Every gift you give to FIRST CHURCH is given back to the kingdom of God in

order to Reflect & Reveal the unselfish love of His Son

FPCEUSTIS.COM

Generosity

GIVING REPORT 2015

Welcome Core Values 1st Impressions Center Street Kitchen Outreach Where The Money Went Missions Be A Player Children & Families Lifetree Pastoral Care Geek Numbers Worship Small Groups/Prayer

First Presbyterian Church of Eustis relies on the generosity of its members and friends in order to accomplish all of the incredible things that we are able to do in the name of Jesus each and every year. Over the last several years, our members and friends have gone above and beyond in terms of giving, sharing and volunteering. Now we have the opportunity to do even more incredible things to show Jesus to our community and to the world. All that is required of us is our faith and courage as we step into the future together. God is doing amazing things through our family of faith! Let’s covenant together to show some fearless generosity in 2015 as we keep moving forward in faith.

Generosity

WELCOME, to the 2015 FIRST CHURCH Giving Report: This is the story of how God brought a whole bunch of very different people together to do some extraordinary things. It’s also the story of how generosity can help change the world, one person, one neighborhood, one community at a time.

Some people like numbers, and so we have some numbers in this Giving Report, but they’re not exactly the kind of numbers that you would see in a financial statement. We also have one of those, for all of you nerdy, numbers-types out there (say it loud, “I’m nerdy and I’m proud).

But like we said, this tells a story of how God does amazing things when a bunch of people decide that they will be faith-filled, big-thinking, bet-the-farm risk takers, who will never insult God with small thinking or safe living. We are people who give of ourselves, our talents, our time and also of our money to help the First Church family do what we say we believe: Know Jesus, and Show Jesus.

Because of the generosity of our church family, transformation happens. Because of the generosity of our church family, people are seeing Jesus in a whole new way.

Thank you.

Pray.

“Our vision is to Reflect & Reveal the unselfish love of Christ. We believe that when you KNOW Jesus, you want to SHOW Jesus.” Rev. Dr. Leon Bloder

Senior Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Eustis

Prayer Ministries

Grow.

Did You Know that in the past year over prayer requests have been shared by email through our prayer chain?

AND we receive 100 OR MORE prayer requests a month via our WEBSITE in our WORSHIP SERVICES and through the CHURCH OFFICE.

Small Groups We had small group Bible studies that met on a weekly basis in 2015 on both Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings.

The Renew Small Group meets on Wed @ 6:00 PM for potluck and then Bible study. We averaged 20-25 participants each week and we’re growing every week! Pastor Leon's recent Bible study on the book of ACTS had 25-30 participants and 13 people a week listened online!

Foundations meets on Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM. This small group studies the Bible together in a casual, open environment.

500

Our Core Values

How we do what we do.

We have some non-negotiables: It’s not enough to just talk about having a vision, you have to pursue it.

There are FIVE THINGS that we believe cannot be compromised if we are going to be the kind of church that God is calling us to be.

These FIVE THINGS are our Core Values--the things that we need to do as a church family to our utmost so that we can both KNOW & SHOW Jesus to our neighbors and to the world.

Let us tell you about them...

Worship @ First Church

First Light is our seasonal (Labor Day to Memorial Day) early morning worship service that gathers on Sundays at 8:30 AM.

The Crossing is our casual, creative worship service that gathers for contemporary style worship on Sundays at 9:30 AM. The Crossing is also broadcast live over the internet each week and averages 35-40 online worshippers!

Traditions is our traditional worship service (hymns, organ, choir, liturgy) that gathers in our historic Sanctuary at 11 AM each Sunday for spirit-filled, traditional-styled worship.

Grow.

Pray.

Worship.

Love..

We believe that when we worship God we give our very best in excellence and authenticity.

Worship.

Some Numbers For The GeeksIn 2015 our average worship attendance was the highest it has been since we’ve been keeping records including the highest SINGLE DAY of on campus attendance ON RECORD!

We are averaging over 500 people attending worship each Sunday which is over 70% of our total membership of nearly 700

This is the highest that number has EVER been IN THE HISTORY OF OUR CHURCH!

