Q&A from Members Meeting

Our first phase of renovation is getting the space to a place where it could be used by a variety of tenants. Currently, the space is really only usable for the previous tenant type, a data center. In order to appeal to a broader tenant base who would pay market rents, we need to demo the existing data infrastructure including specific HVAC and fire suppression systems that wouldn’t be useful to a retail user. We’ll then add appropriate fire suppression systems, restrooms, HVAC, etc that are appropriate for for retail use.

The current plan is to make this hire in Q2 of our fiscal year (start date around October).

Of the $57,250 budgeted for local and global missionary support, $46,250 is budgeted for specifically cross cultural support. The remainder certainly have cross-cultural implications, but they are not explicitly so. This would include support of local para church missionaries.

Yes, we plan to still go, either in the fall of 2022 or the spring of 2023. Brad answered this question in the meeting, and you can listen to it here.

The church planting budget goes to three categories

1. The largest category is our giving to Harbor Network, which supports new church plants and the administrative needs of the network.
2. The second category would be the direct support of partner churches. This year’s budget includes support for Maranatha in Pickerington and Veritas Dayton.
3. The third category is our own savings for a future congregation or church plant.

Our philosophy has always been to identify a neighborhood or region of the city in which a significant amount of our people currently reside. At the same time, we look for qualified leaders. In the past we’ve used a rubric of 5 P’s

1. Prayer: Have we sought the Lord?
2. Provision: Do we have the resources we need to launch well?
3. Pastor: Do we have a qualified lead shepherd?
4. People: Do we have a committed group of leaders able to serve?
5. Place: Do we have a place (a physical location) to meet?

To answer a specific portion of this question, we don’t feel it necessary to save specifically for a building in that it’s unlikely that we would purchase a building for a new congregation.

Several pastors answered this question during the members meeting, and you can watch that portion here.

First, it’s important to keep in mind that the SBC is not a denomination, but rather it’s an affiliation of like-minded churches who meet annually for a “convention” and appoint a committee(s) for governance of the organization. As in the early years of Veritas, the organization provides some strategic benefit to church planters and missionaries, and they continue to support a group of faithful gospel-centric seminaries. Severing our connection with the SBC will not impact us in direct ways like leaving a denomination might, and at the same time we are not changing our theological beliefs.

Since our church was planted in 2008, Veritas has developed strong bonds of fellowship, mutual aid, and accountability with other formal partners (namely the Harbor Network) that, for Veritas, have superseded our relationship to the SBC. Although initially the SBC assisted the Veritas Short North plant with modest financial support and guidance, we have since been primarily connected through financial obligation on our part. Though we have faithfully supported the International Missions Board (IMB) fund through monthly contributions of around $1,000, many of our own missionaries are not affiliated with the IMB. They have identified other helpful avenues for support – including direct financial and spiritual support from members of Veritas’s own congregations.

We will continue to be a non-denominational church with deep ties to the Harbor Network.

PJ Wenzel led us in prayer for the SBC during the members meeting. You can watch that part here for ideas on how you can continue praying.

Brad Snyder answered this question during the meeting. You can hear his response here.

We do not identify with any denomination, and we are not considering joining one at this time. However, we still hold the Scriptural truths of the Baptist Faith and Message to be true.

Yes, unfortunately if we were to find ourselves in that position, we would need to make some tough decisions around the timing of certain hires and whether or not we could pursue certain ministry opportunities.

We do feel that outside of anticipated real estate transactions we will receive 1x cash inflows around the end of Q1 that will more than cover our current deficit. These inflows are the result of our property tax exemptions for the West building being approved and being reimbursed for payments already made.

I may have misspoke on this one. We’re currently projecting a church wide general fund increase of $60,000. This is roughly a 3.3% increase over our current (FY 22) general fund projection. – Geoff Davis

We certainly want to provide information in a more consistent way. Unfortunately, given the nature of our budget/financial structure, one congregation’s giving in isolation isn’t as indicative of our financial health as we’d hope. I (Geoff Davis) hope to do a much better job of providing more consistent information on our financial health throughout the year.

The first place to give is to the general fund. This money doesn’t have any restrictions in how it can be disbursed and gives us the most freedom to meet the needs of the church as they arise. If someone is able to give above and beyond their normal general fund giving, we’d encourage them to give to a restricted fund. A restricted fund (building or benevolence) is typically open for donations for a limited period of time and to meet a specific need in the life of the church.

We set both revenue and expense targets for each congregation as part of our budgeting process. These targets include shared expenses and “central” (ie shared, churchwide expenses) as well as all revenue sources (General Fund giving and income from tenants). This process takes into account the needs across our congregations with the understanding that each congregation will sometimes operate in a season of plenty and sometimes in a season of lack. We hope to provide more consistent updates regarding the overall financial health of the church, understanding that the health of one congregation doesn’t exist apart from the health of the others.

We anticipate using that space for church operations. Fortunately, we did receive their notice while we still had some time to amend the budget, so we’ve based the budget on the adjusted revenue amount.

I prefer Marlowe shave cream and Cremo beard (mustache) oil. Other than that, I think it’s just a healthy dose of confidence. –Geoff Davis