WESTGATE CHURCH
Annual Family Update + Vote
In years past, WestGate Church has held an Annual Church Business meeting right around this time because it’s the start of our new fiscal year. Holding this meeting is not only part of our official bylaws, it’s good practice. This meeting traditionally served two purposes:
To review our church’s financial health and approve the new budget, and
To present and affirm new elders
But this year, in order to make it easier for everyone to participate, we thought we’d send every member of WestGate Church a video update from Jay and Andy which goes into detail about WestGate Church’s finances, budget and other matters.
Click on the video below to watch the update, and you can also scroll through this page for more details.
HOW WE STARTED LAST YEAR
Let’s start by quickly reviewing where we were last fiscal year. In Sept 2023, which was the beginning of our previous fiscal year, we were in a unique season, with costs increasing and overall giving lagging behind, resulting in a fairly large deficit. The Elders approved the budget, understanding that we would need to work together to prayerfully and wisely address and eliminate the deficit.
Last Fiscal Year’s Budget - 2023/2024 (Projected)
* “Net Operating Expenses” does not include depreciation expense
** Budget did not adjust for Here to Stay campaign & One Fund
WHAT WE DID TO ADDRESS THE DEFICIT
The first thing we did as a leadership team was to freeze any special spending on big ticket purchases. Any big ticket purchases were deferred to the next fiscal year.
Second, Jay shared the financial needs of our church at the end of the calendar year and invited our church - many who are new to our church family - to join us in giving regularly.
Third, we took time learning from churches our size and larger throughout the US on how to best staff our multi-congregational staff team. We rightsized and restructured our staff team, combining some roles and eliminating others. We did a large restructure of our facilities team, creating a new Campus Operations Team, as well as contracting janitorial support. All these staffing changes lead us to an annual savings of [$540,106].
Fourth, in the beginning of the year, we launched our Here to Stay Campaign. To be clear, we did not enter the Here to Stay Campaign because of a deficit. Our elders had been praying and planning Here to Stay for several years. But the timing gave us additional opportunities to invite our church to join us in increased worship giving.
We wanted to make sure we were running as lean as possible so we could be as responsible as we possibly could with your increased generosity.
Through God’s goodness, your faithfulness, and the hard work of our leadership team, we were able to see financial giving increase and net operating expenses decrease. It also means we’re in position to be able to give $2.5 million outside our walls within the first year of our Here to Stay campaign, which was the goal from the start.
HOW WE ENDED THIS PAST FISCAL YEAR
* With net-cash balance of $4,871,644
WHERE WE ARE RIGHT NOW
(FISCAL YEAR 2024/2025 BUDGET)
PROJECTED INCOME
We calculate the next year’s projected income based on previous year’s ACTUAL giving. And one thing we’re very excited about is the amount of increase in financial participation across all of our congregations, as you can see from the chart below.
This Fiscal Year’s Budget 2024/2025 (Projected Income)
Projected Expenses
Some clarifications about categories. “LOUD” is our fund that supports global and local work with our ministry partners, and we’re committed to give $2.5 million outside our walls during the two years of the Here to Stay campaign (a significant increase from our normal LOUD giving). Additionally, even with rising costs outside our control (insurance premiums increased 18 percent, for example) we were able to care for our staff while decreasing our staffing costs by 4 percent.
NOTE: You’ll see that that line item for LOUD is technically only [$2.39M], but that’s because we gave away more than [$100k] in Here to Stay dollars in emergency relief and other projects before this fiscal year even got going.
Here to stay campaign
Here to stay campaign update
Thanks to increased participation in the Here to Stay Campaign, we can fund growing ministries for our growing church AND we can give away $2.5 million annually outside our walls for the next two years.
Additionally, we’re currently projecting to have about $7 million for the building projects at both of our locations.
Our hope is that as you and others continue to give or begin to give for the first time, we’ll be able to fund the building projects even more fully.
