Dear Friends and Members of Peninsula Bible Fellowship:

This is an exciting time in the life of our church. We are beginning a new chapter with Brent James, our new lead pastor. In the next few weekends we will be baptizing individuals into new faith in Christ, and we will be welcoming home one of our many missionaries from the field to hear stories of God's faithfulness. There is so much for us to be thankful for as a body as we enter this Thanksgiving season.

As exciting a time as this is, there are also some areas that need serious prayer and attention. As you might have noticed in recent bulletin announcements, our financial giving as not kept pace with budgeted expenses. We, your elders, have been monitoring this situation closely and have been prayerfully considering how to respond to this situation and to the economic realities that many are having to adjust to. In our deliberations, we always strive to be transparent with you about our current reality and how that affects the decisions we need to prayerfully make about the future.

We currently are running a 12 percent deficit for the 2011 budget, roughly 110,000.00 That number may seem shocking to you. You should know that every year we receive greater end of the year giving that helps us make some of the shortfall. In fact, at the beginning of October there were some signs that we were positioned to be able to meet our budgeted obligations. Unfortunately our October giving was also below expectations and we must begin to prudently and prayerfully deal with the financial reality we find ourselves in. We also need to finalize a budget for 2012, one that is rooted firmly in faith but also grounded in wisdom. We felt duty bound to share this information with you and to give you a chance to respond.

The truth is, without a substantial change in giving, every area of our church's life will be affected; support for our missions partners and PBF ministry programming will be cut, and unfortunately, due to the percentage of the personnel budget in relationship to the overall budget, we will also have to make reductions in our church's staff. Everything within us resists making these changes with so much wonderful ministry that's currently happening. But we simply can't continue to spend more than we take in and we won't.

What can you do? How can you respond? First, pray! We believe that we serve a God who is able to do more than we can ask or imagine. Pray that God will use PBF in a powerful way to bless the people of the Kitsap peninsula and that He will provide the resources needed to accomplish the work. Secondly, give (if you are able)! If you are able to give more during this season of ministry, there has never been a greater need. If you haven't given in the past, please prayerfully consider giving now. We recognize that many are financially hurting during this economic downturn and the last thing we want to do is add guilt to the hurt. If you're simply unable to give more - please recognize your limits. Finally, trust! This is God's church! We will weather the storm, and we can and must adapt to the circumstances of our provision. We believe that all we have need of God's hand will provide. He is faithful and true.

May the peace of Christ guard your hearts,
The Elders