GENER O S I T Y.
STORIES OF GOD AT WORK
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GENEROSITY: STORIES OF GOD AT WORK
LETTER FROM OUR SENIOR PASTOR One of the tasks I have in my role at UALC is to keep a steady read on the pulse of our church’s finances. If you’re anything like me, sometimes looking over a financial report starts to make your eyes glaze over! However, after hearing stories from various ministry leaders about the impact this church’s giving has made on people’s lives in our community and the world, I just had to tell you that you made my day! Because of your GENEROSITY, we have touched hundreds of thousands of lives around the world this last year, and I just wanted to take some time to share some stories with you! While it would be impossible to count all of the ways that your giving has enabled our ministries, we’ve decided to spotlight just a few items which we think are especially exciting! So, go ahead, keep reading! In the following pages you’ll see an update on our “Pray. Give. Go.” Mission Challenge, you’ll learn more about our Vacation Bible School (VBS) ministry and some of the reasons we’re celebrating this most recent session, you’ll be introduced to some of our newer staff members, and you’ll get a copy of the list of our current Council and staff team for your review.
While we certainly still have financial needs in this season, we want to celebrate God at work! We continue to pray and trust that God will provide for our church’s needs. Many of you have taken the step in your spiritual maturity to understand that as Christians, we are blessed to be a blessing. I can’t thank you enough for your commitment to GENEROSITY this year. We couldn’t do it without you! In Christ,
TJ Anderson Senior Pastor and President
GENEROSITY: STORIES OF GOD AT WORK
MISSIONS SPOTLIGHT A FOCUS ON OUTREACH Meeting Needs Around the World At UALC we believe that anyone who is a follower of Christ is called to take part in the “Great Commission”—to make disciples of all nations. God has always had a heart for all people groups. As a church, we are committed and passionate about bringing the Good News of Jesus in word and deed to people here and around the world. When we serve, we join in God’s mission to this world. God is at work all around us, rescuing lost people and healing brokenness in our world. God is asking each of us to give our lives for His Kingdom, here and now, and to bring love, compassion, and hope in the name of Jesus. UALC supports nearly 100 individuals and ministries all across the world who are sharing the love of Jesus with those who do not know him.
MISSION CHALLENGE Pray. Give. Go. UALC is a church with a heart for leading people to Jesus, so we can fulfill our mission, “To be and to make disciples of Jesus Christ.” The “Pray. Give. Go.” Mission Challenge has been a call to action for every one of us. We each need to intentionally commit to pray, to give, and to go. Although the campaign started on June 8, 2014,
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our commitment to missions is ongoing, and this challenge has just wrapped up its second full year. We want to share with you some of the ways your commitment has made an impact.
MISSION CHALLENGE PROGRESS 2014-2016
70%
30%
Nearly 70% of our financial commitments have been fulfilled! Our goal of over $1 million towards local and
global missions funding is not yet complete! Please prayerfully consider how you can help us finish well.
Performance
1000 1 mil. 350
People committed to pray for ministries and missions throughout our church.
Dollars committed to give to support
missions opportunities across the world. People committed to participate in
either a short-term mission trip or crosscultural mission opportunity.
GLOBAL REACH OF UALC MISSION PARTNERS
STRATEGIC ALLIANCE Meeting Needs Around the World
China Cuba Ethiopia Ghana Haiti Honduras India Nicaragua Tanzania United Kingdom
United States Alaska Arizona Illinois Michigan Minnesota New York North Carolina Ohio Texas
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GENEROSITY: STORIES OF GOD AT WORK
MISSION CHALLENGE SPOTLIGHT
Provided 2,300 Haitians a quality Christian education
Supported local church planters to reach Columbus
COCINA educates students from pre-school through grade 13. Ranked as a top-ten school in Haiti, the program provides educational, spiritual, and vocational support for all of its students.
UALC has supported church plants such as River North Church, Genesis Lutheran Church, and Veritas Community Church in hopes of reaching people in Columbus to further the Kingdom.
Project: COCINA Association School and Clinic Mission Challenge Donation: $156,382
Project: Local Church Plants Mission Challenge Donation: $513,617
Taught English to local immigrants in our neighborhoods
Packed over 1.5 million meals to combat hunger
With over 44 languages spoken in Hilliard schools, immigrants in our community are in desparate need of help learning English. UALC shares the love of Jesus with ESL classes that have nearly 150 families in attendance and ministers to 350 children.
UALC organized and facilitated meal packing events that helped deliver nutritional meals to needy people in the name of Jesus. On two occasions, over 2,400 volunteers from our community united together to serve others.
