Welcome to MPC Connected! With our church family separated, we will be communicating with you throughout the week in a more intentional way, including emails from Max and Jeff, opportunities to serve others, and more. Enjoy!
Greetings MPC! We hope you are doing well and having a good week.
It's been about a month since we began our transition to livestreaming instead of gathering together. We know some of you are wondering how the church is doing financially. After all, while much of our giving is done online, a large component of our giving comes from the weekly offering that we usually take at church.
Yes, it's always a little bit awkward for one of the pastors to talk about money. Please know that this email is meant for your information and encouragement. We purposely wanted to wait for about a month of this season to even bring up how our finances are going. Everyone has enough on their mind without constant reminders from the church to continue giving, and we completely trust our membership to continue to support Meadowcroft's ministry.
We very much want to encourage you - the church is doing very well in this area, especially considering this unique season. Because of God's generosity through you, we entered this crisis in outstanding financial shape. Over the past few years, we've tried to keep our cash reserves at a reasonable level - where we would be able to weather several down months without adversely affecting our staffing and ministry, while still being generous with what we've been given. That's why, for the last two years, we've maintained this balance while also paying down our mortgage as able and supporting several ministries in need. God has been so kind to Meadowcroft, and He has led you, our church family, to be remarkably generous.
In terms of specifics for this year, as of March 31 the church was actually ahead of budget for the year in terms of giving. This was due, in part, to an outstanding January that was aided by a large one-time gift. Our February and March results were slightly below budget (fairly typical for early in the year). Of course, our March results reflect only a partial month of not meeting together - we had two "in person" meetings in March. April will represent an entire month of livestream-only services, and as of now we are a bit further behind our budgeted pace:
While our income has slightly lagged during our time apart from one another, we also anticipate that some of our expenses will be lagging as well. General Assembly is cancelled, Max and I are not currently spending money on meals or mileage, and there are some other minor expenses that should be lower than expected.
All this to say, the church's finances are healthy and we are thankful for your continued generosity. If you are someone who typically gives during the church service and have been constrained from giving due to our separation, we want you to be aware that you can give at www.meadowcroftchurch.org/give or you can simply mail your checks to the church office at 1255 South Westtown Road, West Chester, PA 19382.
As usual, we are overwhelmed by your faithfulness as a church in this area. We know that there are many, many churches that are in dire straits. By God's grace, Meadowcroft is not one of them. Our hope and prayer is that we will be in a position to not only continue to fund the immediate ministry of our church, but to be a help to the many who will need it in the months to come. We'll plan on updating you next month in this manner, especially if we are still separated.
Thank you!
Jeff
Though we are separated during this unique season, we want you to know we are available. We will be doing our best to stay in touch in many ways, but if you need prayer or just need someone to talk to, please do not hesitate to reach out to us. You can always send a prayer request to Donna (mpcadminteam@gmail.com). You can also email or call Max or Jeff or any of our elders. Max's email is mbenfer@meadowcroftchurch.org and his phone # is 484-886-7726. Jeff's email is jeff@meadowcroftchurch.org and his phone number is 540-818-6215.