More Giving Statement Info and Taxes

I'm no tax expert or advisor, so consult your tax advisor before you do anything. But as I was working on taxes last night, and reading the 1040 instructions and the instructions for Schedules A & B, I came across additional information related to yesterday's post. Yes, I usually do my own taxes and yes, I read the instructions; interesting reading actually. I like to try and figure out why they have us do the different calculations, where they're getting the numbers from, etc. etc. Through the course of my reading last night (the following were copied straight out of the instruction books), I discovered...

Volunteers can deduct out-of-pocket expenses and mileage
Contributions can be in cash (keep canceled checks, receipts, or other reliable written records showing the name of the organization and the date and amount given), property, or out-of-pocket expenses you paid to do volunteer work for the kinds of organizations described earlier. If you drove to and from the volunteer work, you can take the actual cost of gas and oil or 14 cents a mile. But, if the volunteer work was to provide relief related to Hurricane Katrina, the amount is 32 cents a mile. Add parking and tolls to the amount you claim under either method. But do not deduct any amounts that were repaid to you. (See 2006 Instructions for Schedules A & B (Form 1040), page A-4)

A detailed explanation of the $250 threshold
You can deduct a gift of $250 or more only if you have a statement from the charitable organization showing the information in (1) and (2) below.
1. The amount of any money contributed and a description (but not value) of any property donated.
2. Whether the organization did or did not give you any goods or services in return for your contribution. If you did receive any goods or services, a description and estimate of the value must be included. If you received only intangible religious benefits (such as admission to a religious ceremony), the organization must state this, but it does not have to describe or value the benefit. In figuring whether a gift is $250 or more, do not combine separate donations. For example, if you gave your church $25 each week for a total of $1,300, treat each $25 payment as a separate gift. If you made donations through payroll deductions, treat each deduction from each paycheck as a separate gift. See Pub. 526 if you made a separate gift of $250 or more through payroll deduction.
(See 2006 Instructions for Schedules A & B (Form 1040), page A-5)

New requirements for contributions of money
New record keeping requirements for contributions of money. For charitable contributions of money, regardless of the amount, you must maintain as a record of the contribution a bank record (such as a cancelled check) or a written record from the charity. The written record must include the name of the charity, date, and amount of the contribution.
(See 2006 Instructions for Schedules A & B (Form 1040), page A-1)


Consult your tax advisor as to how these paragraphs relate to your situation.

Year-end Giving Statements

If you have a giving envelope number, you should have received your year-end giving statement in the past week. I thought you might have some questions about the statements that you never had the chance to ask.

Why do I receive a statement? Why don't I receive statement?
Year-end giving statements are sent to (1) everyone who has a giving envelope number or (2) anyone who contributed at least $250 or more at one time (the $250 threshold is an IRS-mandated limit). If neither of those criteria were met then you did not receive a statement.

Why do I have to use giving envelopes to receive a statement?
The giving envelopes are our system for keeping track of contributions in as confidential a manner as possible. If you watched Mission Impossible, it’s somewhat similar to NOC list. We work hard to keep your private information confidential.

What if the church’s statement doesn’t agree with my personal records?
Note the discrepancies and send in the business reply envelope to our accountants, Hamilton & Musser.

Why do I have to send it to the accountants instead of talking to the church office?
Our accountants keep us accountable to processing your contributions correctly. To maintain a high standard of checks and balances, any discrepancies should first be reported to the accountants.

If I find a discrepancy with the church’s statement, does it really make a difference?
Absolutely! If we made a mistake, we need to know and to correct it. Plus, it’s important that your records be accurate for your filings with the IRS.

What happens when I report a discrepancy to the accountants?
They make note of the discrepancy and ask the church office to investigate it. In many cases, we simply made a mistake. In those cases, we ask the donor to show us proof of the contribution. If there are other issues, we contact the donor to work through the issues.

How can I help?

• If you don’t have numbered envelopes, contact the church office to request them
• Always use your numbered envelope with every contribution
• Print clearly when writing your checks and filling out the giving envelope
  
• When you use your numbered envelope be sure to write the total contribution amount on the outside of the envelope

As with anything under my responsibility, if you have other questions, please let me know... even squirrels find me approachable.

Communion - Behind the Scenes

I really enjoyed Sunday's celebration of the Bread & The Cup. Since being exposed to the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches, it's always seemed odd that Communion celebrations were such a big deal (footwashing, Bread/Cup and Love Feast), but were only celebrated not even a handful of times a year. Through my upbringing, I was more accustomed to celebrating the Bread/Cup on a monthly basis. When you celebrate Communion on a monthly basis, odds are that out of the 12 times it's celebrated in a year, there's bound to be some bloopers...

