The Church of the Lutheran Brethren would like to thank all of you who gave to your congregation and to the Church of the Lutheran Brethren in the past year. It has been a financially difficult year, but we continue to trust that God will provide as we are faithful to his Mission. As we write this, we do not know how the month of April will turn out. The fiscal year is coming to an end and at this time we are at only 73% to our goal. We are extremely thankful to those who have given and to those who will give to the mission of our Church in the coming weeks.

We ask you to continue to join us in prayer for the ministry of the Church of the Lutheran Brethren and especially for our family of congregations around North America. Isn't it wonderful to know that we are all on the same mission, together, locally, nationally and internationally?

"But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body" (1 Corinthians 12:18-19).

Final Report from Finance Office:

From the depths of our hearts, we want to thank our family of churches for their support and encouragement - expressed most recently by the outpouring of financial support in our fiscal year ending month of April. By any of our historical contribution standards, it was an excellent month, allowing us to end the fiscal year at 95% of our contribution support goal when we entered April at just 73%.

But the really exciting news is that, after tallying up all other sources of income and factoring our actual expenses, we should end up with an overall fiscal year "bottom line" surplus of right in the vicinity of $176,000 - just enough to cover (wipe out) the combined carryover negative fund balance of $175,727. So for the first time in about 20 years or so, our operating ministries (as a whole) are NOT IN THE RED. It's as though God's intention was to give us just enough to poke our nose above the water...after all, holding your breath underwater for 20 years gets a little exhausting! Praise be to Him!

Brad Martinson
Director of Finance and Personnel

Final 2010 Contributions Report

By Tim Mathiesen

Tim Mathiesen serves as Director of Communications and Prayer for the Church of the Lutheran Brethren.