Board Update

Hello bridge Family!

My name is Chase Bethel and I’m privileged to serve as one of your board members here at the bridge, as well as a member of the Finance Committee. I’m pleased to provide an Impact Report to you today, from the perspective of finances.

As we reflect on the church’s finances over the fiscal year ending August 2020, the Board and Finance Committee are awe-filled to witness God’s provision that has enabled us to impact the Markham community and the world around us. Similarly, we are thankful to see your generosity and sacrificial giving through tithes and offerings, even amidst pandemic and all the uncertainty it brings.

So, what is the financial picture here at the church from an operating perspective?

First, we ended the year with a surplus of $392,716. That’s an outstanding result and compares to an operating deficit of about $78,000 last year! The surplus was driven by total revenues of $2.29m exceeding total expenses of $1.9m.

By definition, our revenues include income related to giving—things like tithes and offerings, capital campaigns, contributions to missions initiatives, and so on, but also includes interest income, Hub revenue and cost recoveries from events such as retreats.

Giving continues to account for over 90% of total revenues. For the past fiscal year, giving totalled $1.9m, an increase of 11.7% compared to $1.7m in 2019. Of the 11.7%, approximately half of the increase came from the sign campaign that raised just over $100,000, and the balance came from traditional sources. Giving at the bridge has historically grown at an average of about 4.5% per year, so even excluding the sign campaign, it was a very strong year from a giving standpoint. By the way, you can see that giving from electronic sources such as Pushpay and pre-authorized debit continues to increase as a share of overall giving. Due to COVID, we also began to accept e-transfer this past year, so you can see e-transfer represented as a new giving source.

Let’s move on to expenses. Our expenses totalled $1.67m in 2020, a decrease of 10.2% vs $1.86m in 2019. Particularly once COVID hit, a lot of our facilities and utility expenses fell dramatically. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t commend all of the pastors and staff at the bridge, who—as they’ve consistently done in the past—were very good stewards of church finances in managing their ministry expenses to below their original budget. Within expenses, salaries total just over $1m and increased by 2.8%—reflecting increases in salaries and hours worked.

To highlight one item from the church’s balance sheet, the church ended the year with operational cash of just under $420,000, which provides very strong liquidity and flexibility.

As is customary practice, the Board has reviewed and passed the church’s operating budget for the fiscal year ending August 2021. We are expecting a deficit slightly below what we saw two years ago in fiscal 2019, but this includes non-recurring expense items, some of which relate to COVID reopening preparedness and to the building project. More details about the budget will be provided in conjunuction with our upcoming AGM. If you’re interested in further details beyond the areas covered in this review, I invite you to peruse both the graphs below, as well as our audited financial statements. I’d also like to express sincere thanks to the members of the Finance Committee: Tim Jenkins, Sonia Tan, Ken Mo, Cynthia Yoon and Kevin Aide, who give so generously of their time to help in the budgeting and monitoring of church finances.

Thank you for your time, attention and your interest in finances here at the bridge. On behalf of the Board, we are very grateful for your faithful giving. the bridge remains a Gather, Group, Give and Go church with all 4Gs being integral to the pursuit of our mission to connect with God, each other and the world around us.

Hello bridge church,

For those of you who don’t know me, I am Kevin Aide and I am one of the board members here at the bridge church. I also have the pleasure of serving the church as the chairperson for the Building Expansion Project.

As I reflect back on the Impact Report that I presented in 2019, I am reminded that our plans and our timing are not always God’s plans and timing and that we have to trust in His Providence. I don’t think there has been a better example of this than 2020.

This time last year, we had expected that we’d be fully into the building expansion project; however, between delays with the city, which were further lengthened by COVID, this didn’t turn into reality. We’re not quite there yet, but we’re close.

After several back and forth submissions with the city over our site plans, we finally gained their endorsement in August. This was a major milestone since it involved the approval from various city departments and the region. The next step of this process is the site plan agreement which is a legal agreement between the bridge, the City of Markham and the Region of York, which sets out all the site plan conditions that we must adhere to as part of this project.

Concurrent to our site plan submissions to the city, our architect completed the drawings and specification documents required to start the tendering process for our project. All of the work we are doing for our project and all the supplies and materials, which are being purchased, are done so under an open and competitive bid process.

We now have pricing provided by the various construction trades and suppliers, which gives us more confidence as to what this project is going to cost. As many of you are aware, the unfortunate reality is that the final bill for our building is going to exceed what we had planned for. This is not what we hoped for, nor what we expected, but it is the reality we’re faced with. We recognize that the building is just a material structure; however, it serves the purposes of God through the ministries of this church. The building was designed very intentionally to reflect who we are and how we serve. The staff had an enormous impact on its design. This building will maximize our impact at this location—5440 16th Avenue—and it will serve God’s purposes well!

At our recent town hall meeting, we showed a 3D fly-through rendering of the new building. You can follow the link below to review this video and learn more about the various spaces, which we wish to bring to reality. A special thanks to Pastor Karen and her husband Ben for the script and the narration. One quick note on the video though: the colours, furniture, signage and other aesthetic items are the creative ideas of the architect, but don’t necessarily reflect what will be the final look. We have an interior design team working to define these aspects of the project.

Now, the only things holding us back from starting the project are: first, the need for congregation approval to indebt ourselves for the amount needed to cover the budget shortfall; and second, permitting from the city.

We believe that we’re close with the city on having the permits approved, thus allowing us to start the demolition. As a Board, we have put forth the motion to borrow the funds to permit us to fully fund this project. We are excited about this project, the impact it will have on the community of Markham and the kingdom of God. Our hope and our trust is that you, too, see this project’s value. We believe that this is an opportune time to build for the future. We see this development of our property as enabling us to minister to as many as 1800 people a week through our robust ministry schedule. It will be a multi-purpose, multi-generational building that will provide access to all people for years and years to come.

We are so appreciative of you for your ongoing thoughts, feedback, prayers, and support. Both the staff and the board are looking forward to journeying with you through a capital campaign in 2021 that will address the debt that will be incurred.

We have great days ahead!!

Finance Update

Building Project

Finance Overview

Our Building Project

Our Mission