I recall celebrating Communion with a group of missionaries in the Philippines, can't remember the occassion for all of us being assembled, but that's not the important part. Now, you have to realize that Welch's didn't export to the Philippines at the time and that grapes don't do well in a tropical climate. What we called grape juice, was made from some sort of extract that, other than being the color purple, hardly resembled grape juice. The Communion celebration was traditional and routine. As is the practice of some groups, we all took the elements corporately. The silence of reflection and the reverence of the moment were disrupted as all of us, in corporate unison, started choking on the juice. See, apparently, someone didn't realize or thought it might be more grape juice-like to use straight concentrate! It was hilarious to hear all of use coughing in corporate response.

One of the churches we attended for a while was Pastored by men from several different denominations and the church served a wide-breadth of people from various religious backgrounds. So when they celebrated Communion, the trays contained both grape juice and wine. The Christian School I attended required us to sign a pledge each year and one of the components of the pledge was that we would not consume alcohol. Little did I know, on a Sunday when we were a little late getting to church, thus sitting in the back of the church, did I ever consider that these two forces would come colliding together. The section in which we were seated must've been a juice section because by the time the trays reached our row, only wine was left! Needless to stay, I stuck by the pledge and only celebrated the Bread that Sunday.

Finally, I was visiting the church my college roommate attended and as the usher handed the tray of grape juice to the next row...

The whole thing dumped...

Right into the lap of the woman who was on the end of the row...

Who happened to be dressed to the nines...

In an all-white outfit.

Talk about disrupting the reverence of the moment.


And if you think that Communion preparation has not become an entire production, check out what Tim and I came across at the WFX Conference last fall. We were so fascinated by it, we had to go talk to them to find out more and we captured it on video to share just with you. Meet the Wilfred and Merlita Greenlee.

Attendance Trend

While preparing the financial report for our leaders a few weeks ago, I thought our attendance trends might be of interest. Of course, if you attend Grace on a regular basis, you've probably developed your own conclusions based on what you've observed in the Auditorium or what you've read from Pastor Scott. I'll put it in graph form, but first a couple of explanatory comments.


The following graph represents the average weekly attendance, reported by quarters. The actual weekly attendance gets a little hairy for several reasons, first, 52 data points (the Sundays in a year) is a lot of data, particularly when you want to compare historically over time. Secondly, with the changes in calendar, it gets confusing as to when Easter fell, etc. Thirdly, because church attendance varies based on the time of year, weather conditions that particular Sunday, etc.


The quarters are based on our fiscal year, so they break out as follows:
First quarter - July-September
Second quarter - October-December
Third quarter - January-March
Fourth quarter - April-June


I broke it out by quarters because annually left out detail that I thought was important, particularly, what months we experienced higher attendances than others.


What the graph indicates is weekly Sunday morning worship attendance, through week 27 has tracked 8.23% ahead of attendance through week 27 of last year.

The grey dotted line marks when Pastor Scott began his ministry at Grace and most noteable about that period is that our latest growth trend actually started before Pastor Scott arrived. That's also the period that marks when our attendance trend changed. Forecasting attendance prior to that point was easy, now, not so much. But that's okay!

So what does all this mean?

SEATING - Seats continue to be a premium in the Auditorium. Our aim is to be at or below 80% capacity, the generally accepted mark of when a room looks full. We've been right around 80% capacity in recent weeks and I don't know about you, but it looks full to me. Jay and I talked just this morning about what we're going to do about seating as we head toward Easter. Options available to us include shrinking the row widths between each row of chairs and reducing leg room, and adding rows under the Mezzanine. For now, expect to see rows under the Mezzanine in the next few weeks.

How can you help? Please fill up the rows towards the front of the Auditorium. There were some 175 empty seats in both services on Sunday, but a lot of those are in the middle of rows, a few hear and a few there, making them hard to find. Fill up the rows and the empty seats will be easier to find which will help ushers fill them up!

PARKING - Thank goodness we paved over the small soccer field this past summer! Through the fall there were a good number of empty parking spaces, but in recent weeks, they've been filling up too. All the while, cars are still parking on Arrowhead Dr.

How can you help? Recognizing that it's not always feasible, the best you can do is carpool to reduce the number of cars we have to accomodate each week. If you're single, hook up with friends/family and carpool. If you're a family with driving teenagers, come to church as a family instead of using multiple vehicles. Finally, to be guest oriented, park as far from the church entrances as possible. You'll notice that the majority of staff are parking in the far reaches of the lots; follow our lead.

