Last summer I shared information with you regarding our budget and finances as we were entering into the 2022-23 fiscal year. We celebrated lots regarding the generosity of our congregation (you!) during the challenging years of COVID-19 - thank you! COVID impacted our in-person weekend service with attendance dropping from a peak of approximately 14,000 in 2019 to less than 2,400 in 2020, an 83% drop. To date, our in-person weekend attendance has rebounded to approximately 6,000, which is still 58% less than pre-COVID. But here is the silver lining: during this same time period, our giving has fallen off only 8.5%.

During the difficult years of COVID, we maintained our budget to be pretty much the same, and reduced staff through attrition only. However, in the summer of 2022, we were facing a deficit of about $1 million dollars from fiscal year 2021-22, and it seemed prudent to reduce our budget to make up for the deficit and to set a realistic budget for the coming year. After a great deal of thought and prayer, we decided in faith to present to you our financial reality and to ask you to consider stepping up to close the deficit. We kept the budget the same for our current 2022-23 fiscal year.Your response was amazing! Your generosity allowed us to make up the deficit by the end of December 2022. This is indeed something to celebrate! However, while overall giving has increased, it continues to lag behind our current budget. Based on this reality, the leadership of Kensington has decided to reduce our budget for the coming fiscal year (July 2023-June 2024) so that it matches our best projections for giving.

While this is difficult, our work to have a balanced budget is consistent with what we are seeing across the country as businesses, non-profits, and churches are challenged to make adjustments post-COVID: General Motors a $2 billion reduction in costs and 28,000 white collar jobs eliminated; Amazon cutting 18,000 employees; Microsoft cutting 10,000 employees. Churches similar in size to Kensington have been forced to cut upwards of 30% of their staff. This is the current post-COVID reality.

The 2023-24 budget that we will be presenting to you in June for your affirmation represents a reduction of $1.256 million from our current fiscal year, which ends June 30. For the past few years, we worked diligently to tighten our belt, including reducing staff through attrition where we could. We have worked hard to maintain all of our ministries essential to our mission. The reduction that is reflected in our fiscal 2023-24 budget was accomplished by an internal reorganization which includes a 7% reduction in staffing. All of our operational costs were analyzed as well, and reductions were made without compromising the integrity of our ministries essential to our mission. We are prayerful with this budget that giving will match expenses this coming year, and that we will be able to continue to accomplish the work God has given to us.

As we have recently completed the difficult task of reducing staff and saying goodbye to some amazing colleagues, I want you to know that we have worked hard to care for them in this transition, including appropriate severance and providing resources for them to help as they search for their next job. Please join me in praying for them and for our current staff who are making many adjustments as a result of our reorganization.

I am so grateful for all the ways you participate with us: through generous giving, serving, and praying. As I consider the impact of COVID that we see all around us, the reality that we will be able to invest in the Kingdom work of Jesus though Kensington in the amount of $15,978,791 in the coming year is nothing less than extraordinary! Under the leadership of our new Senior Pastor, Brian Mowrey (who begins with us on August 1 and incidentally was not a part of any of these budget decisions), I have great confidence that in the years ahead, our impact for Jesus, both locally and around the world will continue, and I suspect will be immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.