Day of Pentecost: Red as the color of fire is used on this day when we remember the tongues of fire descended on the crowd in Jerusalem. In contrast to the color of scarlet, Pentecost’s red is a bright color

Trinity
United
Lutheran
Church

Finance Ministry

Financial Ministry Team (FMT) - The primary responsibility of this team is to provide support to the programmatic ministries of the congregation through effective management of our financial resources, including but not limited to the annual budget and investments. This team will monitor the work of the treasurer and the financial secretary
Communicator. Jerry Larsen

Annual Report for Finance

Our annual church budget is a major responsibility of the finance team and the church council who approves the disbursement of our funds. A good church budget helps us to implement and prioritize our current programs or ministries, provide a way for our church members to work together, provide guidance in distributing available funds, encourage good accounting of funds, challenge members to provide funds to carry out ministries of the church and to authorize church leadership to act within guidelines. Our annual budget has always been based on a zero based budgeting process which is what the majority of churches use. This is to start each new budget year at zero with no balance or deficit carried forward from the previous year. Most of the past 15 years we have ended our fiscal year with a budget deficit that is paid for by taking money from our reserve funds in order to pay our bills and start the new budget at zero. The deficit for year 2006 was $43,980.59, which is much less than we had projected. When you review the treasurer's report you will see that expenses were down for the year in several categories. This is good news as it is the lowest deficit we have had in several years.
For the year 2007 we have $1,400 less in member pledges and we project reduced earnings from investment income of $1,500 do to a reduction in our reserve funds. We will have a substantial reduction in the administrative expense part of our new budget because of not having a full time Pastor. This will reduce our budget deficit for 2007. The finance committee is concerned about our reserved funds because they have been substantially depleted by the year after year budget deficits. During the past year we had to make withdrawals of $47,070.00 from the reserve fund account. Trinity's reserve funds available for operating expenses at the year end total $281,654.78. For this past year our regular giving from the membership covered the administrative portion of our budget. This is a cost that we need to control and reduce if possible when plan for the future.
The Investment Committee of John Hansen, Rich Nelson and Jerry Larsen met with our investment advisor Chuck Johnson in the Lake Forest office of the Baird Company on July 14, 2006 to review TULC investment account. About 90 minutes was spent discussing investment alternatives with a goal to maximize income for the account. The decision was made to sell some stocks and purchase 1,265 shares of the Pimco Income fund. We also had a $40,000 CD mature on 07/20/2006 and reinvested these funds in a $20,000 1 year CD and a $20,000 3 year CD. Our total investment income for the year was $17,089 and our total year-end invested funds account with Baird is $319,823.91.
1 want to thank those who served on the finance committee again this past year and have given freely of their time and talent. They are John Hansen, Bob Johnson, Tom McConnell, Linda McConnell, Karen Varsek, and Ross Salyer and also the other investment committee members John Hansen and Ed Nelson