I'm excited by these challenges. We're not backed into a corner, we've got choices as to how we want to solve them; a great position in which to find ourselves. And we haven't even begun to consider the more rash approaches the early church employed, i.e. lowering the lame man through the roof or people sitting in window sills.

Overseas Missionaries Don't Wear Capes

Generations of spiritual giants returning from the mission field have left the impression that missionaries are supermen. Our missionaries are made of the same stuff that you are.

-Philip Armstrong

Though I only have a vague recollection of what he looked like, no memory of any conversation with him or whatever, I did have the chance to meet Philip Armstrong when I was a young boy. I knew him as the General Director of Far Eastern Gospel Crusade (now known as SEND International) a missions organization with which my parents served and my grandparents on my Dad's side served with as well.

I came across this quote of Armstrong's recently and it captures something I've thought since returning to the US for college. I say this as a missionary kid, who only recently had lived more years in my homeland than the number of years I lived in a foreign country, and as a person who to this point has committed his live to full-time ministry. Too often we view those whom God calls to serve overseas as super-Christians or better-thans. Just because God hasn't called those who remain in the homeland, wherever that might be, doesn't make them less-thans. And interestingly, God uses strikingly similar approaches to making disciples regardless of what ocean you're closest too, so it's not like those in other countries live a Christian life that looks much different than the way we live our lives. I watched my Dad build relationships with Filipinos at the sari-sari stores at the end of the block as they grabbed the morning breakfast bread that everyone eats in the morning. And in a very similar fashion I know of many who are building relationships with the people they run into at Sheetz every morning as they pick up their morning coffee. Being the active kid that I was, I became friends with Filipino kids which eventually gave my parents an in to talk with the parents, not that much different from your kids who are in sports leagues, school plays and the like and because of car-pooling needs or parties etc., you get to know mom and dad.

Beyond the obvious, how does this impact the ministries of Grace? We need to view Missions as an extension of our ministry, not as a separate function from the rest of our ministries. Everything we do is missions. The purpose is the same: to make disciples. We're all praying that God would work through us to add more people to His Kingdom. The way all of that is carried out has a lot of similarities too. We invest in curriculum materials for our children through adult ministries, and if they don't already, I'm pretty sure the Beuggerts will too. We allocate resources to fix plumbing problems, so do the Weavers. So when you see the church budget for 2007-2008 in a few months, don't be surprised if Missions is replaced with something like Judea/Samaria/Ends of the Earth Ministries. That's really what they are, aren't they? Following our Biblical directive, it's our participation in what God is doing in the church universal.

Missionaries serving overseas are no different than the Christians who work at RR Donnelley or any other capacity. Missionaries don't wear capes, just maybe a sarong or a toga, depending on the country. What's taken me several paragraphs and a couple hundred words to express, Armstrong captured in three sentences...

You have your call: it is to God. If you accepted that call you are at divine disposal. Stop making distinctions about home and abroad. Don't let geography represent a roadblock.

-Philip Armstrong

Meet Ken

We've hired someone to fill the aforementioned Evening Building Supervisor position at Grace. A pastoral student at Lancaster Bible College, who has experience on LBC's security team and has completed AED and First Aid training. He will begin in his new role this Wednesday night, January 24. Don't let the photograph fool you, at 6'8", Ken holds the distinction of being the tallest person on staff now. Please take a moment to introduce yourself to Ken as he gets to know us.

Just to clarify, here's what Ken will and will not be doing. What he will be doing:

• unlocking rooms scheduled for use on the Master Calendar
• unlock/lock the exterior doors to monitor guest traffic
• in the event of an alarm, make sure everyone evacuates the building and be the point person for communicating with the authorities and administrative staff
• handle the first aid/temporary fixes to maintenance issues
• navigate any scheduling conflicts that may have slipped through our scheduling systems

What he will not be doing:

• caring for the setup/tear down of rooms for ministry use, including setting up chairs and tables - those details should still be coordinated with and through Elaine and Jay
• room users are still responsible for all of the details they've been carrying for to date (turning off lights, taking out the trash-if applicable, etc.) - Ken is our last check to make sure the building is tucked-in for the night, but his role does not release all of us from caring for those details
• giving access to rooms that were not requested in advance through our room request system
• letting minors in the building unattended - minors will need to have adult supervision with them at all times while in the building

Ken reports to me and will be keeping me and the Administrative staff in the loop on what transpires each night so we can use that information to troubleshoot bugs in our systems etc. As Ken and we become more comfortable with the new role, I'm sure I'll make some modifications, but that's the general direction we're taking.

