Dear SCC,
In light of the current Covid-19 pandemic, the SCC board along with Pastor Ben and Pastor Andy feel it is valuable to address the current financial situation of SCC with transparency.
As you are well aware many businesses have had to temporarily close or have moved to reduced hours. The church has not been able to avoid this scenario. The staff have done an amazing job, working from home, moving to online services, Zoom meetings, and LIFE Groups. Although the church is scattered, in accordance to self isolation and social distancing to prevent the spread of Covid-19, we still are able to worship our God together through online music, kid’s resources, and sermons.
Thankfully through all of this God has continued to provide for your church's needs. That said, there has been a decrease in our income in the last few weeks. This is mainly due to donors having to adjust their giving methods. We have seen some switching to online giving through (aplacetobelong.ca/
As a board we are committed to navigating this time wisely, while ensuring that we continue to pursue the mission that God has given us. For the last number of months God’s provision to SCC has been gracious. We are currently financially stable with no debt, funds in contingency, Overflow, and are in the black with our bank balance. With the obvious reduction in programs and ministry outreach we have also put a spending freeze in place except for in the area of personnel. In regard to the provisions mentioned and expenses frozen, we believe we can provide for the ministry staff through April.
With much prayer, discussion and planning we believe that if the current situation continues it will be wise to significantly reduce expenses and potentially lay off ministry staff. As of last week, the staff has been informed of this possibility. However, we do have a retention plan to return staff, when life returns to ‘normal’. In the meantime, our SCC Central team will be working with everyone to ensure they have all things in order to receive the necessary Employment Insurance benefits due them. We will also apply for any and all wage subsidy or supplemental income programs provided by the government, should we qualify.
Following the possible layoffs of staff, SCC will not go dark. Instead we will continue to operate with a skeleton staff of three individuals, at a reduced time of 50%. These staff members will ensure that the essential church operations such as online services, church office, and other administrative and pastoral functions will be able to continue to serve the needs of our church family.
As we are all aware, we do not know how long the Covid-19 pandemic will last for, or how long it will take for us to lower the curve and for the government to reduce the bans on gatherings of large groups of people. But our hope and prayer is that by taking these proactive financial measures now, once we see the end coming to these restrictions, we will be able to bring back all staff and have the church operating at full capacity immediately. This will be necessary since we expect that there will be many ministry needs and opportunities in the future.
Though we are sensitive to the financial struggles of many, we want to stress the importance of giving within the church. The church functions on the commitment and the generosity of those who call SCC home. This has been especially clear over the last few weeks as we have been able to pay our expenses while seeing an income reduction. If you are able to continue to give at any level, please know how grateful we are. Faithful generosity will ensure that we will be able to provide for the needs within the church and community during this unprecedented season and into the future.
Should you have any questions, or concerns please feel free to contact me or anyone of the Board members. You can do that through email: board@aplacetobelong.ca
Please keep praying. May these words of truth comfort and sustain us all until we meet again.
“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear.” - Psalm 46:1
Sincerely,
Don Cundiff, Board Chair