Annual Family
Update + Vote
Each year, at the start of our fiscal year, WestGate Church presents an Annual Family Update in the form of an informational webpage. This update serves as our annual family meeting which is not only required by our bylaws, it’s also good practice.
This meeting serves three purposes:
To review our church’s financial health and approve the new budget
To present and affirm new elders
Approve our revised Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation
Click on the video below to watch the update, and you can also scroll through this page for more details.
Looking Back
Through God’s goodness, your faithfulness, and the hard work of our leadership team, we saw strong financial giving with operating expenses coming in under budget. We are in position to be able to give $2.5 million outside our walls for our second year of the Here to Stay Campaign, which was the goal from the start.
Last Fiscal Year’s Budget
Last Year
Last Year
*Operating Expense does not include depreciation
Looking
Forward
this Fiscal Year’s Budget
Our budget this year looks a little different because it includes all the items of our Here to Stay. This new fiscal year budget was prayerfully created by our leadership team and submitted and approved by our elders. Behind all these numbers are potential kingdom stories that we can’t wait to realize with you.
this Year
this Year
THIS FISCAL YEAR’S BUDGET:
This year’s $9.9M budget reflects a thoughtful increase, centered on caring well for our staff and continuing our generous LOUD commitments to local and global partners. With staffing costs at a healthy level and more than $2.3M set aside to bless others beyond our walls, we’re positioned for another great year of ministry inside and outside our church walls.
This Year’s projected income
We are projecting total income at $10.5M this year. That’s intentionally a conservative estimate compared to last year’s results. The reason? Our Here to Stay Campaign concludes this February, and we’ve based the remainder of the year on historical, non-campaign giving.
We’re trusting God for big things—while also choosing to practice wise stewardship of the resources He’s entrusted to us.
This Year's Projected Expenses
This year’s expense budget represents a moderate increase of $660K compared to last year. Our largest expense is staff salaries and benefits, which account for 52% of the budget. We’ve kept our team lean—reducing positions where it made sense—while still investing at a higher level in key areas like Children’s and Student Ministries. Rising healthcare costs continue to affect this category, but we remain below the 55–65% range typical for healthy Silicon Valley churches.
Another significant expense is LOUD giving, with $2.3M committed to local and global partners. This includes our Here to Stay commitments through February and, beyond that, represents 12% of projected giving. We continue to keep other operational costs low so that we can give generously outside our walls, with the rest of our expenses in line with previous years.
Here to Stay Update
with god for the good of all.
“Here to Stay” is WestGate Church’s prayerful commitment to be a community rooted in God and devoted to serving our community. Through generous, sacrificial giving, we seek to deepen the connection between church and city—creating welcoming spaces on both campuses where many can find welcome, hospitality, belonging, and, we pray, the transformative power and presence of Jesus in and through his people.
Thanks to participation in HTS, we are able to fund ongoing ministry and give a total of $5 million outside our walls over the two years of the campaign; and we’re currently projecting to have about $6 million for the building projects at both of our locations. Our hope is that as you and others continue to give or begin to give for the first time, we’ll be able to fund the building projects even more fully.
stories made possible by your giving:
AFFIRMING OUR NEW ELDER
Another function of this annual family update is to affirm our new elders. This year we have invited one new elder to our team.
Elders are nominated by the staff and members of our congregation, and then go through a months-long vetting process. Our Elders serve and lead at the most central level of church leadership. They oversee and guard our mission, vision, values, budget, and theology, and hold our executive leadership accountable to the mission and vision of our church. They serve a critically important role for us.
And this year, we’re so excited to present to you our new elder who has been confirmed by our elder board.
Jim Ballingall
Click the “+” to learn more about our newest elder.
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Jim Ballingall, who is a part of our Saratoga congregation is a passionate and gifted leader who amongst other things, has served faithfully within our Alpha Ministry to those who are exploring faith. Jim has the gift of evangelism amongst other gifts and we’re excited for the leadership he’ll bring to our church family.
if you have questions or concerns regarding our affirmation of our new elder click here.
REVISIONS: BYLAWS + ARTICLES OF INCORPORATION
This past year, at the advice of our legal counsel, our Elder Board and Executive leadership team made some minor changes to our Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation to update the language, which in some places was quite outdated, and more clearly articulate some key policies - and to ensure that these two documents are in sync and congruent with each other.
To help you make sense of these, you can view our current Bylaws and our proposed Bylaws and our current Articles of Incorporation and our proposed Articles of Incorporation, as well as an executive summary of what those changes were.
Next steps
questions?
We need you, as a member of WestGate church to VOTE. If you have questions about this year’s annual family update click the button below and we’ll answer your questions to assist you in your vote.
vote
On Sunday, September 28, you’ll receive an email as a member of our church family, inviting you to vote between 9am and 9pm. We’ll make sure to follow up with you via email once we have the results. Thanks.