Why an Evening Building Supervisor?

A 96,000 sq ft building, like the one we're blessed with at Grace, is full of all kinds of systems... electrical, plumbing, data network, fire alarm, security alarm, etc., etc. To have groups in the building without any staff on site who know, at least a little bit, about how the systems work, has always been a risk. We've taken that risk for at least the eight years I've been at Grace. When I came to Grace, the Facility person at the time carried a pager and that was the main avenue for contacting him in emergencies. It was clear to me that we needed something more to cover our facility needs, so we soon switched to a mobile phone. All along, I knew I was taking a risk that something could happen in the building while groups were meeting and there wouldn't be any staff representatives in the building to help the out (fire alarm goes off, someone has a medical emergency, or a toilet overflows). We stayed in this arrangement for more than eight years, mostly because we had other priorities that needed to be addressed for the sake of the entire ministry and we felt that it was worth the risk. That was then.

In the past couple of years, building usage has increased dramatically. We ran a report on building use this past Fall and from August-December, excluding holidays, the building was in use every night Monday-Friday except for something like one night. There are more and more groups using our facility, and with that, there are more and more people in the building during evening hours. I'm excited about this growth, we've always talked about how we want our facility in use, and the more it gets used, the better.

With the increase in use, Pastor Scott and I identified last Spring that our building usage was creating too high a risk for us not to have a staff person on-site. We saw a need for a position that would be responsible for monitoring the building systems and that would place a paid staff person in the building in case of emergencies. I chose the title of Evening Building Supervisor for the position because while it features a security component, it's responsibilities extend into problem solving any room use misunderstandings, troubleshooting first-aid type stuff for our building systems, making sure the building is evacuated in 3 minutes or under in the event of a fire alarm and responding to potential medical emergencies. If there's a problem in the building, it's the position that should be contacted first.

While only part-time (providing coverage Monday-Friday) we recognize that we are still taking a risk on weekends. Based on current sporadic building use on Saturdays, I can't justify paying someone to be there all day. On Sunday mornings, with so many staff in the building, I'm not as concerned about the building coverage, one of us is usually available to respond to emergencies. So I have no plans to change the way we do things or the roles staff have on Sundays.

With the Evening Building Supervisor position, we've taken a huge step in reducing our level of risk during the evenings Monday-Friday.

Squirrely

I've been fascinated with squirrels for years, but the closest thing to a squirrel in the Philippines is a rat and they just aren't as cute. So, when I was in the States, I relished all squirrel encounters.

Though I'm still not sure why, my Dad would tell my brother and I squirrel stories each night before bed. Actually, purple squirrel stories. Ironically, the purple squirrel's adventures would closely mirror whatever we had done that particular day. I lived for the latest installment of the purple squirrel's adventures - you can even ask my Dad for confirmation.

I also remember a book about a family of flying squirrels and being captivated with a four-legged animal that could actually fly!

There's even a myth that Princeton, NJ is one of the few places that has black squirrels.

Plus, my Middle School soccer coach raised two baby squirrels as pets.

So you'd think, when a squirrel decided to join me in watching last nights Patriots/Chargers playoff game, that I'd relish the encounter. Though professionally trained to respond to fire and security alarms and maintain calm in crisis situations, throw a squirrel in a room with me and I completely lose it - or lost it as the case may be.

But there's more mystery to this than meets the eye. Our house is situated in a development with only a few trees. Few trees, means few, if any squirrels. I've seen more rabits than squirrels. So where in the world our unexpected guest came from has me stumped. Conspiracy theories are already surfacing... it was smuggled in from my in-laws hiding in the hood of our car.

Secondly, how in the world did it get into the house?!? When we purchased this humble abode, I failed to see the section on the disclosure statement that reported that it's actually a dual-family dwelling - one human, one rodent. I'm accustomed to the bi-annual mouse hunting season and those fun little Mickeys running laps between the floorboards, but a squirrel is a different animal.

While I employed interrogation methods I picked up from Jack Bauer, all they did was make the thing burrow further into the arm rest of our coach. Here's how it went down...

