Our Giving

2008 Narrative Budget

How your financial support fulfills West Market Street’s mission to glorify God as we make, nurture and send forth disciples of Jesus Christ both here in Greensboro and across the world.

Our Commitment

Each of us committed to support the church through our gifts when we joined.  As a church we are dependent on those gifts that are received from you, the members, in response to God’s grace and blessings.  Individual commitments, or pledges, provide approximately 79% of our income.  Additional income comes from people who make gifts but do not complete a commitment card, special offerings, loose offerings, program income, food service, and designated income from Endowment Funds.

At West Market Street United Methodist Church (WMS) we offer ministries for persons of all ages and stages in life and faith development.  We seek to connect with persons throughout the week as well as in worship on Sundays.  Local and global missions, music and the arts, leadership development, and growing disciples of Jesus Christ are passions for our congregation. 

Our Operating Budget for 2008 contains continued expansion of many of our current programs and ministries which seek to increase our evangelistic efforts in the community and to nurture one another in our faith development.

So how will our combined gifts be used?

Missions and Outreach      17%

West Market Street continues to make a significant Christ-centered impact on the lives of people locally and globally. 

West Market Street will continue to provide assistance to those in need in a variety of ways: cooking monthly breakfasts at Potter’s House, providing a Thanksgiving dinner to 300 families, partnering with two churches to build another Habitat for Humanity home and supporting Washington Elementary School with our presence and gifts.  Financially, we will continue to support Greensboro Urban Ministry, Salvation Army, Shepherd’s Center, and other local agencies.  Through our scholarship assistance, more than a dozen low income families are able to attend the Early Childhood Center.

Beyond Greensboro, 2008 will see building teams sent to Bay St. Louis and Mexico, a medical team serving in Guatemala, and a partnership with three churches in Bulgaria.  West Market Street will pay for the Bulgarian pastor’s salary and provide funds to make complete a medical clinic.

Ministry Programs             9%

2008 will bring an increased effort at reaching our new neighbors downtown through advertising, direct mail, and other strategies.  Plans include growing the new contemporary Sunday worship experience, increasing our usage of new technologies and enhancing communications with the congregation through greater use of the Internet and email.  The budget includes an increase for the successful faith-based recovery program, Celebrate Recovery, which began in 2007. 

Budget funding also provides resources for Sunday School, small-group ministries, age-level ministries, music programs, fellowship and recreational ministries, spiritual formation, and worship - in essence, the lifeblood of ministries within the church.

Pastoral Expenses                25%

Our pastoral staff is under appointment by the Bishop and Cabinet of the Western North Carolina Annual Conference.  This is an annual appointment from July 1^st of one year to June 30^th of the next year, and is subject to change as determined by the Bishop and our Staff-Parish Committee.  The church provides salaries and all benefits for pastors, including health insurance, pension, housing, travel and continuing education.  We currently have four full-time and one part-time pastor under appointment, one retired pastor under contract, and one non-United Methodist pastor.

Staff Expenses                  31%

All other church staff - administrative assistants, maintenance, food service, pastoral care, and music - is included under Staff Expenses.  Expenses in this area include salaries and benefits for eligible staff members.

Property                     14%

Expenses incurred to keep the buildings and property in good repair and functioning properly.  2008 sees an increase due to higher utility expense, janitorial supplies and the cost of maintenance contracts.

Office Administration            4%

All of the things that are needed to keep the church offices open and running efficiently.  MarketPlace, computers, postage, copiers, office supplies, security, our annual external audit, telephones, and general office expenses make up the total of this ministry area.

Click here to download the 2008 Narrative Budget in PDF

Projected budget:   $1,900,000.00

Washington Elementary School

Building Houses in Mexico

Kids in Mission

West Market Street Sanctuary

Giving God Your Best…Congregational Care Ministry

As Stewards of God’s Kingdom we are entrusted with caring for all of creation.  Our Congregational Care Ministry provides one way we can give back to God by caring for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ.

One of the truths of the Christian faith is that we were not created to live in isolation.  We were created to be part of community.  From the Garden of Eden to the story of the Israelites to the formation of the Christian communities in Acts, God is in relationship with persons in and through communities.

Several years ago, a group of people began to think about ways we could do a better job of being present to one another during times of grief, illness, and transition.  The Congregational Care Ministry began to expand the limited ministry the pastoral staff could offer to include more laity in hands-on support of West Market Street United Methodist Church’s membership.  Rev. Bill Ellison’s vision and wonderful experience in pastoral care and counseling helps to equip laity for caring ministry.

At times of loss, the Consolation Team reaches out with personal contact and follow-up to those who are grieving the death of a loved one.  The Pastoral Care Team visits in hospitals, homes, and nursing centers.  The newly formed Communion Team takes Holy Communion to shut-ins.  Our Health and Welfare Team offers education, screenings and support for healthy living under the guidance of our parish nurse, Sandra Howell.  All these ministries help us to be the caring community God calls us to be.

