September 2015

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FLORIS UNITED METHODIST CHURCH PREPARED FOR: Church Council PREPARED BY: Executive Director DATE: 09/18/15 SEPTEMBER 2015 COUNCIL REPORT

MEMBERSHIP & ATTENDANCE In the month of August, worship attendance decreased by 38 persons compared to last year. Year-todate worship attendance has increased by 51 persons over last year. We are in conversation about ways we can bolster summer attendance next year.

MEMBERSHIP AND ATTENDANCE STATISTICS AUGUST AUGUST 2015 2014 Weekly Worship 1129 1091 Attendance (AUG average) New Members YTD New Members (through AUG) First Time Guests UNIQUE Attenders YTD Average Weekly Worship Attendance (through AUG)

15 172

13 164

35

18

2037

2019

1285

1234

KEY ACTIVITIES & EVENTS BY MINISTRY AREA Worship Ministries  The Worship team is evaluating the 9:15 a.m. and 5 p.m. services in order to find new and fresh ways to offer the best possible worship at these times.  Megan Gumabay continues to acclimate beautifully to her role as worship leader. She has written a mission statement for the Full Circle band and is establishing programmatic and operational guidelines for the band.

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We are in the process of searching for a new Audio/Visual Technical Director to replace Alexis Doty, who vacated the position in August. Charlie Kendall, Mike Rhodes and Andy Smith are assisting us in our search. We have offered the job to an excellent candidate and will soon know whether or not she plans to accept our offer. We are working on plans for worship during Advent and Christmas. We are moving the preschool service to 11 a.m. on Christmas Eve recognizing that the traditional time we have held this service in past years is difficult for preschool children due to afternoon naptime. We are collaborating with Children’s Ministries to design a service that will be appealing to children in preschool through 5th grade and accommodate families with multiple children in these age ranges. We are excited about I Love My Church Sunday on September 27. Both our contemporary and traditional music groups are working collaboratively to offer excellent, God honoring and spiritfilled worship.

Grow Ministries August was preparation month throughout Grow Ministries with a focus on fall kick-off of the programmatic year (September-June). Training was another focus area for the month, with hundreds of volunteers being trained and equipped to help lead in multiple Grow ministry areas. Creativity was celebrated and displayed as we transformed the children’s classroom wing on the second floor into “Main Street” with beautiful murals covering the expansive hallway. Preschool  The Preschool office re-opened and the staff set up classrooms as we welcomed four new teachers for the 2015-16 school year.  Preschool enrollment continued during August and we are near capacity (98%) with only a few open slots in our afternoon classes. Children’s Ministries  We invited a guest artist from Texas to help coordinate and paint one of the hallways on the second floor. The hallway near the Welcome Station was painted to look like Main Street USA in conjunction with our new Kid Nation theme Route 66 – A Roadtrip through the 66 Books of the Bible. Along with our guest artist, a total of 37 volunteers and 3 staff members helped transform the hallway into a work of art.  Children’s Ministries prepared for Volunteer Training, which was held August 23. Approximately 120 volunteers attended this training to learn more about volunteering as a Kid Nation teacher, substitute teacher, Buddy, SIM (Student in Ministry) or Welcome Desk volunteer.  Our Kid Nation lessons on Sunday mornings in the month of August focused on numbers that appear in the Bible. The numbers 40, 12, 7 and 3 were discussed each week with a focus on the Bible and the stories that contain those numbers. We also talked about the significance of each number when used in the Bible.  Upcoming fall events include: o Kids Night Out o Kid Nation Kick-Off o Children’s Choir Begins o FISH Ice Cream Social and Parent Meeting o Third Grade Bible Handout: September 27 during all services o Third Grade BIBLE BLAST: September 27 at 3 p.m. 2

Student Ministries  On August 6, KREW attended a Washington Nationals game and attracted 4 new high school students who had not been previously connected to KREW.  On August 9, we held a high school block party in the lower parking lot of the church. Thirty high school students and leaders came out to reconnect at this event.  Student Mission Sunday was August 23 and included a worship service at 5 p.m. that highlighted our summer student mission trips.  In the final days of August, student ministry staff, students and volunteer leaders worked collaboratively to deliver welcome bags to 6th grade students, encouragement bags to 9th grade students, and to distribute door hanger invitations for student ministry kick off events.  In mid-August the Middle School program hosted Summer Splash, one of our major leadoff events for the fall. Thirty students attended the event at the Water Mine at Lake Fairfax for a time of connection and fun.  In late August we hosted training for 20 leaders focusing on two main goals: o We articulated the theme of the year, which is Identity. o We empowered our leaders to root their ministry to students in relationships while continuing to build relationships with one another as adult volunteer leaders working together to help our students grow in discipleship. Adult Ministries  We kicked off another year of small groups with adult small group leader training. Thirty-four leaders from both Floris and Restoration participated in the training session. The training included the identification of best practices around common group issues such as handling controversial topics, controlling the dominant personality and keys to successful leadership.  Group Life kick-off began on August 30 with over 15 groups represented and included a major push for our foundational classes of Alpha and Disciple. Additionally, we created a new drop-in Bible study on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. The group will begin with the Gospel of Mark.  The Bible in 4 Hours began with 75 persons in attendance. There was a wide range of Bible knowledge among group participants. Some of our Sunday school teachers and adult small group leaders attended this event to strengthen their knowledge of the Bible and their ability to articulate their Bible knowledge at a higher level.

