The recent quarterly business meeting, due to be held on 31st January, was postponed due to bad weather. A brief meeting was instead held after the whole church prayer meeting on 13th February.
The main item for discussion was the budget. Neil Thomson reported that last year's giving was higher than the predicted figure. Expenditure was was lower than budget, mainly due to the fact that the staff team is smaller than had been expected. 70% of the giving was tax efficient.
Neil presented the budget for 2003, the summary of which had already been circulated with the agenda for the meeting. He pointed out that there is an increase in the training budget as we have two church assistants for the year. He also commented on a change in the projects budget, which for this year has been divided into Eden projects and non-Eden projects. It is planned to increase the giving to non-Eden projects. Neil highlighted the fact that the percentage to be spent on mission has decreased slightly; this is not due to a specific decision to decrease the figure, but because the funding requested by our overseas workers was lower this year. The overall budget requirement is an increase on the budget for last year but is less than last year's actual giving total. This budget was approved.
Orlando Saer's Brighton Church Planting Project which was outlined at the last QBM is now not going ahead, due to a number of reasons outside Orlando's control. Orlando himself has just accepted a position as Minister at Cranleigh Baptist Church.