We also pray that you will be
strengthened with all His glorious
power so you will have all the
endurance and patience you need.
May you be filled with joy,12 always
thanking the Father. He has enabled
you to share in the inheritance that
belongs to His people, who live in
the light.
11
For He has rescued us from the
kingdom of darkness and transferred
us into the Kingdom of His dear Son,
14 who purchased our freedom and
forgave our sins.
13
Christ is the visible image of the invisible
God.
He existed before anything was
created and is supreme over all
creation,16 for through Him God created
everything in the heavenly realms and
on earth.
He made the things we can see
and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and
authorities in the unseen world.
Everything was created through Him
and for Him.
He existed before anything else,
and he holds all creation together.
Christ is also the head of the
church,
which is His body.
18
He is the beginning,
supreme over all who rise from
the dead.
So He is first in everything.
For God in all His fullness
was pleased to live in Christ,
20
and through Him God reconciled
everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in
heaven and on earth, by means of
Christ’s blood on the cross.
This includes you who were once
far away from God. You were His
enemies, separated from him by your
evil thoughts and actions.
21
22 Yet
now He has reconciled you to
Himself through the death of Christ
in His physical body. As a result, He
has brought you into His own
presence, and you are holy and
blameless as you stand before Him
without a single fault.
But you must continue to believe
this truth and stand firmly in it.
23
Don’t drift away from the assurance
you received when you heard the
Good News.
The Good News has been preached
all over the world, and I, Paul, have
been appointed as God’s servant to
proclaim it. Colossians 1:11-23
Baptized over 40 adults on
Easter Sunday!
5 baptized recently!
Pray for Cindy – going
through cancer treatments
April 29th – Highest attended
regular Sunday with 691!
Salvation 108 (It’s higher than this but
they don’t count them unless they have
follow up.)
87 Baptisms
59% growth in Children’s ministry over
last year
LifeBridge Church
Milan and Jen
Bittenbender
“Starbucks has
always been about
so much more
than coffee. But
without great
coffee, we have
no reason to
exist.”
Without ________ we
(as a church) have no
reason to exist.
(Hint…Luke 19:10)
We realized our Barista’s did not know
how to produce a GREAT shot of
espresso. So, we did something
courageous, we shut every single
Starbucks down for three hours, lost
millions of dollars of revenue and
trained our employees how to do it.
Let’s imagine for a minute that you
were going to shut down your
church services – not to do
something missional, out in your
community; because we all know a
lot of churches have done that and
ARE doing that…which is GREAT.
Let’s say you shut your church
service down for one Sunday to train
your people to be GREAT
ambassadors for Jesus?
Your goal is simple: that they would
leave that service FIRED UP like
they haven’t been fired up in a
LONG time, to accomplish the Great
Commission wherever it is that THEY
do life.
What would you do in that 60
minutes?
What wouldn’t you do?
What programming things, if any,
would you do to inspire them?
Have a discussion around your
table.
Fact: “We
earned our
respect and
recognition
because of one
reason: the
quality of our
people.”
That is SO true about
the West MI District.
You and our retired
pastors, when we are
led by the Holy Spirit,
are what make this
District great!
“I chose that we would not use the
economy as an excuse for our
performance.
We would fight the economic
headwinds and rising commodity
prices by reinvigorating customer’s
attachment to our brand and
creating highly relevant new
products.”
When we are not seeing the
results we want to see, what
are we tempted to blame?
What should we do instead?
What might we need to put our
energy to?
Howard Schultz had a clear
responsibility: make Starbuck’s
profitable again...
One of the challenges pastors
face is that they feel like it is
their responsibility to do SO
MANY things.
If you had the luxury to spend
an entire month just focusing on
increasing the evangelistic
fervor of your church, what are
some of the first steps you
would take to do that?
How Leadership Teams
Make Decisions
Which side of the
continuum does the
leadership team of our
church tend to naturally
flow towards?
What (if any) are the
consequences of this?
Which side of the
continuum do I
(personally) most
naturally fall to?
Which “tank” is in most
need of being filled
right now?
My leadership tank?
My soul tank?
Zone Conversations…
Lunch
Keeping you informred…
http://westmichigandistrict.com/images/
stories/importantdate.jpg
Seminar Ideas
Keeping you informed…
Financial Planning
for Pastors
John Faber, CFP®
Principal/Holland, MI
Important Note
• The information in this presentation is educational in
nature, and it is not intended as individualized financial
and/or investment advice.