This year we are averaging OVER 1000 VISITS to our website each month. 53% of these visitors are visiting our site for the FIRST TIME! We also are averaging NEARLY 400 sermon audio downloads a month and OVER 160 views of sermon video each month. We are reaching OVER 3,000 people each week through Facebook and have over 1600 people who “like” our page̶which is 1000 MORE than last year! We have over TWENTY paid and volunteer staff members who led OVER FOUR HUNDRED unique volunteers in our various ministries and missions this past year.

And all because of your great generosity!

We pray with the expectation that God hears and answers prayer, and we do it as a church family.

We believe that growing in our faith is a high priority and we do that through Bible study, small groups and worship attendance.

We believe that we are called to love God, love people and love the world.

We believe that we are called to serve by building bridges of love that will hold up the truth.

VisitationThere are TEN MEMBERS of our Visitation Team caring for OVER TWENTY FIVE homebound members, with the help of TWO Pastoral Care Associates & A PARISH NURSE who work with PASTOR LEON to do over 50 visits a month including hospital visits.

We also provide a 24 Hour Pastoral Care Hotline that members can call in the event of an emergency: 1-800-259-1092

In 2015 we hosted two GriefShare classes̶a ministry designed to help our members and friends who have lost a loved one, and need support.

OVER THIRTY PEOPLE participated in this great program in 2015, several of whom were not members of our church, BUT WHO STARTED ATTENDING AFTERWARD!

EVERY SINGLE WEEK we are blessed by the service of NEARLY FIFTY VOLUNTEERS who help to make our members and guests feel welcomed in worship

AND all of the resources needed to provide parking assistance, ushers, greeters, breakfast hosts, volunteers to set up our worship spaces and clean them up, make coffee, and everything else that it takes to make a good first impression... are made possible because of YOUR generosity.

We reach TENS OF THOUSANDS of people a month through social media like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram & Tumblr!

HUNDREDS of people listen to our sermons online, pick up our CDs and share them.

Additionally, HUNDREDS of people subscribe to our podcast!

Each week we reach THOUSANDS of people with our electronic newsletter, “E-Bells” which we distribute through Constant Contact.

Our publications (like Tower Bells magazine) are top-notch, professional and are distributed to HUNDREDS of members and friends each month.

Center Street Kitchen is our weekly ministry to feed the hungry & needy in our community...

Every Week nearly 400 meals* get served at Center Street Kitchen. This year we also helped to feed the homeless in the Ocala National Forest through our donations to partner ministries.

Because of you.

* We serve both “brown bag” lunches as well as a community meal̶all those meals help feed our needy neighbors and homeless guests.

THIS YEAR AT LIFETREE CAFE WE AVERAGED BETWEEN 30-35 PARTICIPANTS EACH WEEK AT ONE OF OUR TWO GATHERINGS: Monday evenings at the Wine Cellars Uncorked in Eustis, and Thursday mornings in our Library.

We currently have 7 volunteers serving at Lifetree. And we are developing some ideas on external locations for Lifetree Cafe all over Lake County.

Each of the 400 figures below represents a meal that was given to someone who was in need each week

during 2015.

This year we partnered with HEAD START ANGEL TREE to provide great Christmas presents for 100 Pre-K children at our local Head Start program. Many of these children have little to no Christmas and your generosity helped make their dreams come true. OVER 100 of our church members donated gifts and 5 VOLUNTEERS helped Pastor Jay with gathering and delivery.

YOUR GENEROSITY made all of this possible.

In 2015 we entered into our third year of our M.O.P.’s program and continued our awesome impact on the families in our community. 40-50 MOMS participated in this unique and vital program. And we had 30 volunteers & FOUR Paid Staff to care for 50-60 kids each week.

For 2016 we have over 80 moms registered with more kids than we’ve ever had in our three years of doing MOPS! In October, 2015 our MOPS leadership team is working to launch our first TEEN MOPS group that will begin providing support for teen moms in our community. We will be working with local high schools and agencies to connect teen moms with this amazing group.

AND ALL OF THIS IS POSSIBLE BECAUSE OF YOUR GREAT GENEROSITY!

Did you know that FIRST CHURCH has been partnering with Eustis Elementary School FOR TWO DECADES to provide tutoring for students who are falling behind and need extra help. This means that OVER FIVE HUNDRED students have been helped since we started... and all because of YOU.

