 Budget
Budget: $190,000
Staffing: $112,500
Dakota Center Rent: $19,500
Missions Trip: $20,000
Compassion + Outreach: $12,000
Remaining Ministry Expenses: $26,000
Anticipated Income: $190,000
Resilient Tithers: $100,000
Remaining Institutional Partnerships: $50,000
Missions Trip Fundraising: $20,000
Resilient Partners Program: $20,000
As you can see, next year’s budget will be right in line with the expenses from this last year, while still making some cuts for ministry expenses while allowing 5% raises for my co-pastor, Mason, and I.
But as you’ve probably noticed by now, a portion of our anticipated income is coming from the Resilient Partners Program. And that begs the question…
Why a Partners Program?
As our 3-year institutional partnerships start to wrap up this fiscal year, we should be on track towards being financially self-sustaining…. right? So why not try to boost our church tithing base up so we wouldn’t need a Partners Program? Or why don’t we just make a $20,000 cut from our budget, so our expenses better line up with what our income is?
Well, there are a number of reasons why:
1.Church Planting Sustainability Often Takes More Than 3 Years
The 3 year rule commonaly associated with launching church plants assumes you grow to a new church to 200+ congregants so they can tithe enough to support your budget.
First, reaching 200+ congregants in 3 years is exceptional for any church plant. The fact we are even averaging around 100 people in attendance after 2 years in a community of 12,000 people is abnormal in itself.
Second, for churches to get to 200+ people in 3 years, the mission behind the church plant can shift from reaching the particular demographic it set out to reach in the first place to bringing in wealthier people to tithe and support the ministry. So missional outreach often gets subverted by financial sustainability.
While these 3-year partnerships are ideal, it’s more realistic for about 5-years for a church plant to become fully sustainable
2.Church Funding Is Changing
People don’t tithe like they used to, consistently giving 10% of their income to the local church.
While the church still should instruct its people to tithe, many churches are finding that the tithe alone is no longer financially sustainable to do everything a church does. So, that means 1 of 2 things
Continue to cut ministry expenses to reflect increasingly smaller tithes and offerings, because the church is dead set on continuing to use this traditional funding model. Or
Get innovative with additional funding sources
Some of these innovative funding sources include launching nonprofits for the missional arm, or businesses that could bring in supplemental income. Or, in our case, a Partners Program.
3.Our Unique Context: Church Plant + Campus Ministry
Given the above reasons, there is also the very unique situation of our church context.
We are a hybrid of local church plant and campus ministry.
Local churches are traditionally funded by tithes and offerings. On the other hand, campus ministries, such as Campus Crusade, Navigaters, Chi Alpha, or InterVarsity, are often funded through outside support and fundraising.
During the Fall and Spring semesters this last year, we have been averaging around 100 people in attendance—with 60-70% of them being college students and young adults. This is exactly the demographic we set out to reach, because of the disproportionate amount of churches who are not reaching the incredibly high young adult population in Vermillion from the University of South Dakota.
However, that means that 60-70% of our church is making very little money. And even if they are making money, it is part-time pay at best, with much of their funds going towards paying off loans or tuition.
Hear me: We continue to teach and instruct our people to tithe—especially the college student. I imagine that whenever a college student tithes $10 a week, Jesus smiles at him just as he did at the widow’s offering of her two mites.
But of course, this means that even if all of our students and young adults tithed, we would not be able to sustain our current ministry. And we refuse to shift our mission from reaching Vermillion’s young adult population to wealthier adults (especially if they belong to other churches already).
So…. that’s where the Partners Program comes in
Supplementing Income to Expand Missional Impact
The Partners Program doesn’t replace our church’s tithes and offerings. It supplements it. It helps fill in the gaps of the college student’s tithe, so that we can continue to expand our missional impact here in Vermillion for years to come.
And, you can also rest assured that we are not creating this program out of poor stewardships of our funds or greed. Just look at our finances to date: $50,000 in revenue this fiscal year, with just shy of $300,000 in the bank. That’s pretty amazing, if you ask me.
But the question remains: How do we continue to steward the mission God has given us here? And how do sustain our funds in such a way that adequately reaches lost people and creates a church that students and young adults love to attend?
Who This Is For
So who is this for?
Resilient Alumni: Perhaps you are a previous USD student who attendeded Resilient Church, but have now moved and have a fulltime job. Now, you can give back to Resilient through the Partners Program.
Parents of Students: Perhaps you are a parent, grand parent, or other relative of a current USD students, and you are just excited for your kid to be involved in a church like Resilient. So out of your excitement, you can give towards the Partners Program to help supplement your child’s tithe to sustain Resilient’s Ministry
Friends of Resilient: Maybe you are a previous donor of Resilient’s startup, or even just a good friend of myself and Pastor Mason, and you’d like to continue supporting this ministry, in addition to your tithes at your local church.
What We Need: $20,000
For this fiscal year (May ‘24 - April ‘25), we are raising $20,000. That’s only 20 people who give $100 a month! But of course, if we raise more than that, then we will only be that much more ecstatic 😊
There you have it! An in-depth look at our financial position from this last fiscal year, as well as casting the vision for why we’re launching the Resilient Partners Program. If you’ve stuck with me this far, that clearly means you believe in what we’re doing and care about the future of Resilient Church. So I live you with this:
Would you prayerfully consider partnering with us?
If you so, then you can click the button below to make your tax deductible gift 😊
