THE STREET CHURCH Annual Report

Transcription

1 THE STREET CHURCH Annual Report 2017

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3 Introduction We are commissioned by Jesus Christ, the architect and builder of His church, to participate in this eternal goal of helping people become total followers of Jesus Christ. People from every nation; people who are saved, and people who are yet to be saved. As a church, we have taken on the responsibility to do our part in the region where we live. Wellington has around 500,000 people living in it with at least 450,000 of those people not currently in a relationship with Jesus Christ. The vision for our part is doing everything we can to reach 1% of those people, that is 4,500 people. We have responded to the challenge to reach those people within the next five years. This vision demands that we embrace a new model of church. For the past 100 years, The Street has met in a single location. For us to have the capacity and the reach to make the kind of difference we want to make in the region, we need to branch out. COME AS YOU ARE It s the only way to meet Jesus Jesus Christ loves to meet the real you, no masks, no pretense, just as you are. The Street is a place of honesty and authenticity where everyone is welcome. It is a place of compassion where Grace and Truth abound. Come and encounter the God of Grace and Truth and find freedom. BE TRANSFORMED As you encounter God and discover true life Knowing Jesus changes us. His love empowers us to put the old life behind us and experience the freedom that comes from living for Him. We help each other to become more like Jesus every day as we engage in community and allow the Word and the Spirit of God to transform us to be more like Jesus Christ Our big step in 2017 was to prepare the church to engage in a one church, multiple locations model, preparing our hearts to be those people who will do whatever it takes, wherever we need to be and with whoever we need to be with to reach our region with the gospel. We are asking everyone who calls The Street home, and those who do not yet know Jesus Christ, to: MAKE A DIFFERENCE In your world As God transforms us to be more like Jesus, we demonstrate His love and proclaim the gospel through our words and actions. Each one of us has a part to play in making an eternal difference in our world as we embark on a faith journey through prayer that translates into action.

4 2017 s Big Step 2017 has been a year of preparation for walking in our vision: to reach 1% of the Wellington region with the gospel. We set ourselves three focus areas: to prepare our structure, deepen our trust in God, and to strengthen our leadership. PREPARE OUR STRUCTURES To become one church in multiple locations, our systems and structures needed to change. The challenge: to create a model that empowers all locations to run a service and to have the ability to focus on outreach and disciple-making. We embarked on a transition from a single location staff team to a staff structure that could lead across multiple locations. There are now central functions and location functions operating at The Street. The central functions serve The Street Church across all locations enabling the full functioning of the church across multiple locations. Central functions: Services, teaching, leading and worship: planned and resourced centrally Adult Ministries: planned and resourced centrally Youth: City-based Children: led centrally, ministries at both locations. Each location will have Lead Pastors who lead a team of people to reach that area with the gospel. They are supported by the Central functions We made changes to make this happen; developing a communication strategy, and updating our church name and logo to reflect a new era and better connect with a growing and more dispersed church community. Name and logo change App launch: Initial uptake of the app: 304 users. 422 users by the end of Increase social media presence via Facebook: growth by 200 followers up to 1,800 AV equipment upgrade programme Facilities and building improvements DEEPEN OUR TRUST We launched the multi-location vision through the Good Growth series, our East location was named and we began preparing for launch. This was coupled with a continuing deepening of the outreach culture through the organic outreach material. Throughout 2017 there were many examples of God at work and our trust in his provision and power being deepened. While some may seem small, we are not despising the day of small beginnings but are looking to

5 the Lord and his provision in other areas which gives us confidence that he will continue to use us and lead us. 20 baptisms. Expansion of CAP Life Skills into Strathmore, Mount Victoria, Naenae and Tawa Christmas productions were held at City and East locations as a soft launch for the multi-location services in February Sacha Olson Rahel Williams Mike Gamble Cultivate / Life Skills Videographer Young Adults At our Day 1 event we brought the whole church together for the whole day in September to launch East, to celebrate and to remind ourselves of the vision God has for us. We set a faith goal to raise $100,000 for the multi-location launch. By the end of 2017, $122,000 had been given! STRENGTHEN OUR LEADERSHIP As we grew into our multi-location vision and deepened our trust in God, we grew in our need for more leaders with greater levels of skill and gifting. We have seen God s provision as we welcomed eight new staff and three interns in 2017 so that we could begin to strengthen and develop leaders. Staff We welcomed the following onto Staff in 2017: Claire Thurlow Jaimee Ramage Training & Communications Development We farewelled Rachel Courian (Cultivate) Interns Sacha Olson Worship Eleanor Davies First Impressions Carly Armstrong Youth Elders In 2017 we welcomed Alastair Holmes to the elders board. Alastair had been serving as secretary to the board for the past four years. In October, Rhys Musson took up the secretary role for the board. The Teachers Forum Recognising the looming need for more Bible teachers, Simon Gill established this forum, held five times in 2017 to Sam Lienert Victoria Davy Bridget Nicholas Operations Adult Ministries First Impressions / Cultivate mentor, develop and train potential teachers for Sunday services, youth and children s ministry. There were 22 participants, 14 of whom had not yet taught at The Street.

