2023 Congregational Meeting

Information

Date: July 30, 2023

Time: 11:30 AM (After service)

*Next year’s congregational meeting will be July 28, 2024*

Communication 

  • Text your questions to (772) 277-7072 
    • Text ‘2023’ to receive additional links, survey, and information to download.
    • Feel free to text any questions you have to this number and if we have time we will answer them in a timely manner. If we run out of time, we will place the questions online for reference in the future. 
  • Email: info@sunlightcc.org
  • Please fill out our meeting survey and feedback HERE

Resources & Links

Watch the full meeting here.

YouTube player
  • Print the hand out here PDF
  • Survey HERE
  • Download the slides used during the meeting HERE

Meeting Agenda 

  • The Need / Church and Cultural Analysis
  • The Mission / Multiply Method 
  • Ministry Philosophy
  • Headline News
    • Tithing and Financials
    • Multiply 222 Network
    • Elder board recommendations 
    • PSL Campus
  • Closing

Table of Contents

The Need
Philosophy Outline
Multiply Method Diagram 
Financial Reports 
Org chart for Multiply 222 Network
Org chart for Port Saint Lucie Campus 

The Need / Church and Cultural Analysis

  • Decline in Christianity
  • Decline in our Denomination
    • At the time of the publication of the 2016 Yearbook, CRC membership stood at 235,921. Only ten years prior in 2006, membership stood at 272,127. Twenty years prior in 1996, total membership of the CRC was 291,796. 
    • Thus there was a 6.7 percent decline in membership for the years from 1996 to 2006, but this decline rate doubled (13.3%) for the years from 2006 to 2016.
    • During that twenty-year period of time, 45 of the then 47 classes in the Christian Reformed Church declined. Almost half of the 45 declining classes (22) declined at a rate of 10 percent or more. Twelve classes declined at a rate of more than 15 percent over this time frame.
    • Assuming that each classis would continue to decline at the same rate as it had for the previous ten years, the following projections were made about CRC total membership: By 2026 the total membership of the CRC will be reduced to 206,995. By 2036 the total membership of the CRC will be reduced to 184,107.
  • Download Pastor Scott’s Research HERE
  • Watch the leadership of Pastor Scott in action HERE
  • Conclusion – We need more Disciples of Jesus making more churches.

The Mission & The Vision 

Multiply Disciples x Multiply Churches 

2023: 450 Disciples. 5 Churches

10 year goal: 40,000 Disciples. 200 Churches.

Ministry Philosophy

Church Philosophy

  • Gospel Preaching. We are committed to preaching the gospel in every sermon – Sin. Salvation. Service. Dedicated to message focus and repetition.
  • Discipleship. Slow start, exponential growth. Not about butts in seats and dollars in plates. 1 to 1 model rather than 1 to many. We wanted a new way to define the “success” of a ministry. Too many people go to church their whole lives and cannot articulate the gospel, the central message of the Bible. 
  • Leadership Development. Leadership is necessary for growth and is taught in scripture. Scott developed 222LS to train new pastors / preachers / teachers. Not about 1 skilled person attracting a crowd but about getting more people involved in ministry at every level. This was decided when we went to the multi-campus level. Scott chose not to get “piped-in” for 2 primary reasons: 1. It removes an essential job of the pastor to shepherd the flock. 2. It assumes that no one can preach as well as the “star” preacher.
  • Systems. Organized way to approach ministry to maximize resources. We are also committed to developing ministry assets that will last a long time (Bible Step, PROS, & 222Disciple).

School Philosophy

  • The demand for private schooling is exploding. De Santis just signed into law giving families huge grants from $7500-11,000 a year to select private schooling. We have wait lists of up to 80 families. God is not taught as the priority in public schools. 
  • The school is the outreach arm of the church. The school is a ministry. We have seen many school church combos split and almost be completely different entities. We feel that the greatest need in Florida is quality christian education and that is what we seek to provide. We do a lot for outreach like Fall Festival, VBS, weeknight programs and studies, evangelism groups, but the school is our primary strategy for outreach.
  • The quality of education we provide must be the BEST. Everything has been reinvested into the school. Teachers, equipment, facilities. We have had very slim margins over the last decade. 

The Mission / Multiply Method

Multiply Disciples, Multiply Churches 

  • Stage 1 – Multiply Disciples
    • Know Jesus
    • Make Jesus Known 
    • Live a Jesus Life 
  • Stage 2 – Multiply Leaders (Advanced Discipleship)
    • Accredited, Accessible, Affordable  Competence Based Development
    • Develop Qualified Leaders who will Develop Qualified Leaders
    • 2 paths Master of Arts in Christian Leadership / Christian Teacher Education
  • Stage 3 – Multiply Churches
    • Acquisition, Projections, Planning
    • Organize Church / School Teams
    • Combining systems, leadership, teams, and finances for successful launches.

