2015 State of The Church Q&A

The 26% of people giving includes members and regular attenders. The criteria for being a regular giver is giving one time a month for that quarter. So for the last quarter of the year, someone would need to give one time in June, July, and August to be counted as a regular giver. This is not based on the amount, since staff and elders do not see amounts, only based on a list of names that we get from our bookkeepers. Each individual giver is counted as 1 giver and each couple is counted as 2 givers, even if only one spouse’s name is on the list. We currently have 219 members and 188 regular attenders for a total of 407 members and regular attenders. We have 107 regular givers out of 407 members and regular attenders which is 26%. Of the 107, 89 regular givers are members. That means 40% of our members were regular givers in the last quarter. Keep in mind that this only includes donations that were given in someone’s name. It is possible that more members are giving, but giving loose cash.
For the past year we had a total of 204 unique givers (couples were not counted as 2 givers for this number). The average giving amount per person was $2478. The top 10% of givers (20 people) gave 57% or our total budget. The bottom half of givers (102 people) gave 4% of our budget. So our giving is top heavy, but this is not uncommon amongst churches.

During the past fiscal year (Sep 2014 to Aug 2015), WBCC gave $25,713.65 towards assisting with the needs of the Wells Branch community.  This money went towards assisting others with rent/mortgage, groceries, car repairs, utility bills, and other needs.

People who apply for benevolence go through an extensive process that includes submitting an application and 1 or more personal interviews to better understand their circumstances.  During this process, the Benevolence team attempts to maintain a good balance of meeting felt needs of each individual such as the ones listed above while also being good stewards of the money that God has given WBCC through the church body.  Specifically, the Benevolence team tries to ensure that true needs are met without enabling the individual, so that they will be set up to have more success financially both in the short term and long term.

For the current 2015-16 fiscal year, WBCC has dedicated $35k of the church’s budget to Community Impact ($25k towards Benevolence and another $10k towards various community-related ministries such as the Mechanic Ministry, Stripper Ministry, School Outreach, etc.).

People often ask these questions about our membership process, skeptical as to why there seem to be so many “hoops” to jump through.  It’s true. We take membership seriously and with a lot of gravity. Committing yourself to a body of believers is weighty. But it’s also wonderful. When Covenant Members join, they commit to a spiritual family that provides encouragement and support. They are called to a biblical degree of responsibility, service and sacrifice to their brothers and sisters. Our elders and leaders also pledge to assist our Covenant Members with care, counsel, prayer and teaching.

We need to be reminded of this covenant and how serious it is. Much like a wedding anniversary. Jonathan Leeman, author of Church Membership wrote, “Church membership is a formal relationship between a Church and a Christian characterized by the church’s affirmation and oversight of a Christian’s discipleship and the Christian’s submission to living out his or her discipleship in the care of the church.”

So each year, we take time to consider our covenant and remind ourselves of the beauty of being a part of a body of believers.

Pastoral ministry is something God calls individuals to; and those who answer the call are privileged to be shepherds of God’s people!  When we look at the mission our church has been given by the Lord to reach people, specifically in our local community here in Wells Branch and the Greater Austin area, we find that the need, not for temporary relief, but lasting life-change in Christ, is overwhelming. Our church is committed to investing in Pastors who can equip the saints (that is, our church body) to engage this mission with excellence.  Our new pastoral staff structure allows our church to grow without having to hire an endless line of employees to do the work of ministry. Instead, our four executive pastors, under the guidance of the elders and lead pastor, are focused on equipping our church in our four ministry lanes: Membership, Magnification, Maturity, and Mission.

Taking care of pastors is one of the first priorities of the elder board. We are a family of believers committed to reaching people with the life changing reality of Jesus Christ and our pastors lead the way in this. We have walked all five of our pastors through their financial packages and are seeking to make them all paid as much or more than pastors doing the same work of churches of our size and budget. Spiritually, our pastors will always be under attack as these pastors make sure that the church fulfills the vision of the elders. Weekly the four executive pastors meet one on one with the lead pastor to check on their spiritual health as well as for him to review their performance. Also weekly, the staff attends HCBC’s staff worship service where they don’t have to plan, prepare, or serve. They simply worship with HCBC’s staff and hear a message from one of the pastors on staff there. Furthermore, the staff quarterly does staff fun days so that church isn’t just simply work.

The Elders are in accountability relationships within the Elder Board. The Elders meet on a regular basis outside the Elder meetings which are every Friday at 6 am. The Friday meetings provide an opportunity for the Elders to pray together regarding specific individual or family needs as well as the needs of the church. The Elder wives are also meeting together to pray for each other as well as the Elder husband’s needs. One of the most important spiritual needs of the Elder Board is also the prayer of the congregation. Prayer for the Elders and staff is crucial for the protection against spiritual attacks from the enemy. Elders and staff pray for the congregation and the congregation prays for the leadership. This is unifying for the church.

Our community groups are the heartbeat of our church.  Because of that, we want everyone in our church to have meaningful connections through our community groups.  Our Community Group ministry is shepherded by our Pastor of Maturity, guided by CG Coaches (pastoral staff) and led by our amazing community group shepherds.  Our shepherds meet monthly with their coaches to receive encouragement and training.

Our heart is to equip our shepherds (our lay-pastors) to engage and lead the family of God here at Wells Branch Community Church.  Our desire is to follow the example of the New Testament church found in Acts 2:42-47.  If you’re interested in learning more about Community Groups, or details on what they look like, contact our Pastor of Maturity at phill@wellsbranchchurch.com.

The Well will continue to meet after Holland leaves for the church plant, and will continue to be a place where young adults can meet with God, and be equipped for gospel-ministry in our city. We have been prayerfully preparing for the transition for a long time, and are excited about the future of The Well. At some point shortly after Holland moves to East Austin, we will transition to a new pastor for our young adult community who will continue to preach on Tuesday nights and develop young adult leaders for the work of ministry. We are currently interviewing for this position, and are excited about the men that God has brought to us to consider this leadership role.

Music is a fantastic way for our church to teach truth and engage hearts, no matter what the age.  Our plan is to incorporate music into as many of our classes as possible.  If you’d like to be a part of our children’s ministry as a ministry partner, and if you have musical skills, you can email our Pastor of Maturity at phill@wellsbranchchurch.com.

Our long term dream is for our classes to start to engage more specific groups of kids.  A K-2 and 3-5 class is definitely a part of that plan.  However, we want to make sure we’re wise with how quickly we add new elements to our Children’s ministry, ensuring we have the proper resources and ministry partners to make those classes the best they can be!  If you’re interested in helping us get there by offering your time, contact our Pastor of Maturity at phill@wellsbranchchurch.com.

Global missions has actually always been 4% and remains so again this year.

One of the greatest challenges we have is leadership. This has been the greatest strain for every church in the association. As we are no longer a church plant, we are tasked with raising up our own leaders. However, being a church that is 6 years old, we have many new believers or have become serious in their faith just recently. The elders have exhausted every potential elder at the church and those that are qualified have each told us that now is not the right time for them to elder our church for various reasons. Hill Country Bible Church is our grandmother church and with an attendance of over 6,000 on a weekly basis, Chris felt it a good use of personal capital to recruit seasoned and mature Christians to our church with the purpose of furthering our ability to reach people with the life changing reality of Jesus Christ. We will always look first to those who aspire to eldership within our church, but until those that are qualified are ready to take on the mantle of leadership, we will look to our grandmother church for elders and help in the leadership capacity.