Leadership Board

Church budgets approved; new leadership team members elected

The church’s budgeted spending for 2026 will be nearly identical to the overall 2025 level while income is projected to grow by about 6 percent.

The overall operating budget and the Parables worship budget were approved as presented by the finance team during the Dec. 11 meeting of the Leadership Team.

The Finance Team proposed a 2026 operating budget with expenses totaling of $781,955 and budgeted income of $773,000. The plan was approved unanimously.

The Finance Team also proposed a 2026 Parables worship budget with expenses of $14,375 and budgeted income of $7,000. This also was approved unanimously with the note that Parables has reserve funds to cover the gap between projected income and expenses.

Leadership Board Chair Mike Vanderspool highlighted the recent election of three new members of the leadership team who will begin their service Jan. 1, 2026. Those new members are Andrea Alford, Curt Collins and David Shaw. They were elected during the Nov. 15 annual church conference and will take over for Dawn Goellner, Mary Hoey and Ray Stankewicz who served one-year terms.

Vanderspool and other Leadership Board members thanked the outgoing members for their commitment to Chelsea First as the church made the transition to the new simplified accountable structure of church governance.

“We thank you for your insights, for your patience and for your tough questions over the past year,” Vanderspool said. “Please know that you will be missed during our future deliberations.”

Among other items addressed during the December Leadership Board meeting:

• During the time for spiritual formation, Todd Hubbard led a discussion about questions and Christian faith. There are many who have questions about various aspects of traditional Christian teaching, which lead to more questions. Even people of deep faith question aspects of Christianity, Todd shared. We also were reminded that United Methodist teachings (Wesley Quadrilateral) emphasize a four-pronged approach to our faith that includes the use of reason along with a scriptural foundation, tradition and personal experience.
• During the time for leadership development, Senior Pastor Joy Barrett asked the Leadership Board to consider the book “Launching Leaders: taking leadership development to new heights” as the basis for leadership development presentations in the coming year. The leadership team members will review the book and circle back to the question at the January meeting.
• Pastor Joy reviewed the new people who have attended worship recently and shared average attendance figures for 2025 (as of Dec. 7) compared with 2024. The averages so far show increases over 2024:
• Sanctuary in person, both services: 198.4 compared with 193.9 in 2024.
• Parables in person: 25.5 compared with 25.2 in 2024.
• Virtual: 120.3 compared with 99.1 in 2024.
• Pastor Joy also reported that all goals set for 2025 have been accomplished. Those include creating a new hospitality leadership team; fully implementing the simplified accountable structure of church governance; and hiring the church’s director of lifelong faith formation as the launch of that churchwide effort.
• Monthly consent agenda items were approved unanimously. These items include the minutes of the November meeting and the October consolidated financial report. There was one guest at the meeting.