Serve Ministries  Serve and Connections staff held a joint planning day at Insight Memory Care Center in Fairfax and finished the day with a projected schedule of events, ministries and program initiatives through January 2016.  On August 23, almost 100 volunteers packaged 1,200 backpack meals for the Help Hungry Kids program, which serves students at Hutchison and McNair elementary schools.  Serve Ministries staff provided transportation and hospitality support for the Hutchison new teacher orientation. This is the second year we have been asked to support this event.  Tom Berlin and Jake McGlothin had an opportunity to learn about the work of the Child First Authority, which is a public/private partnership in Baltimore that supports children through afterschool programs and other services.  Upcoming ministries and programs in Serve Ministries: o ESL Ministry o Hutchison PALS 3

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Participation in the Mayor’s Convocation on Faith Community and School Partnerships Just Ask Presentation

Serve Ministries by the Numbers - August: Ministry Activity

Dates

Volunteers

Volunteer Hours

People Served

Grace Ministries

7/31 & 8/1

69

226.50

540

Embry Rucker

8/15 & 22

6

21.00

140

FACETS

8/4

11

42.50

79

SOME

8/15

5

20.00

350

HHK PACKAGING

8/23

97

222.00

1200

188

532.00

2309

Totals

Connections Ministries  Coffee with the Pastors was held on August 2 and had 12 attendees.  Food Truck Sunday was held on August 23 in conjunction with Student Missions Sunday. We hosted two local food trucks and the event was well attended. We hope to plan a similar event for later this year.  This fall we will have an evening steward in the building to provide hospitality for groups meeting in the facility during evening hours. This person is a part of a trainee program through The National Council on Aging (NCOA), our partner in this new program for our church. This evening steward is provided through the NCOA training program at no cost to the church. The evening steward’s responsibilities will include welcoming guests, assisting guests with locating rooms and monitoring the hallways during the evening. The evening steward will log any problems or concerns in a binder that Connections and/or Facilities staff will respond to as needed. The evening steward will be working Monday-Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. at the second floor Kid Nation Welcome desk and occasionally may work from the third floor Connection Desk, depending on evening events. Additionally, this person will work at the third floor Connection Desk on Sunday evenings from 4:40 to 7:30 p.m.  Upcoming events for Connections Ministries: o I Love My Church Sunday o Clean Up Challenge o Trunk-or-Treat Care and Concern Ministries  We are starting a new Prayer Shawl Ministry. Combining fellowship and prayer in communion with others, the Prayer Shawl Ministry creates shawls, blankets and lap robes for families, friends and members in the congregation in need of comfort or healing. To create a prayer shawl, the knitter begins each shawl with prayers and blessings for the recipient. Prayers are continued throughout the creation of the shawl. When the shawl is finished, it is given a final 4

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blessing before it is sent to the recipient. This ministry welcomes anyone who knits or crochets, regardless of skill level. An information meeting about this ministry will be held September 26. Leaders of our Divorce Care ministry have finalized dates for the fall/winter Divorce Care group. Working collaboratively with the Alzheimer’s Association, we are starting a program for patients who have recently been diagnosed with dementia. Additionally, caregivers of those with dementia are welcome to join this program that will run for five weeks in the month of October.

Diversity Ministry  The South Asian monthly fellowship continues to meet on the second Saturday of every month. These monthly meetings have been a great way to bring families closer together as they share an interest in growing with Floris. Both attendance and volunteerism is steadily increasing at this monthly event. Families connecting at these monthly meetings are beginning to invite each other to their homes for prayers or other events in addition to the monthly meetings. Additionally, these families are beginning to actively reach out to new visitors at Floris.  In his work with South Asian families at Floris, Nadeem believes the strategy of bringing existing South Asian families together to create a bond among them is working, with the result of strengthening their connections to Floris. More families are thinking about taking the next step to become members of Floris.  Nadeem continues to make home visits to our South Asian families and believes these visits have resulted in stronger connections with him as a Floris pastor and with the church overall.  Next month, Nadeem plans to invite two or three white American families to attend the South Asian monthly meeting. Every month 2 or 3 different families will be invited to attend and meet with the South Asian families. This strategy was designed to help break the barriers between our white American and South Asian families.  Nadeem is working with Megan Gumabay and Yoon Nam to integrate eastern music with both traditional and contemporary music so that our worship music will reflect our cultural diversity.

