Our Budget meeting for 2017 was held in the afternoon on the 6th of November and we are glad that so many of our members were able to attend. From the Cape Church we welcomed pastor Felix Meylahn in our midst.

Currently, we are unable to afford a full time pastor. Our costs are under control but we presently do not have enough income to support a position of a full time pastor. In the past years we were able to share a post with the Paarl congregation. The Paarl congregation cancelled the parish agreement with us and the Cape Church helped us with a subsidy which now ends on the 30th of October 2016, which also marks the end of Pastor Peter’s three-year contract with our congregation. During discussions regarding the renewal of Pastor Peter’s contract, we realized that we will not be able to guarantee a full time position to him. Following this, Pastor Peter decided that he cannot enter into another extension of his service with our congregation.
At the meeting the question was asked, whether we could employ a “less expensive” pastor. According to our Cape Church rules, this is not possible. Our Cape and NT Church pastors’ salaries are based on the salary scale that applies to the NG Kerk, this scale has been applicable also for our pastors for a long time. Housing, telephone, car and other allowances for the pastor are expected to be covered by the congregation as well. In order for our congregation to grow, a full time pastor is necessary. In our Cape Church there are smaller congregations who are able to afford a full time pastor. Why can’t we achieve this as well? At the meeting it was therefore decided to try and recruit a new pastor, who has experience in missional work and can guide us into the future. The attendees at the meeting voiced their commitment to becoming a church for the community.

In the meantime, Pastor Peter made himself available on an intermediate contract for a ¾-post until the end of March 2017. At the SGM additional members for a pastor’s calling committee were voted to assist the church committee in their task to find a successor for Pastor Peter Molchin.

Based on the discussions regarding the pastor’s post the budget was explained:

Projected cost for 2017: R1 250 000 – based on a full time pastor.
All costs are increased by 6% from 2016, with exception of advertising, garden service and youth work, which was increased by more than 6%.
Projected income for 2017: R 1 000 000
Income from rent, etc. were also increased by an average of 6%.
The meeting agreed that we will have to find another R 250 000 in order to balance our budget. This effort is now defined:
Project Full Time Pastor. Further, extra savings measures are put in place to ensure that we do not waste water, especially in our current situation of level 3 water restrictions. The cattle project will most probably not contribute to our income in the near future as a result of the severe drought.

For 2017 the following three projects were presented for discussion:

1. Full time pastor: R 250 000
2. Perimeter fence around the church: +- R 80 000
3. Replacement of roofs on our flats in Middle Street No. 27

The number of Afrikaans services in our church has been increased to two services per month. From this follows that there will be only one German service in the Church and another German service in the St. Johannis Heim. The English services remain as scheduled.
Coffee and tea will be continued to be served after each service. This point needs discussion in future, as the need may arise to only serve coffee and tea once between the services in order to welcome new members from the English service amongst our midst.
It was quite a difficult meeting for all of us, where we had to look deep in ourselves to decide on how we see our congregation in future and also how we can support the required change. We still have our monthly missional work meetings to discuss on a regular basis on what and how we together can build that future with the guidance of our heavenly Father. We as your church committee are committed to greater transparency and urge our members to help us and engage with us by attending our church services and discuss your views with us.
In Christ,
Detlev Ahlert