Dear Fellow-Servant:
As promised in my May 1 letter to you, I am sending this follow-up note to better detail the steps Foursquare leadership has taken over the past months to address our current financial challenges. Once again, we pause and thank the Lord for HIS grace and mercy to us as we have worked toward a balanced budget for fiscal year 2010. It has not been without significant personnel cost and cuts. While many churches have navigated similar paths, we have taken this moment to move toward streamlining administrative oversight and eliminating redundancies. More resources and responsibility will be landing in the field (as we take these steps), where it can be most effective.
So how did we get there? Referring to the previous Q&A section, I highlighted the long-standing practice of living with a deficit that was funded from other income streams (interest and aligned businesses). We have moved away from that practice to a more conservative, disciplined approach of living within the tithe income. That said, the revised budget for 2009 still shows a deficit in our core operations (NCO, Admin, FMI), but it is much reduced. That $3,248,356 deficit will be covered by draws from our investment portfolio unless we continue to experience extraordinary blessing. We now have a solid, board-approved, balanced budget for 2010 that shows a zero deficit. Much thanks to FMI, NCO, and Administration for their efforts to reduce costs. The following report resulted from the special finance committee serving the Foursquare board of directors. It has been prepared by the corporate treasurer, Sterling Brackett. We trust this will help by making you more completely aware of full familiar with our financial status and forecast.
Download Revised 2009 Budget (PDF, 180 KB)
Your brother in grace,
Dr. Jack W. Hayford