Project: SON Ministries Family ESL Program Mission Challenge Donation: $71,021
Project: Community Meal Packing Mission Challenge Donation: $362,481
GENEROSITY: STORIES OF GOD AT WORK
MINISTRY SPOTLIGHT Vacation Bible School (VBS) continues to be an incredible opportunity for our church to open its doors and welcome kids in Jesus’ name! We had hundreds of kids walk (and sometimes run) through our doors. They met Jesus through the many volunteers who pulled together to make this experience happen. Both young and old danced, sang, played games, and opened up God’s Word. In His Word, they found a God who is passionately pursuing a relationship with each of them. We are thrilled to report numerical growth from the previous VBS year in terms of kids that attended VBS. But more importantly, we saw kids grow exponentially in their faith and in their prayer lives. Dates
June 13-17, 2016 Sessions held
4 Sessions Number of Participants
916 children
406 do not attend UALC 8
Number of Volunteers
293 volunteers
A week before VBS started, I prayed over the curriculum each day. I gave Wednesday’s lesson a lot of prayer because there was going to be a call for the students to give their lives to Jesus! Once the week started, Monday and Tuesday flew by very quickly and my class was full of some amazing kids who soaked up everything that they learned and kept wanting to learn more!
We asked [the kids] to close their eyes and raise their hand if they would like to give their life to Jesus...every single child raised their hand!
After discussing the Holy Spirit on Wednesday, some of the kids even prayed out loud for the first time! Later that day, we explained Jesus’ sacrifice and the kids were so moved that Jesus had done all of that for them! We asked them to close their eyes and raise their hand if they would like to give their life to Jesus and begin a relationship with him. Every single child raised their hand! They all accepted Jesus and it was amazing because over the next two days, we could address the whole class and lead them in the first steps of their relationship with Christ! VBS this year was fantastic! -Jessica Nippa, 3rd Grade VBS Teacher
GENEROSITY: STORIES OF GOD AT WORK
FINANCIAL SPOTLIGHT We need to do a better job of talking about and thanking our congregation for their generosity, as well as linking generosity to our mission. One way we’re excited to improve on this is to make generosity the theme of our worship and preaching this November. As God continues to reveal his will for us, we will need resources to accomplish His will and move forward in ministry. Unfortunately, the recent negative trend in giving has obvious implications in planning for the 2017 ministry year. UALC’s ministry leadership works carefully to spend the resources that you have entrusted to us. However, in the face of increasing opportunities
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for spreading the Gospel, the reduction in resources inhibits our ability to respond. There are countless stories of how God has been working in our midst over the last year, and your generous financial support makes our ministry together possible. Would you prayerfully consider an increase in your regular financial generosity to UALC? God’s generosity to us knows no limits. He freely grants us salvation and daily blesses us with health and strength. Our faithful and generous giving honors God and enables His work to be done here in Columbus and around the world.
HOW WE SPEND OUR RESOURCES
12%
10%
~0.3%
GENERAL &
ADMINISTRATION
FUNDRAISING
WORSHIP
2%
FELLOWSHIP
2%
37%
DISCIPLESHIP
TOTAL
$6.37 MILLION
(OPERATING BUDGET AND RESTRICTED FUNDS)
SERVICE
36%
EVANGELISM (INCLUDING MISSIONS)
The chart above, from our audited financial statements, shows how we allocated the resources that you provided during the 2014-15 fiscal year. 11
GENEROSITY: STORIES OF GOD AT WORK
NEW STAFF SPOTLIGHT
KATIE BORDEN Director of Worship Start Date: September 1, 2015
ANDREW FULLER Director of Communications Start Date: March 14, 2016
Katie Borden has been involved with the music ministry of UALC for most of her life, and served as the worship leader in our Lytham Road Celebration Service. Last fall, Katie was hired full time to become our Director of Worship. A trained music educator, Katie’s role is to oversee our many talented worship leaders across all of our services and to help bring unity to our Sunday morning worship experiences. Katie’s desire is for UALC to engage in worship and experience a personal encounter with God, resulting in a life transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.
After reviewing over 200 applicants, God led us to Andrew Fuller to fill this recently vacated position. He came from Wheaton College in Chicago to become our new Director of Communications. Andrew leads our communications ministry which incorporates creatives of all types—artists, graphic designers, web developers, writers, video producers, actors, musicians, etc.—and focuses on improving engagement and unity between our ministries, as well as between our leaders and the congregation. Essentially, it’s Andrew’s job to tell the story about what’s going on at UALC.