• The information about investment returns and Social
Security benefits is presented for illustration purposes
only.
RonaldBlue&Co.
Four Financial Questions
• 1. Do you have long term, written financial goals?
• 2. Are you purposefully using your money to help you
meet your goals and not just using it for the immediate
needs of today?
• 3. Are you making wise investments?
• 4. Are you prepared to care for your family in the event
of death of disability?
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Where does the money go?
Income
Giving
Living Expenses
Taxes
Debt Payments
Saving for Goals
Education
Other
Retirement
Major Purchase
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Priority Investing
Long-term Goals – Growth
5 years +
Short-term Goals – Liquidity
5
6 months – 5 years
4
3
2
1
Eliminate
all high
interest/short term
debt
Credit Cards
Automobiles
Small Debt
Keep one
month’s living
expenses in an
interest-bearing
checking account
Living expenses
are determined
from your monthly
budget
Keep 3-6
month’s living
expenses in a
money market
fund or savings
account
Customized
Save for major
purchases
Investment
using a money
Solution
market
fund,
CD or treasury
bills (potentially
a mutual fund)
Diversify to meet
long-term goals by
investing in:
•MMF/CD’s/
Treasuries
•Mutual Funds
6
Speculate in:
•Venture Capital
•Limited
Partnerships
•Private Equity
•Real Estate
Fund other long-term
personal and
financial goals.
•Bonds
•Equities
Automobiles
Reserves to
protect in case
of disability,
accidents, or
any emergency
Furniture
Down payment
on a house
College for children
Financial Freedom
Vacation Home
Pay off mortgage
Develop a business
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Reasonable Expectations
• In retirement, you should
expect to be able to take out
roughly 4% per year of your
investment value.
• Example: A $250,000
investment portfolio allows for
a $10,000 per year withdrawal
($250,000 x 4% = $10,000)
• The higher the percentage you
take out, the more likely you
are to use your principal and
see your balance decline
4%
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Wesleyan Pension Plan
• Huge benefit – 12% of salary goes to retirement plan
• Assuming a salary of $60,000, the annual contribution to
the pension plan would be $7,200.
• Over 25 years, $7,200 per year invested at 8% would
grow to over $700,000, assuming contributions
increased with inflation.
• A 4% withdrawal on $700,000 = $28,000/yr.
RonaldBlue&Co.
What about Social Security?
• Assuming you have not opted out of Social Security,
someone making $60,000 per year can expect to receive
around $21,600 per year in Social Security benefits at
full retirement age.
• A spousal benefit of 50% or $10,800 is available
• Given the assumptions made, total retirement income
could be $60,400 ($28,000 from Wesleyan Pension,
$21,600 from Social Security, and $10,800 for spouse’s
Social Security Benefit).
• www.ssa.gov
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Have you opted out of Social
Security?
• You will need to replace $32,400 ($21,600 + $10,800) of
Social Security income in our example above.
• Remember the 4% rule?
• To replicate $32,400 of income from an annuity at age
66, you will need to accumulate an additional $450,000 $500,000 (in addition to amount in Wesleyan Pension).
• BUT…Social Security is indexed for inflation.
• What will be the equivalent of $32,400 in 25 years
assuming 3% inflation?........$67,800.
• Replicating Social Security income requires a lot!
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Another option for those who
have opted out of Soc. Sec.
• If your spouse is employed and in the Social Security
system, you (pastor) may be able to get a spousal
benefit from your spouse’s earnings.
• If this benefit is small due to your spouse’s earnings
(part-time work, etc.), consider delaying Social Security
until age 70.
• Every year Social Security benefits are delayed beyond
full retirement age will increase the benefit by 8%.
RonaldBlue&Co.
How much life insurance is
appropriate?
• Calculate your future
liabilities
• See this example:
•
•
•
•
College costs = $200,000
Pay off mortgage = $150,000
Student loans = $30,000
Family income = $750,000 (4%
withdrawal = income of $30K)
• Total need = $1,130,000
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Other Planning Ideas
• Housing allowance available for pension benefits but
NOT IRA money
• Roth IRA/Pension vs. Regular IRA/Pension…know your
tax bracket
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