Download Multiply 222 Network Organizational Chart PDF

Headline Financial Reports

Download 2022 Impact Report Page 1 & Page 2

Download 2023 Financial Summary PDF

  • Tithes are down 69% at the close of 6/30. Actual $387,360  Budget $555,764
  • Annual budget number for tithes is $1,111,527
  • Additional Income source- Facility rental $27,692, March Missions Offerings $198,018, with an additional $30,000 raised during a matching gift campaign in June, Designated Tithes.
  • Capital Expenses include at the PSL Campus roof repairs $77,800

The report below should be used as a summary of the year-to-date finances of the various ministries in 2023.

Multiply Network Headline News 

Organizational Chart Updates

  • Thank you for your suggestions for the seat of elder. The council has not decided yet on any nominations.  
  • More information on church governance HERE

The current Elder Board

New Locations

  • Sunlight Grace. We have planted a church in Orlando that has now decided to become a Sunlight Church. It is a primarily Korean speaking church / building, ‘Grace Korean’. Pastor Jason has been working with Pastor Joshua to transition them into a Sunlight campus. Our team will be working with them, talking about how we do ministry, and how we teach the Bible, etc.
    • 7000 Winegard Rd, Orlando, FL 32809
  • Sunlight Winter Garden. Libna Sierra has been selected as the principal to start a school there. We chose to start a school first before a church to build up  income and a base of parents who would go there. The pastor has not been selected yet.
    • 607 Avalon Rd, Winter Garden, FL 34787
  • Sunlight at Verano / PGA Village. We have outgrown the number of families this campus can hold. There is a growing demand for middle school. We need to expand this to somewhere close. SCA is seen as our number 1 outreach ministry of the church. Middle school will be moved to that location. Church plant to start within the year.
    • 8555 Commerce Center Dr

Software development

  • 222Disciple.com revamp. There are a few ways we can streamline things on the back end. A lot of the fund raising we did in March is going to the development of software and translations for this. There is a large group of Portuguese speaking, Spanish speaking, Korean speaking, and Nigerian (Housa) speaking people who are clamoring for this. This being our main mission, it would not surprise us that we get and influx of 100 people joining in a short amount of time. 
  • Public Reading of Scripture revamp. This has already happened in the first phase. We are starting different groups around the country. Some up north. We want to make this available to people all over the world.

PSL Campus Headline News

Organizational Chat Shifts Updates

  • Download Sunlight Port Saint Lucie Campus Organizational Chart PDF

New Ministry Approaches

  • Leadership. Leadership of every form will be required to have gone through 222Disciple and a member at this church. Small groups, worshiping on stage, etc. Different levels of leadership are different from a case to case basis but this is just what is needed if we are to duplicate and ensure ministry focus. Nuances will be up to the ministry leader. Nursery, greeting team, etc.  
  • Middle School. Middle School Sunday School. Since January a plan has been in place to stop providing middle school Sunday school during the worship service. We stopped it officially in May. The primary reasons is we believe having them here worshiping and learning with us. Having them here becomes habit forming, identity shaping, and communal learning. It become intergenerational ministry of which is not found anywhere else in culture.  
  • For more information click HERE.

Ministry Outreach Point  

  • There is a need to reach out and provide pastoral care and worship services to locationally challenged people in the community. 
  • There is also another need to train preachers and there is not enough opportunities to do so. 
  • Ministry Outreach Points will provide mini worship services to nursing homes and prisons. Services will be 35-40 min long with a hosting, worship, and preaching. Teams will bring snacks and conduct the service, and afterward minister, pray, and get to know the people in that location. 
  • We already have a schedule starting in August with the location at Watercrest. 
  • We need your help. If you would like to join the team in any capacity email jeff@sunlightcc.org 

Closing

We have been blessed to see such amazing growth in our ministry. Please be in prayerful consideration of your place in this mission. You have gifts, talents, skills, abilities, and time to contribute and we want you to contribute. 

  • Multiply disciples means
    • More faith in families 
    • More people that love Jesus 
    • More leaders in the world to make a stand for Jesus
  • Multiplying churches means
    • More godliness, morality, and holiness in today’s culture
    • More kingdom expansion the gates of hell cannot stand against 
    • More impact in the world

Questions that were texted in

What was the date of Pastor Scott’s first Sunday at Sunlight?
Pastor Scott’s first Sunday was in July 2004.

Why are we “Sunlight” and not “SONlight” Community Church?
The group who planted our church named it “King’s Church” and it was located in a strip plaza on US1. They were primarily a group of dutch snowbirds from Michigan. Legend says they renamed the church to Sunlight because they loved the Florida sun so much.

Good afternoon. We just watched a movie that reminds us that not everyone is as fortunate as we are. Please watch the trailer to this movie (link above) that is a true story. Please go and see this movie because all proceeds go to organizations fighting against this. “Sound of Freedom” is at the movies right now and for the next week.
The Sound of Freedom is an amazing movie. Organizations have reached out offering people free tickets just to go see the movie. Our church staff set aside a day to go to the movies and see this as a team. We love supporting other ministries and networking with other organizations as we are a part of many networks already. Although we love the movie and would not hesitate to recommend the movie to anyone, we have a policy not to promote or endorse most Christian media. For example, The Chosen is a series on Jesus Christ, but because the back end of media and production, political views can be and controversy might be attached to it unintentionally. We try to be very selective of what we promote and endorse on stage officially because we do not know the teams internal politics of other organizations.