Budget Season

Budget requests were due from each ministry today as the first step of many in developing our budget for the next fiscal year which begins April 1, 2010. At the same time our administrative team is working through income projections for the next year, which this year will be quite the challenge. We have very faithful and generous contributers to the ministry, yet our donations are trending lower than last year at the same time. And we are now beginning to see the impact of local layoffs and cutbacks. I know that all of us would appreciate ongoing prayer as we seek to make wise decisions about ministry, programming and staffing for the next year!

[Note: Several have noted that January donations seemed to be significantly below our budget plan for the month, but that is primarily due to way we recorded some year end gifts. The result was that December was above projects and January below].

New Opportunities

As of today there are 31 families that have committed to leaving CBC on March 15. Thirty-one families who have made the bold commitment to work together in planting The Downtown Church in the Bellevue core. We are excited about the ministry challenge that they collaboratively own.

Since these families are from the core of CBC members that means there are probably 31 new oppportunities to serve opening up at Crossroads. Pastor Jerry just mentioned that he was aware of ten faithful servants in our current children’s ministry that will be moving to TDC. So there will soon be challenging serving opportunities for men and women of CBC to use their unique gifts and talents and passions to serve in our highly valued Children’s ministry.

Check with Rebekah at rwillisford@cbccross.org for specific opportunities; or keep checking our volunteer opportunities or employment opportunities pages on the web.

Stephen Janho. The College Guy. Welcome!

Crossroads is committed to seeing teens and young adults come to faith in Jesus and grow in their obedience to Him. It has been amazing to see how God has brought a long series of gifted men to lead these ministries. The foresight of Elders past in staffing our student ministries with full-time ministry staff has seen demonstrable results.

In the past few years we have seen some changes in the College ministry. More students are graduating from high school and staying local to attend college. We moved a stone’s throw from Bellevue Community College, and we sense the need to be open to that campus. In light of that, the youth team along with the rest of the church leadership, determined to hire a full-time College leader to develop a ministry to our younger adults in these college age years. After reviewing fifty applicants, conducting serious interviews with more than a few, we found our guy in our backyard. OK, he was in Puyallup, but close! He’s been here on a part-time basis for some weeks, and started full-time on January 1.

So, enter Stephen Janho. Stephen tells more about himself, his wife Deborah, and his five kids on our staff pages. What you won’t find until you meet Steve, is that he is absolutely passionate about God, the Scriptures, and all things related to following the Savior!

Stephen joins our Student Ministries Team working with Donny Vanker. As a side note, the Janho’s are looking for options to relocate near the church as soon as they can. If you are aware of any options, even if short-term, let Stephen know at sjanho@cbccross.org.

Check out the updated website for college-age folks.

Talk to a Real Person

One of our administrative commitments at CBC is that when someone calls during our normal office hours a real person will answer. To that end each of our “front of the building” administrative assistants are trained to answer the phones and field basic questions. It is a small thing, but important to us … we want to make a personal impression with our first contacts. It doesn’t always work, but at least you won’t have to wade through multiple levels of voice prompts and menus to get to someone.

Mona and Ginger (our primary receptionists) do great as well with making all who stop by feel welcome even while carrying out their other assigned tasks. Hopefully you enjoy the touch of grace that they and the rest of the administrative support team bring to Crossroads.