I had heard some rustling in the ceiling/floor above, but didn't think much of it. That was until Beth headed upstairs and the next thing I new, I heard pitter-patter steps bounding across the basement carpet headed for the couch. I didn't see the whites of its eyes, but I saw enough to get my heart rate up. Seeing all 6'2" of me arise off the couch, the poor critter did a 180 and made a b-line for the sliding glass door. Unfortunately for both of us, the door was closed. Ever seen a bird fly into a big picture window? Yeah, that. Freaked out, I would be too if I was in his fur, it crawled up into and burrowed itself in the armrest of the couch. Cutting to the escape, we removed the section of the coach, parked it in the garage with the door cracked open and left it be. It was gone by morning, disappearing just as he had arrived, no clue as to where it went or how it got there.

3 things you can do with TiVo

As my cousin eloquently and accurately identified in a post a while back, TiVo has struggled to gain viewers and in many ways, it can probably be attributed to people not understanding all of the benefits of the TiVo unit. Being a recent TiVo-tee, I thought I'd help the cause with my list of things you can do with TiVo:

• You can watch a 3+ hour football game in the span of an hour. That's how I watched most of the college bowl games and the NFL Wildcard and playoff games.
• Though I knew coverage of Penn State's bowl game began at 11 a.m. on New Year's Day, I figured there would be 30+ minutes of pre-game coverage. But because I'd left the TV on ESPN earlier in the day, when I turned the game on at 11:30, only to discover that the game was well into the first quarter, I asked TiVo to record it for me which allowed me to watch the game in it's entirety. On top of that, using fast forward, I was able to watch the whole game and catch up with the live telecast before the game ended.
• You can pause commercials so you can actually read the fine print in the ads. A recent Southwest Airlines cheap fares ad caught my attention, but I was curious as to what was in the fine print.
• The pause feature is also extremely helpful when a squirrel decides to join you in your living room to watch the game, you can pause the game and not miss a single second while you practice good hospitality and host the surprise guest.

Reflecting on Bowls

Since I've been on the inactive list most of this week (strep throat), I've had the chance to catch up on the Bowl Bashes, putting the TiVo our friends gave us last month (thanks J & J) to great use. A few things that were missed in the TV coverage:

Outback Bowl: Penn State vs Tennessee

You know me and my interest in referees... the head referee in this year's Outback Bowl, Jerry McGinn, also called the 2006 FedEx Orange Bowl that featured PSU as well.

Oh, and was Paterno actually coaching or was he just a fan?

Sugar Bowl: Notre Dame vs LSU

For whatever reason, I always like to see the Fighting Irish lose and to see their golden domed-helmets tarnished makes it even better. Did anyone notice how close the LSU offensive huddles were to the line of scrimmage. From our days of playing pick-up, you always held the huddle out of hearing distance of the defense. I'm surprised Charlie “the wizard” Weiss didn't take advantage. I mean, even watching the game from my couch, it didn't take me long to figure out that when Jamarcus Russell would step back, and signal to his wide receivers with both hands raised, that he was checking off to a run play. But each of the four or so times he checked to it, LSU ran with success.

And did you catch who the guy was standing next to LSU coach Les Miles at the trophy presentation? That was the Chancellor of LSU, one Sean O'Keefe. Last I saw him, he was in NASA apparel answering questions about the Space Shuttle burning up on reentry. Hopefully LSU has deeper pockets, are more committed to their cause and have a more specific purpose, vision and strategy than his previous employer. At least their football program is strong.

Finally, since I've been misinformed in recent weeks, let me set the record straight. The 2007 Bowl Bash, while still following the BCS format we've grown accustomed to, is slightly different than previous years. The National Championship game is all it's own this year. The past four or five years the Championship game rotated among the big four: Fiesta, Rose, Sugar and Orange. While some thought the Fiesta was the Championship, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl featured the amazing Boise State/Oklahoma trickery filled treat. This year, the championship game is it's own game. To challenge the average sports fan, Tostitos decided to mix things up for us, sponsoring, not just their traditional sponsorship, the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, but they also sponsored the entire Tostitos Bowl Bash and finally the Tostitos BCS National Championship. Now that that's cleared up, we'll have to see about Pastor Scott's beloved Buckeyes Monday night.

Hopefully, I'm back to work by then.

Wisemen spotted again!

According to Pastor Scott, on Christmas morning in Pueblo, Colorado no less, he discovered the baby Jesus, wrapped in newspaper lying in the foot of his stocking - contrary to the wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger bit. The accounts that I've read always emphasized that the star was in the East, but apparently it was in the West this year.

In addition to the baby Jesus, the Wisemen were sighted in Sunday morning. Since the Wisemen actually visited Jesus some two year's later, I think they found a modern way to move ahead two years... the Back to the Future Time Machine.