164. Congregation Meeting

As we will be managing our finance starting from next year, the budget that team leaders submitted and approved by Strategic Leadership Team needs to be accepted by the congregation through “Congregation Meeting.” So far, KSC managed all the finance, so they have also handled such finance-related meetings as well.

Moving forward, congregation meeting will happen every year. Every “Adult Registered Baptized members” are invited, as they are the full members in our church. Also, they need to be active in attendance in the last six months. They will be notified of the meeting through email in advance.

The primary purpose of the congregation meeting is to have the budget accepted by the congregation. But I also want to take this time to cast vision for our ministry, because budget without a compelling vision is just about playing with numbers. So think of this time as members uniting together with our church vision at the center. Also, it will be time to communicate significant changes and plans that will happen in the coming year. (if there are)

Someone said, “complete autonomy is an illusion.” It is because every freedom comes with responsibility. And regardless of how much freedom we have, we will always be accountable to someone. We did not pursue financial autonomy so that we can do whatever we want apart from KSC. We did it so we can be accountable to our members and grow in responsibility to manage God’s resources. As we know from our experience, it is “responsibility” that challenges us and helps us to mature as a result.

We understand that the privilege to manage our own finance comes with the responsibility to handle finance with accuracy and transparency. I’m very thankful that we have a capable leadership team and finance team to ensure God’s resources be managed faithfully. But we also need our members’ contribution and participation to hold ourselves accountable and grow together toward our vision of creating a church unchurched people love to belong.