Instead of quoting stats, though, we thought we’d show you two incredible stories about the impact of your giving to the Here to Stay Campaign, one across the globe and one right here at home.
Because of your giving to hts, we were able to…
Because of your giving to hts, we were able to…
AFFIRMING TWO NEW ELDERS
One other function of this annual family update is to affirm our new elders. We have invited two new elders to our team.
Elders are nominated by the staff and members of our congregation, and then go through a months-long vetting process. Our Elders serve and lead at the most central level of church leadership. They oversee and guard our mission, vision, values, budget, and theology, and hold our executive leadership accountable to the mission and vision of our church. They serve a critically important role for us.
And this year, we’re so excited to present to you two new elders who have been confirmed by our elder board.
LINDA WANG
Linda Wang is a leader and mentor who has been part of the South Hills congregation since 2017. She has served in different capacities including Women’s Ministry, Mentorship, Kids Club and Guest Experiences. She is blessed to be a “retired stay at home mom” having raised two incredible children, Hannah and Matt. Alongside her husband Walter, she is discovering the joys of a new stage in life, traveling and investing more in her community. You will often find Linda drinking a cup of green tea, listening to a podcast or driving to pick up another treasure she found on Marketplace.
TODD URBAN
Todd Urban is also a member of our South Hills congregation. For years Todd, and his wife Ileen, served with the ministry of Young Life. More recently, they have served as Marriage Mentors at WestGate Church, and Todd has overseen the WestGate Water efforts for the South Hills campus. Professionally, he does business development for a local technology company. Todd and Ileen have three grown children, have lived in San Jose all their lives and been WestGate members for many years. Todd's a passionate and gifted leader and we’re excited to add him to the team.
If you have questions or concerns regarding the affirmation of our new elders CLICK HERE
CHANGES TO BYLAWS + ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION
CHANGE 1: BYLAW
The first change is a small update to our bylaws.
WestGate Church has always operated as a 501(c)(3) under an automatic exemption for churches. All charitable giving to WestGate is tax-deductible.
We are applying for formal 501(c)(3) recognition so that WestGate can be searchable in public listings and databases as a tax-exempt organization. This will help our church receive additional non-profit donations as well as discounts from products and services.
In order for us to qualify for formal 501(c)(3) recognition we are required to add a simple boiler-plate phrase to our bylaws recognized by the IRS.
We are proposing the following phrase to be added to our bylaws:
“The organization is organized exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code”.
CHANGE 2: ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION
Secondly, we are proposing to make an edit to our Articles of Incorporation.
Our Articles of Incorporation are a legal document filed with the state to officially create the organization. They establish WestGate’s name, purpose, structure, and key information and are required to operate lawfully and to qualify for tax-exempt status with the IRS and California state authorities. They also provide a clear framework for the organization’s mission and governance.
Our legal counsel brought to our attention that we misnumbered our articles of incorporation in the last amendment we made, and in the process accidentally overwrote our “irrevocable dedication and dissolution clauses,” which are required for us to operate as a California nonprofit. So we need to add that back in. It used to be in there, but we accidentally deleted it, so we’re going to put it back in. We’ve changed nothing.
Here are the clauses we accidentally deleted and are putting back in:
IRREVOCABLE DEDICATION + DISSOLUTION
The organization is organized exclusively for charitable, religious, educational, and scientific purposes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, or corresponding section of any future federal tax code
Upon dissolution of the Church, the Church shall, after paying or making provision for payment of all the liabilities of the Church, distribute, all of the assets of the Church to any organization designated by the Board of Directors of the Church which is of like faith and order and is exempt from taxes under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (or the corresponding provision of any future tax law of the United States).
Next steps
questions?
We need you, as a member of WestGate Church to VOTE on our new budget. If you have questions about this year’s budget click on the button below + fill out this form and we’ll answer your questions to assist you in your vote.
vote
On Sunday (September 29, 2024) you’ll get an email as a member of our church family. You’ll be invited to vote from 9am-9pm. We’ll make sure we follow up to let you know the results via email.