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ALEX BACON Technology Specialist Start Date: January 11, 2016
LAWRENCE NUNAMAKER Facilities Manager Start Date: May 16, 2016
JODI COLEMAN Director of Preschool Start Date: July 1, 2016
With a degree in engineering, Alex Bacon’s passion is enabling worship and ministry through all things technical. As the assistant to both our worship technology and information technology teams, you’ll usually find Alex helping someone with a computer, projector, sound mixer, TV, lights, or anything else with a power button.
Lawrence has been a faithful member since 1986, and served on the Board of Properties many years ago. With a mix of decades-long contracting experience and a friendly, encouraging smile, Lawrence now oversees our facilities and events team. His job is to keep our buildings ready to use so our ministries—and people from our community—can use them to meet their needs. Lawrence is thrilled to join our team and is a smiling champion behind our “Outrageous Hospitality” initiative.
Jodi has been a teacher since 2003. Now, as the director of our preschool, Jodi gets to lead the preschool team that serves the many families that trust them to educate their young kids every day. With a staff of fifteen teachers, Jodi also serves as a member of our Family, Youth & Children’s team, working to collaborate on ministry efforts for children from birth through college.
We’re thrilled to welcome these new staff members to our team and are excited for how God will work through them here at UALC!
GENEROSITY: STORIES OF GOD AT WORK
LEADERSHIP AND STAFF SPOTLIGHT OUR LEADERSHIP AND STAFF TEAM continues to be excited and hopeful for the work that God has in store for Upper Arlington Lutheran Church.
CHURCH COUNCIL Tom Slemmer Chair Bill Wulf Vice Chair Howard Greene Past Chair Lisa Igel Council Member (2014-2017) Scott Jeggle Council Member (2014-2017) Dave King Council Member (2014-2017) Kristin Schoeff Council Member (2015-2018) Elizabeth Seely Council Member (2015-2018) Beth Voltmann Council Member (2015-2018) John Ness Council Member (2016-2019)
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Steve Rish Council Member (2016-2019)
DISCIPLESHIP & LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Stacy Schad Council Member (2016-2019)
Joe Valentino Executive Director of Ministries*
OFFICE OF THE SENIOR PASTOR Rev. TJ Anderson President and Senior Pastor* Lee Anne Otto Executive Assistant to the Senior Pastor*
COMMUNICATIONS Andrew Fuller Director of Communications* Laura Fullen Associate Director of Communications† Kirsten Svendsen Communications Specialist† Nancy Sloan Communications Specialist
Judy Webb Director of Small Groups
FINANCE & SHARED RESOURCES David Bowersox Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer* Linda Keller Accountant† Wanda Hairston Human Resource Manager† Susan Jones Receptionist Elizabeth Lake Nursery Coordinator†
*Denotes Executive Staff; †Denotes Part Time
Lawrence Nunamaker Facility Manager† Marilyn Loscocco Scheduling/Resource Manager Jessica Efird Special Events Coordinator† MaryAnn Smith Special Events Coordinator† John Mellor Maintenance Technician Steve Snyder Logistics Coordinator† Mel Hazlett Hilltop Maintenance Technician† Steve Gill Director of Worship Technology Carole Roys Information Technology Manager Alex Bacon Worship Technology/ Information Technology Assistant Shelly DeRoberts Computer Technician†
Rev. Jeff Morlock Pastor Care and Senior Adults
Andrea Taphorn Director of Children’s Ministry†
Becki Bork Director of Congregational Care Rev. Paul Ulring Pastor† Visitation
Jodi Coleman Director of Preschool†
WORSHIP Katie Borden Director of Worship and Worship Leader of Mill Run Sanctuary*
Rev. Buff Delcamp Pastor† Prayer and the Holy Spirit David White Director of Family, Youth, and Children’s Ministries* Aaron Thompson Director of High School Ministry
Becki Bork Worship Planner, Lytham Road Traditional Service Brian Carlton Choir Director, Lytham Road Traditional Service† Allan Willis Organist†
Catherine Scurria Director of High School Ministry
Tim Krock Worship Leader, Lytham Road Celebration Service†
Brittany Anderson Director of Middle School Ministry
Dave Fullen Worship Leader, Lytham Road Xalt Service†
Kim Good Director of Children’s Ministry†
Austin Church Worship Leader, Mill Run Xalt Service†
Jane Alderman Data Entry Specialist
MINISTRY OPERATIONS Rev. Brodie Taphorn Pastor* Ministry Operations Rev. David Mann Pastor Missions and Internationals
45 staff members + 12 council members 1 incredible team 15
CREDITS Editorial
Andrew Fuller Nancy Sloan
Financial Reports David Bowersox
Linda Keller
Paula Burger Produced in house by the staff of
Upper Arlington Lutheran Church.