Communications Ministry Herndon Campus  The website had 3,600 hits in August. Sunday continues to be the biggest day, averaging 1,000 hits. Top viewed pages in August include the current sermon series, live stream, service times, staff directory, calendar, preschool, search and My Floris.  Three Facebook posts reached over 1,000 people. These posts were the following blogs: “Cynicism and Hope,” “High of My Day” and the August 2 sermon.  A new engagement strategy employs volunteers who invite their Facebook friends to events that we post to Facebook. The first event was the Church Picnic. At the end of August, 196 were invited, 62 said they were going, and 16 said maybe. Overall, the invitation reached 3,200 persons.  The redesigned, mobile friendly eNote continues to make strides in both open rates, averaging 48% (6% increase over last month) and click rates, averaging 41% (28% increase over last month).  We designed a new, smaller version of the weekly bulletin to reduce cost and paper consumption. The feedback about this change has been positive.  Twitter followers continue to increase and now total 582 followers. The two most clicked tweets in August were “Looking for a new way to serve?” and “Don’t forget to bring your friends to Food Truck Sunday tonight.” 5

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Blog readership was down this month averaging only 36 hits per day, the second lowest month of the year after January. A new banner that matches the “New Movers” mailer is currently on our street sign. The banner will remain until other main events and activities need the space. The Floris UMC app has been submitted to Apple for approval. We hope to have approval by the end of the month. With over half of our web visits coming from mobile phones, we anticipate the app will be well received. Vimeo, the storage outlet for our worship videos, showed 401 views of the August 23 sermon. As a point of reference, 100 views has been a high water mark for viewership. Social Media stats: o Facebook: 1,735 likes o Twitter: 582 followers o Instagram: 167 followers.

Reston Campus  The Restoration Facebook has 511 followers. The most engaging post included a video of the August baptisms. The post reached 4,700 persons with 232 likes and 765 clicks.  The Restoration website had 487 visits in August. Worship and Who We Are were the top viewed pages. Upcoming Initiatives  Support “I Love My Church” Sunday, Just Ask and the annual Fall Stewardship Campaign. FINANCIAL OPERATIONS August receipts were decreased 3.13% from the same period last year. Year-to-date receipts are decreased 3.31% from the previous year. Projected receipts continue to remain in line with expectations. The net loss for the year decreased from July to August by over $18,000. We expect the net loss figure to continue to decrease throughout the remainder of the year. We are beginning to work on the fall stewardship campaign, which will begin in October. Our general operating fund stewardship goal for 2016 is $4,000,000. The annual stewardship campaign will be based on a new book Tom is writing to be released by Abingdon Press in 2016. The book and the fall stewardship series are called “Defying Gravity.” The “Defying Gravity” stewardship series examines the generous life, what it is and why it can be hard to experience. Many of us want to experience the significance of blessing others but feel trapped by past decisions and misled by a society that bombards us with the messages of having more and better. The good news is that Jesus offers us a way to “defy gravity” and break free from the culture of more. In October, we invite everyone to come hear what the Bible and people in our community say about how to experience a generous life. There will be exercises and challenges that Tom will share during this series to help us consider our relationship with money, possessions and giving. One of these is the Clean Out Challenge, which will be held on October 17. Various organizations will be on-site to accept and recycle donations, including a commercial paper shredder. Additionally, we will provide an annual budget worksheet to help with basic financial planning for 2016.