6 2017 Highlights CULTIVATE Our Cultivate Team connects with hundreds of people every year. Cultivate is a culture as well as a department. We love the one and we want everyone to be planted where they can flourish. These are people who are looking to find their place here via Life Groups, volunteering and Christianity Explored. Cultivate also matches mentors and mentees as well as assisting with baptism preparation. Our team has facilitated amazing connection stories where people who we have been at a total loss as to where we could place them to find community, through prayer and God's hand we have seen them feel at home and thriving. SERVICES (695) (718) (768) (790) (827) (816) The above graph shows average attendance across all Sunday services for the past six years. The reality we saw in 2017 was a plateau in attendance, which indicated our lack of space was capping growth, and reinforced the need for us to continue to make room to grow and prepare for multi-locations in With the launch of The Street App in September, there is now an additional platform for people to engage with our teaching and sermon content easily: App statistics: Average unique users per month: 451 Average media plays per month: 719 Website sermon downloads: , ,527 63,434 51,155 LIFE Life Groups We had an average of 763 people connected in Life Groups with 138 life group leaders. We hosted Life Group leaders at three Leadership Sunday events, providing them with a place to learn from one another and develop come are you are communities. Families Our families ministry saw many relationships and moments to celebrate in From supporting new parents through pairing 24 new mums with a Mothercare Mentor, to encouraging those further along in their journey with our Loving Our Kids on Purpose and other Partnering with Parents evenings. It brought in so much more of God s love and the Bible than I ve seen in other Christian parenting courses We also celebrated with 19 couples through the

7 pre-marriage course and a further 150 people who we encouraged through the Marriage Enrichment evenings. Young Adults Each year, Thread welcomes new young adults into The Street and into Wellington through community events and BBQs. The highlight of 2017 was Thread Conference 'Welcome Home' with 200 young adults attending. Dan Sheed from Central Vineyard in Auckland inspired us to not get comfortable but to be continually transformed to be a church community where every person plays their part in encouraging one another and reaching the lost. Youth 2017 was an encouraging year for The Massive and the youth showed more confidence and passion for reaching their friends and family for Jesus. We also saw significant growth in numbers the first Friday back in 2017 saw more than double the number of youth compared to our first night of the previous year also saw a higher number of youth attend Easter Camp and Camp Massive. In 2017 we saw multiple salvations, baptisms (5 youth), healings and answered prayer. Children Children's Ministries had an incredible year in We saw lives transformed through baptism and salvation among other celebrations. One key celebration being an increased culture of prayer across all age groups. More children than ever before have been inviting their friends along to Friday and Sunday programmes as we continue to make a difference in the lives of others. REACHING OUR WORLD While we shared many stories of people coming as they are and being transformed, we also celebrated with those making a difference in their community and in their ministries. Christianity Explored is a course we run regularly to provide a space for people new to church and faith. It allows people the time and space to think about the big questions of life and to explore the life of the person at the heart of the Christian faith-jesus Christ. It is a space where we have seen relationships deepen and celebrated salvations with new believers. The Christians Against Poverty courses saw an expansion in the reach and engagement within our community. We celebrated with three clients who went debt free and three salvations. We also began the Release course, supporting people becoming free from controlling habits. As the Life Skills course came to an end, the local communities were requesting that they continue. This led to the creation of the CAP coffee group with an outreach focus. Thread finished the year with a successful fundraiser for Child Rescue where over $1200 was raised. The Massive Youth Band had the opportunity to go into a couple of High Schools in the Wellington region where they led worship in the school assemblies. The youth and leaders had the opportunity to share their testimonies. This resulted in a number of students deciding to go along to the Massive or other youth groups in Wellington, and some salvations! Many of our Life Groups and households made a difference in their neighbourhoods for Halloween by

