2024-2025 Summit Budget Proposal 2024-2025 Summit Budget Proposal (Spanish)
The Summit Church directional elders recommend approving the 2024–2025 budget of $51.7M. Members will have the opportunity to vote digitally at summitchurch.com/members from Thursday, Aug. 22 to Sunday, Aug. 25. We encourage your questions and want you to be as informed as possible as you pray and prepare to vote to approve the budget for the coming year. We will accept questions regarding this year’s budget from Thursday, Aug. 8 at 9 a.m. until Monday, Aug. 19 at 5 p.m.
As covenant members, when you vote on the budget, in essence, you are affirming the leaders who have recommended it, the mission it will fund, and your willingness to carry it out in the coming year. It is a vote of both approval and participation. Three aspects that can help you vote for the budget with confidence—knowing it’s responsible, effective, and funding the right things—are the process, the leadership, and our mission and ministry effectiveness, all of which are outlined in more detail in the following content.
Voting on the Budget
To vote, you must be a covenant member of The Summit Church. As you prepare, we have compiled answers to the most frequently asked questions related to the annual budget process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the congregation vote on the budget?
The congregation is required to vote on the budget because of our bylaws, as we are a Jesus-ruled, elder-led, and congregationally accountable church. This means that while the elders provide leadership and oversight for the church, they are accountable to the congregation. Also, while church oversight is the responsibility of the elders, carrying out the ministry and mission of the church is the responsibility of the entire body (Ephesians 4:11–12).
As covenant members, it is our responsibility to 1) approve the budget, 2) fund the budget through generosity, and 3) carry out the mission of the church through our participation in ministry. When we vote on the budget, in essence, we are affirming the leaders who have recommended it, the mission it will fund, and our willingness to carry it out in the coming year. It is a vote of both approval and participation.
How can I vote for the budget with confidence, knowing it’s responsible, effective, and funding the right things?
This is an important question, and there are three important aspects to it—the process, the leadership, and our mission and ministry effectiveness.
1. The Process
Each year, we begin the budget process by forecasting our attendance and revenue. By looking at historical trends, we are able to better anticipate revenue for the coming year. Based on our analysis, we have projected a 10.5 percent increase in tithes and offerings from the previous year. We anticipate $51.7M for the 2024–2025 fiscal year, compared to a budget of $46.8M for the 2023–2024 fiscal year. This is clear evidence of your commitment to putting Jesus first in your lives, and we are deeply encouraged.
Once we have our estimate, we set aside a percentage of the projected revenue for our growth and expansion reserve. The remainder becomes what we use to plan our ministry programming budget. Over the course of several months, our directional elders, executive team, ministry leaders, and accounting team work diligently through a process of planning and review to come up with a budget that meets all of our fixed costs and adequately funds all of our ministries and sending (missions).
2. The Leadership
While the directional elders oversee this process, there are many other leaders who are involved in the details, from our accounting team to the ministry leaders at each campus who oversee the specific ministry areas. Every area of our budget has multiple eyes on it because accountability is the highest priority. The Summit is an ECFA-certified church (Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability); therefore, we go through an external audit every year.
3. Our Budget and Mission Effectiveness
Growth and Expansion Reserve - $11.7M
Our growth and expansion reserve is used to pay any existing debt and save money for future building projects. While launching campuses in mobile locations is a cost-effective way to begin reaching people, in order to sustain long-term ministry, the transition to permanent buildings is our goal.
Our growth and expansion reserve strategically enables us to build cash on hand, allowing us to be less reliant on outside financing to fund future building projects. We collaborate with financial consultants who work with some of the largest churches in the nation to help us continually update our long-term financial strategy. Our financial position is one of the strongest among churches of our size.
One of the greatest blessings we have is that our congregation is so generous that our per-person giving average is one of the highest for churches in the nation. We see this as your response to God’s generosity, putting him first in everything, and believing in the mission he has given us. Our strategy of reserving a significant percentage of each year’s annual income for debt reduction and saving for future growth helps us be better prepared to continue to reach people today and in the future. This year, we are setting aside 22.6 percent of our income for growth and expansion.
For many years, we’ve been asking God to provide a permanent location for our Chapel Hill campus. And because of your generosity and the savings we’ve built through the growth and expansion reserve, we have an opportunity to take the initial step in fulfilling our goal of providing a permanent facility for the Chapel Hill campus.