A new ministry that is impacting lives in an incredible way is Celebrate Recovery.  This faith-based recovery program offers persons a supportive Christian community in which to deal with challenging issues of addiction, unhealthy life patterns, and codependency.  The weekly meetings on Thursday nights include dinner, fellowship, and an opportunity to grow healthy in Christ. A men’s group and a women’s group are led by capable, compassionate facilitators.

Do these ministries make a difference in lives?  Are we sharing Christ with others?  The answer to those questions is a resounding “Yes!”  Should you support the ministry of your church to enable us to continue to provide the resources needed to make, nurture, and send forth disciples of Jesus Christ through Congregational Care Ministry?  Think about it.  Pray about it. 

Giving God Your Best...Visual Arts Committee

How can a piece of art impact our faith?  It can’t unless we are open to observing it on a level that goes beyond a passing glance.  Looking only at the surface we deny ourselves what could be an enlightening and enriching experience.  Looking deeper and exploring the meaning of a piece of art can touch us at the core of our being and become a spiritual or even prayerful experience.

How do we look beyond the surface?  To do that, we need to study the piece, think about it, ask questions and try to enter the mind of the artist who created it.  Episcopal priest Michael Fox, in his book Creativity, explores the communion of the Divine in the simplest expression of human creativity.  It is this communion that makes a piece of art great and enables it to teach, inspire or express spiritual truths that can be hard to put into words.  It is this communion that we can feel when we take the time to look beyond the surface.

Visual art has been part of the Christian experience since the time of Christ.  It is inclusive and invites people of all walks of life, all faiths, and all nationalities to experience its presence.  It is often acquired on the basis of taste and for that reason the Art Committee deliberately selects a variety of styles.

The Art Committee’s goal is to acquire the kind of art that impacts spiritual growth.  That’s why we have guidelines for selecting art for the walls and spaces of WMSUMC.  Our dream is to have every member of the congregation understand the mission of our committee and view the art on our walls at a deeper level.

Giving God our best is really the heart of Evangelism.  Throughout the course of our lives, we are all going to give our lives to something.  We all will, all people do.  The followers of Christ know that the highest and best use of a human life is to give ourselves to pointing people to faith in Jesus Christ.  Our highest calling, giving God our best, is to have our lives serve as signposts that point others to God.

Members of the Evangelism Team work hard and prayerfully to bring people to God and to our church.  This team is made up of approximately 10 people dedicated to the vision of bringing in new disciples to God’s kingdom and specifically to West Market Street United Methodist Church.  Patricia Troxler is the chairperson and Rev. Rob Hutchinson is the staff liaison.  Anyone interested in becoming a part of this vital committee should get in touch with Patricia.

Our church neighborhood is growing with people living in condos and houses right at our doorstep.  The dream of the Evangelism Team for 2008 is to go out and meet these people and invite them to our church.  One way we reach out is through PIE (Partners in Evangelism).  This group, a vital part of the Evangelism Team, is made up of teams of two who go out into the neighborhood to eight or nine homes on a Sunday afternoon to tell these folks about our church, leave them material about West Market Church and invite them to the services.  The teams then return to the church to share some pie as they share their experience.  We will extend this invitation more than one time, but always with open hearts and open arms to make others feel a part of WMSUMC.

Each Sunday, after one of the three services, members of the Welcome Team go out to visit first-time visitors.  Team members carry materials telling the first-timer about our church.  In 2008, the Team will give a travel mug with the church’s logo to the visitor.  This Welcome Team currently has approximately 16 members and others are indeed welcome to join this group.

Members of our team work to make  contacts with visitors who have attended services at West Market more than once.  We do this through phone calls, letters and e-mails.  Our dream for 2008 is to follow up even more with those who are frequent visitors of our church, working to make them feel welcomed as they move to join the church.

We have just started a new class, Exploring West Market, which consists of two sessions of two hours each.  The focus of these classes is to familiarize those who have recently joined or who plan to join our church with what West Market is all about.  We introduce them to ways they can begin to feel a part of the church, and we will help them identify where they are in their faith journey as well as the ways God has equipped them for their journey.  We  discuss with them how God might be leading them to commit to WMSUMC with their prayers, their presence, their gifts and their service.

We expect 2008 to be an exciting year with our team striving to carry out our church’s mission to glorify God as we make, nurture and send forth disciples of Jesus Christ.  The church needs the gifts and talents of all of us to carry out this mission.  We are asking you to pray for our team as we reach out to the unchurched as well as to those who are seeking a new church.  We invite all of you to join us as together we witness to one another and to the community and we strive to give God our best.