8 connecting with their community as we decentralised our annual Halos and Heroes initiative. The response was amazing and we connected with more people this way than we did through the one single Halos and Heroes event at Hania Street. WIDER CHURCH As part of our commitment to equipping leaders in churches around NZ, the Street Church hosted the Living Stones Network annual conference called Thrive in June. The keynote speaker was Jeff Jones, Senior Pastor from Chase Oaks Church in Dallas. 220 church leaders from around New Zealand came together to be inspired and equipped in their leadership. MISSION Our desire is to be a church that helps prepare people for mission both here in Wellington and overseas. One of the primary ways that we are doing this is through the Kairos Course. Dallas Patten East Africa, Mission Aviation Fellowship. Dallas transferred from Papua New Guinea and changed her role from Pilot to Operations Manager. Dallas has settled well into her new home, and is enjoying the work that she is now involved in. Ester Perez Darwin, Australia, Wycliffe Bible Translators and Australian Society for Indigenous Languages. The text of majority translated Scriptures is stored in the Digital Bible Library, used by the YouVersion App. She is also involved in recording translated scriptures in Australia and the Timor region to help foster and widen the use of scriptures in the vernacular languages among traditionally oral learners. Richard and Kirstie Smith Cambodia, with Child Rescue. Kirstie has been working as After Care Manager with Child Rescue. Richard has been teaching at the international school. At the beginning of this year, he reduced his hours at the school and has been able to spend more time on language learning and be involved in prison ministries. Matt and Nikki Parlane Thailand, with Child Rescue. Matt began as a web designer with Child Rescue, but has been involved in so much more. Nikki has been working in her capacity as a videographer, although, she has taken some time off this year to homeschool the girls until the start of the next school year. Paul and Barby Windsor India, South Asia School of Advanced Christian Studies Paul is the Director of Langham Preaching and coordinates an international team of national and regional coordinators and trainers who facilitate Langham Preaching movements around the world. Ester is involved with developing Scripture Mobile Apps.

9 Finances The Street Church currently operates two legal entities that are: 1. E.Street Association Incorporated (ESA) ESA owns the Worship Centre (9 Hania Street) and the Life Centre (21 Hania Street), and also owns TSPML. ESA is the main operational legal entity of The Street Church. It receives donations, employs staff, operates facilities, rents premises for our East location, and runs the ministries and missions of The Street Church. 2. The Street Properties Management Limited (TSPML) TSPML manages both Hania St properties on behalf of ESA (developments, maintenance, running costs and tenancies). FINANCIAL POSITION 2017 The financials on this page incorporate all entities of The Street Church. Transparency is important to us so please ask for a copy of the audited accounts from the office or download them from the Charities Register where they will be a matter of public record. Rental income is rent received from our tenants at 21 Hania Street (the Life Centre). Other income mainly includes interest received and income from event registration fees. INCOME 2017 General Giving* $1,733,409 Rental $447,209 Other $38,023 Total Income $2,218,641 EXPENDITURE 2017 Administration $50,898 Depreciation $72,093 Facilities $238,627 Interest $210,047 Ministries $123,119 Missions & Outreach $60,470 Staff $1,007,989 Total Expenditure $1,763,243 Surplus** $455,398 * General Giving includes Property Giving and the Good Growth fund. ** Loan principal was reduced by $603,464 consisting of $380,927 to meet loan commitments and an extra $222,537 to reduce interest costs. This utilised our entire surplus.

10 Facilities & Equipment As we prepared for the launch of our new site at our East location, we needed to invest in a new audio system for this site. Due to the technology changes over the years, we found that we were going to run into compatibility issues between City and East. We upgraded our ageing City audio system in conjunction with East. Through this transition the following items were upgraded at City: Digital sound desk and mix rack Musician in-ear stage mixers allowing the existing units to be repurposed for East Wired vocal microphones allowing the existing wireless units to be repurposed for East Front-of-house speakers New AV system for East: Digital sound desk and mix rack Road cases Wireless units for MC mics, speaker mic and acoustic guitar Front-of-house speakers General microphone cables and miscellaneous equipment TV Screens Truss for screen mounting Stage lighting

11 Chairman's Message It s been a tremendous privilege to act in a governance role with my fellow elders in In playing an oversight role for the church we get to have both a broad view and deep insight of what God is doing in individuals, families, communities, our city, our country and internationally. In our role, we not only get to see the great need for God but the transformational life-changing power of God. It is this combination of great need and God s power that has prompted us to step forward with a vision of 4500 people in our region coming to know Jesus Christ over the next five years. It means stepping outside our comfort zone, placing greater reliance on God, and everyone stepping forward to play their part. being transformed and an impatience to see us become more like Christ as individuals and in turn, impact those individuals and communities around us with the gospel. On behalf of the Elders, I want to personally thank our Senior Pastor Nick Field for his visionary leadership, our Executive Pastor Andy Smith for careful stewardship of what God has given us, our great staff, the hundreds of committed volunteers and the prayer warriors who underpin the work of The Street. God bless you all, Sam McIvor, Chair of the Elders Yet again we have seen God provide with people, resources, funds, skills, and miracles. It brings to mind two verses that we have certainly testified to be true in the past and give us confidence for the future. Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Phil 1:6 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus our Lord throughout all generations for ever and ever Amen. Eph 3:20 In 2018 we step into the centenary year for our church and a second location. We do so reflecting on a legacy of lives

12 Office: 21 Hania Street, Mount Victoria, Wellington ph. (04)