Church Council Votes to Move Time and Make Masks Optional

On Sunday, December 12, 2021, the Church Council met to conduct business as part of the regular monthly meeting that occurs on the second Sunday of each month. Several items were on the agenda, including an update to the church finances, a discussion on the time for worship services, and the decision to make masks optional starting on January 1.

Financial Update

For the month of November, the church received revenues in the form of gifts and tithes in the amount of $29,431.90. The church spent $25,885.24 on an expected monthly budget of $24,044.08. This means that the church ended the month of November $3,546.66 in the positive!

While we had a great month through giving and no large, unexpected expenses, we are still down on the year. So far, for 2021, the church has received revenues of $313,985.15 against our expenses year-to-date of $327,762.57. So far, we are $13, 777.42 in the negative.

The church council set an annual budget for 2021 of $289,136.68. While our giving has surpassed the needs of our budget, we had several large and unexpected expenses at the start of the year that impacted our budget (i.e. two air conditioners going out and the parking lot needing repaired).

As you prepare for your end of the year giving, please consider making a one-time offering along with your usual tithes to Prairie Grove First United Methodist Church. You can give online, in person, or by mail.

Worship Time

Our church has been worshiping at 11 am on Sunday’s since last winter. We were meeting outside and socially distancing in order to help slow the community spread of the Coronavirus, and it was starting to get cold. So we started moving the start time back further in the morning to give the sun time to get up and warm things up. When we started worshiping indoors again, we never changed the time back.

Prior to the pandemic, the church met at 9:30 am and had time for Sunday School classes at 10:30. After a poll in our private Facebook Group and discussion amongst the Council, we voted to return to that time, effective January 2nd.

To be clear, worship will return to 9:30 am beginning Sunday, January 2, 2022.

We also plan to restart our Sunday School classes and Wednesday Night programming as well. Sunday school will start back on January 16 and Wednesday Night programming will start on January 19. More details on those will come at a later time.

Masks

After much debate and deliberation, the council also voted to make facemasks optional effective January 1, 2022. For our members or visitors that would rather not participate in worship in person while masks are optional, please consider enjoying worship with us online via our Facebook page.