In 2015 Crossfire re-launched under our Special Outreach ministries̶focusing primarily on Pre-K through 5th grade kids. THIS VITAL MINISTRY NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT! This year we hosted a candlelight dinner with kids and families with special guest, spoken word artist SHAWN WELCOME, and a special Christmas celebration as well. And we’ll do all of this because of your great generosity, donations and your volunteerism.

PARTNERS FOR SUCCESS

Crossfire Ministries served nearly THIRTY at-risk elementary-aged kids in 2015. EVERY WEEK NINE volunteers, transported kids to church, served them meals, and taught them Bible lessons.

&

Clothes Closet Our Clothes Closet volunteers hand out free clothing to over FIFTY PEOPLE every week. For some it is the only new clothes they can afford. We have given

clothes to homeless children who are preparing for school, men and women who are searching for clothes for job interviews, families with multiple young children...

And some of the people we’ve helped have turned around and blessed us with donations of clothes and food when they were able to do so... BECAUSE YOU MADE IT HAPPEN!

The FIRST CHURCH family is committed to SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS

100IN 2015 WE GAVE OVER

CARE PACKAGES TO SOLDIERS IN IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN & we provide financial support to great organizations serving our troops!

2015 was a banner year in our children’s ministry as we unveiled a newly renovated children’s wing and launched Kamp Koinonia our brand new children’s program!

EVERY SUNDAY MORNING we average nearly 40 CHILDREN in our elementary programs & our Nursery Ministry that are cared for by over a DOZEN dedicated volunteers.

Be A Player Day™ This year we gave 136 students free back-to-school physicals, dental screenings, vision screenings, health information, nutrition advice and MUCH MORE. There were OVER 400 PEOPLE who came through our church during this event. And we blessed our ENTIRE COMMUNITY! We had 120 pumped up volunteers serve at our fourth annual Be A Player Day™ and all because... YOU WERE GENEROUS!

In 2015 we entered into our third year of BUDDY BREAK a respite program for families with children of special needs. We have 37 Certified Volunteers with 3 SERVING NURSES. Currently we have 25 “VIP’s” who we are serving. We also have 7 SIBLINGS of special needs children who attend a program just for them! WE are also partnering with CM BOXCAR RACING to bring Soap Box Derby to our area for special needs kids! 13 of our Buddies volunteered with us at Make ‘Em Smile̶an event where over 45,000 people attended and got the chance to hear about our Buddy Break! We also partner with FRIDAY NIGHT FRIENDS̶a networking gathering to help families with special needs kids. 12 volunteers serve 17 parents and an average of 12 kids each Friday night! BECAUSE OF YOU!

Global Mission Support [Just a few of the many missions & ministries we support around the world]

This year 12 teens and 3 adults, PLUS 1 nurse, served for a week at CAMP BARNABAS, a camp for mentally and physically challenged kids. In 2015 we attended Champions week for ages 5-15 with physical and developmental disabilities. Your support of CAMP BARNABAS made an incredible difference!

Our Vacation Bible School in 2015 was the most successful in OUR HISTORY with over 100 kids participating and over 60 volunteers serving faithfully each evening. AND ALL OF IT HAPPENED BECAUSE YOU GAVE GENEROUSLY!

FAMILY MINISTRY WORSHIPMISSION/OUTREACH PASTORAL MINISTRYADMINISTRATION BUILDINGS/GROUNDSMEMBERSHIP FELLOWSHIP

Where Did The Money Go? [2015 BUDGET]

Worship (28% of Budget) Any area of ministry that focuses on our worshipping life as a church at all three of our worship services.

Mission & Outreach (20% of Budget) Any area of ministry or mission that is focused outward to spread the Gospel and reach more people for Christ.

Family Ministry (10% of Budget) Any area of ministry that focuses on children, youth and families.

Pastoral Ministry (3% of Budget) Any area of pastoral ministry that is not associated with administration, worship, mission & outreach.

Administration (19% of Budget) Any area of ministry that is focused on administrative and personnel costs for supplies, resources and support for ministries and staff.

Membership & Fellowship (2% of Budget) Any of the areas that are focused on the welcoming and fellowship ministries of our church.

Buildings & Grounds (17% of Budget) All expenditures to care for our buildings and grounds.

Numbers reflect a <1% variance