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AUGUST 2015 FINANCIAL DATA AUGUST AUGUST 2015 2014 General Fund $313,669 $323,805 Receipts (AUG) Building Fund $92,294 $112,907 Receipts (AUG) Reserves 1.56 months 1.67 months Indebtedness $7,998,000 $8,940,000 YTD Net ($90,993) $257,972 Income (through AUG)

IMAGINE CAMPAIGN STRATEGIC INITIATIVE UPDATE Restoration Church  Restoration held a successful summer camp at Forest Edge Elementary School with 21 kids and plenty of volunteers. The new principal at Forest Edge enrolled her own children and was very pleased with the camp. We are beginning conversations with the principal about a creative camp for next summer.  We collected school supplies for the entire month of August and provided a welcome back breakfast for the teachers and staff at Forest Edge, during which we gave them the supplies. We continue to find ways to connect with the staff at Forest Edge.  We helped a family we met through our summer camp program by completely furnishing the apartment they had lived in without furniture since January.  We held our life group sign-up event and more than 50 persons signed up for a group. Currently we have five different life groups.  Several months ago we applied to adopt Becontree Road, the road in front of Forest Edge Elementary. We received word that Restoration was granted approval of the application. After we complete two clean up activities on this road we will receive a permanent Restoration sign on Becontree Road. We are excited to have another permanent marker in Reston.  We baptized four adults at Lake Anne. Almost 2,000 people watched a video of the baptism posted on Facebook and the website. This was a great reminder for all of us that stories are important to share. Additionally, we had our first five people join the church. Hutchison After-school Programs  Due to some changes in the Hutchison administration, afterschool programs for Hutchison have been put on hold until we can learn more about expectations of our partnership from the new principal and his staff. Young Adult Initiative  Planning for fall activities is currently underway.

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OPERATIONS/ADMINISTRATION Parsonage Update In late August, mold was discovered in a basement closet at the Folkstone parsonage, in which Tom and his family reside. We called in a professional mold remediation company to help us locate the source of the mold. They discovered that the source of the mold is constant moisture on the concrete wall behind the drywall and insulation. Upon further inspection, it was discovered that the source of the moisture is improper grading of the soil under the deck and surrounding area, causing rainwater to flow towards the house. It was also discovered that the deck itself has reached the end of its useful life. Hidden Lane Landscaping has been retained to remove the deck, build up and re-grade the area under the deck, along the walls and on both sides of the deck. They will install a window well and raise the heat pump several inches to allow soil to be added around the walls to create a slope away from the house. Additionally, they will install a flagstone patio to replace the deck. Once the source of moisture is eliminated, KVB construction will re-install insulation, drywall and trim and paint the repaired area in the basement. The estimated cost of the mold remediation and repair/renovation is $15-16K. The Finance Committee will decide at the October Finance meeting whether to fund this expense with designated reserves or operating reserves. Staffing Update  We have an open position on staff for a part-time Graphics Design Specialist. This position will replace the graphics duties and responsibilities held by Susan Ward upon her departure sometime in the fall. We have received several applications for this position and will begin interviews with prospective candidates in the very near future.  We still have an opening for the replacement of the A/V Technical Director position that was vacated by Alexis Doty in late August. We have extended an employment offer to our top candidate for this position and hope to have this finalized within the next week.

90-Day Program/Events Outlook September  Middle School Road Rules: September 18, 6 p.m.  FISH Ice Cream Social: September 20  Marriage in the Methodist Church: September 23, 7 p.m.  Older Adult Seminar: September 24, 6:30 p.m.  High School Outing to Georgetown: September 26  Third Grade Bible Sunday and Bible Blast: September 27, morning services October  Wesley Speaker-Dr. Sathi Clark: October 3, 7 p.m.  South Asian Get Together: October 10, 7 p.m.  Wesley Speaker-Paul’s Travels: October 13, 7 p.m.  Coffee with the Pastors: October 14, 7 p.m.  FISH Bunco Night: October 16, 6:30 p.m.  Clean Out Challenge: October 17, 1-4 p.m.  Just Ask-Human Trafficking Speaker: October 18, 6:30-9 p.m. 8

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Trunk-or-Treat: October 31, 6:30 p.m.

November  FISH Scavenger Hunt: November 6, 6:30 p.m.  Mom2Mom-Father/Daughter Dance: November 7, 7 p.m.  Kid’s Kingdom-Kid’s Night Out: November 13, 5 p.m.  Latino Ministry Praise Group: November 14, 6:30 p.m.  South Asian Get Together: November 14, 7 p.m.  Advent Giving: November 15 and November 22, all services  Student Mission Trip Registration Opens: November 17, 12 p.m.  Parenting the Gifted Child: November 18, 7 p.m.  Annual Charge Conference: November 19, 7 p.m.  Advent Family Event: November 29  Celebrate the Season: November 29 December  FISH Christmas Party: December 6, 12:30 p.m.  Latino Ministry Praise Group: December 12, 6:30 p.m.  Darkness to Light Service: December 17, 7:30 p.m.  Christmas Eve Eve Service: December 23, 7:30 p.m.  Christmas Eve Services: December 24, 11 a.m., 5 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and 11 p.m.  Help Hungry Kids Packaging Event: December 27, 9 a.m.  New Year’s Watch Night Service: December 31

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