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financial rep photoOn Sunday, July 15, 2018,  Church Council Representative for Finance, Dan Byers, talked about MLC’s Financial Management as part of this summer’s “3M – Meet Marvelous Ministries” series being held from 9:45 – 10:45 a.m on Sunday morning.  Byers, along with the Financial Committee, serves the church guiding all aspects of Messiah’s financial assets, loans, and other strategic financial decisions.  Byers and the committee research and provide insight to he church council on financial matters, and with the council members, draft Messiah’s proposed operating budget each year, a guiding decision which is voted on annually by members at the November Congregation meeting.

During the  3M gathering, Byers introduced the following members giving each time to speak about their areas of responsibility.

Marc Neely – serves as Messiah’s Financial Secretary.  Marc’s role as Financial Secretary is to record and report individual member donations in all its forms; be it through a Sunday offering,  online donation, monetary gifts to a specific ministry or memorial, even in-kind gifts that members purchase for the church.   Marc has served as Messiah’s Financial Secretary for many years and helps forecasts member giving in the process of determining church budgets for the coming year.  Marc is the only person with access to member giving records and statements, so members with questions about their statement should contact him directly at financialsecretary@mlutheran.org    Marc manages the envelope numbers and maintains them annually along with Council Representative for Stewardship, Heather Neely, who coordinates MLC’s annual Stewardship Campaign for members to pledge their financial gifts, and makes sure new giving envelopes are available for members each year.

Finance 3 M Photo

Dan Byers, standing, listens as Marc Neely speaks about his role as MLC’s Financial Secretary.

Greg Kilby serves as Messiah’s Treasurer.  Greg has served as Treasurer since 2017 and oversees Messiah’s bank accounts.  Greg pays bills and invoices and issues payroll and reimbursement checks.  He is responsible for reconciling the bank accounts against recorded deposits and expenses in the software. Each month, Greg submits a Treasurer’s report to the council and once approved, posts it to the bulletin board outside of the Church Library.   Council representatives are responsible for approving all reimbursement requests in their ministry areas.

Adam Neely is one of several members who serve on Messiah’s annual Audit Committee.   Each member focuses on a specific area, and Adam’s role this year has been to check that  Messiah’s accounting records accurately match what has been collected and reported in physical records.  The Audit Committee typically works for just a few months during the summer months, shortly after MLC’s council is elected, helping to ensure a smooth and accurate transfer of the Accounting responsibilities from one Executive Council to the next, since those usually changeover in May.  Anyone with an interest in serving on the Audit Committee can speak to Dan Byers.

Lee Smith serves as the Counter Coordinator.    Lee, who has served a variety of roles on the Finance Committee, has recently taken over this role. His main priority is to schedule and recruit Counters on Sunday after each service.  Two unrelated people are required to count after each worship service.  Lee emphasized how straightforward the task of counting has become, noting the new software, Dan’s recently revised “step by step” Counter’s Instruction sheet and Checklist.  Anyone interested in becoming a counter should talk to Dan Byers, Lee Smith or Laura Peterson.

Laura Peterson is one of Messiah’s Counters willing to train anyone interested in learning the ropes.  Laura talked about the process of counting itself.   Typically there is one person who opens up the stack of offering envelopes and organizes the checks and cash for counting.  The other counter sits at the computer and records check and cash to the member’s envelope number / giving account of the software.  Peterson said that the process is very intuitive once you get the hang of it, and goes very quickly,  especially if you use a few basic key-strokes on the keyboard instead of the mouse.  While some counters may shy away from using the computer, she encouraged everyone to give it a try.   All money is physically secured and deposited in the bank immediately after each service.   While questions do come up from time to time on how things should be recorded, the system in place allows anything that the counters do by mistake can be checked through by Marc Neely and corrected if necessary.