Debt Servicing
In early 2024, we successfully completed the construction of our Alamance County campus’s permanent facility. Through your generosity, we were able to complete this $32M project with a balance of $17M in debt as of May 31, 2024. As we enter the 2024–2025 fiscal year, our cash balance is equivalent to our outstanding debt with interest rates on our debt creating a positive spread.
Ministry Programming Budget - $40M
Ministry programming is the budget it takes to run the church, pay the salaries and bills, and fund all of our ministries, including sending (missions). This year, we have allocated 77.4 percent of our revenue, or total budget, for this area.
We want to make disciples, not just converts, and that involves ministry for all ages—for families, small groups, and more. Our central and campus ministry teams work together with every member who serves to fulfill our mission of being a disciple-making church. If you have grown as a disciple at the Summit or know any of the 12,000 people who regularly engage with our ministries, that, in some way, is this budget at work. Of course, the people who carry out the ministry are the most important asset we have, but there are a lot of resources that are essential and helpful to all that is done in our very active church body.
Sending (Missions) Budget - $6.1M
At the Summit, we believe every member is sent, whether that’s internationally or to serve our local community. From our ministry programming budget, we have allocated 15.3 percent to sending (missions). This is a slightly lower percentage from previous years, due to the overall increase in the ministry programming budget as a result of growth and expansion. However, the total amount remains the same from last year, and we are currently identifying and establishing additional avenues for generosity toward this priority.
Your Generosity at Work
The Summit Church exists to create a movement of disciple-making disciples in RDU and around the world. As disciples, we are called to be generous stewards of all God has given to us. Here are some ways your generosity is and has been at work at the Summit:
We’ve made disciples, not just converts.
We’ve prioritized the gospel above all. In February, over 2,000 men gathered to worship, hear biblical teaching, and connect with one another at our Men’s Conference. The theme, “Don’t Walk Alone,” is our prayer as we continue encouraging our men to be disciple-making disciples in RDU and around the world.
We held our largest VBS ever this June—with more than 1,500 kids and 800 volunteers participating across our eight locations in the Triangle. The theme verse was Psalm 16:11a: “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy” (ESV). During VBS, our kids, leaders, and parents found joy in the story of Jesus!
In July, over 1,000 middle and high school students and 300 leaders from all of our Summit campuses traveled to Ocoee, Tennessee, to participate in student camps. We also had over 300 kids and 70 leaders participate in our Summit Kids Camp at Camp Willow Springs in Littleton, North Carolina, for a time of worship, fun, and learning more about God.
We’ve done whatever it takes to reach all people.
Each week, more than 9,000 people attend weekend worship services at one of our 13 campuses across RDU. And this past year, we’ve celebrated over 400 people publicly professing their faith through baptism.
In December 2023, we were able to gather together as one church in one location for Christmas with the Summit at DPAC (Durham Performing Arts Center). Over 16,000 people heard the gospel proclaimed, 1,800 people served, and many started salvation or baptism conversations.
Summit Online is continuing to share the hope of the gospel in RDU and around the world. An average of over 5,500 people regularly engage with one of our services, and in the last year, we’ve had at least 114 people make a profession of faith in Christ and over 100 people connect with us for prayer.
This spring, we launched our Alamance County campus’s permanent facility, giving this campus their first permanent home. We also launched our Knightdale campus in October 2023.
Through local outreach, we have been able to provide nearly $75,000 in financial assistance to individuals and families in crisis and serve over 162 foster and adoptive families through respite nights, interest nights, and other family activities. We have also served 39 families through our multicultural fellowship.
We send every member.
God has given us a goal to plant 1,000 churches in our generation. Because of the faithful generosity of people like you and the incredible work of the Lord, we planted 538 churches and are over halfway to our audacious faith goal.
This summer, we had 115 Summit College students who were sent out with City Project, 25 with Second City, and 17 with City Life, along with 40 staff members, to learn, serve, and go. They served in seven North American cities and 12 international locations.
In November 2023 and June 2024, we sent men and women from the Summit to the NC Baptist and SBC Annual Meetings, respectively. By sending a full slate of messengers and guests to each, we ensure that the Summit is fully engaged in the decisions about how our cooperative resources are used.
We are thankful for the ways we’ve been able to encourage and support our missionaries through short-term trips. This past year, we sent over 500 participants on 57 trips to visit our international missionaries, contributing nearly $140,000 to this vital work.
God promises to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20 NKJV). We are grateful for how he continues to provide through the generosity of his people. We work diligently to ensure that we do everything possible to steward these resources with wisdom, knowing that God has entrusted them to us for his purposes, not our own.