Spring 2024 Congregational Meeting

Floyd opened with prayer.

Since our establishment as a fully constituted church at the beginning of November, 2022, preaching has been shared on a rotating basis between our two elders, Rod Amberson and Floyd Gadd. We have completed a series of sermons on I & II Thessalonians, a short series in the Psalms, a series in Ezra & Nehemiah, with an interlude in Isaiah for Advent. We anticipate that our current series in Hebrews will take us through to April of next year.

The Bible Study continues with Dust to Glory. If there are any suggestions for where to go next, please let us know. We would like feedback on the bible study.

We desire conversation. We've shared some of the ideas around congregational music that have influenced us. These were not intended to be the "be all and end all", but a conversation starter. If you'd like to be involved, please speak with us.

The pool of people who present lead congregational song is presently quite small. We look forward to expanding this group to include others. We elders place a great deal of value on leadership that is covenanted together and committed to "submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ". Since this is a role that involves public spiritual leadership, our normal practice will be to engage people who have expressed mutual commitment by aligning in covenant with GRBC.

Our arrangement with Sonlight is going fairly well. We currently pay $1100 per month for Sunday afternoons after 12:30 pm (Sonlight is almost always gone by 12:30 pm), and Thursday evenings upstairs. We have the option to use the building on Tuesday evenings as well. If we have additional needs, there may additional fees.

We are not averse to owning our own building, or leasing our own space, but are not in a position to make such a big decision at this time. We looked at Wesley United Church, when it was up for sale, but did not choose to put in a bid.

Donation Receipts have been delivered for all offerings. If you haven’t received yours, please let Rod know.

GRBC 2023 filing with the Canada Revenue Agency has been submitted and acknowledged.

The 2024 Budget is using the same categories as the 2023 Year End Statement.

In 2023 we used Church Management software that is part of the website, app, member management system, and giving platform (“Subsplash”). The price for that doubled in October, so we went with an alternative solution.

We want to support a pastor vocationally, which we can't do at this time. The budget in 2022 and 2023 did not make vocational support an emphasis. This was only due to circumstances as a church plant. It is biblical for the congregation to financially support those who labour at preaching and teaching. In 2024, we added additional "pulpit supply" to place greater emphasis.