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 two purposes:
To review our church’s financial health and approve the new budget, and
To present and affirm new elders
Click on the video below to watch the update, and you can also scroll through this page for more details.
Looking Back
Last year began with uncertainty, marked by rising costs and slower giving. Yet through God’s goodness, your faithfulness, and the hard work of our leadership team, we were able to see financial giving stay strong and our net operating expenses come in under budget.
Last Fiscal Year’s Budget
HOW WE ENDED THIS PAST FISCAL YEAR:
Through God’s goodness, your faithfulness, and the hard work of our leadership team, we saw strong financial giving with net 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 Here to Stay Campaign, which was the goal from the start.
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:
As we conclude our 2 year giving campaign this Feb, we are projecting a slightly conservative yet similar income to our previous year.
LOUD is based on 12% of estimated giving following our Here To Stay giving campaign which concludes February 2026.
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.
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 to steward resources wisely while keeping expenses steady in other areas.
All of this means that we’ll be able to continue funding ministry in the year to come, while also fulfilling Here to Stay commitments toward local and global compassion as well some of the building projects we’ve been planning.
stories made possible by your giving:
Name Here
Click the “+” to learn more about our newest elder.
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Description text goes here
AFFIRMING OUR NEW ELDER
One other function of this annual family update is to affirm our new elders. We have invited two new elders 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.
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 old bylaws and our new bylaws and our old articles of incorporation and our new articles of incorporation, as well as an executive summary of what those changes were.
Current Bylaws
Current Articles of Incorporation
Proposed Amended and Restated Bylaws
Proposed Amended and Restated Articles of Incorporation
Executive Summary of the changes
Next steps
questions?
We need you, as a member of WestGate church to VOTE. If you have questions about this year’s budget click below/fill out this form and we’ll answer your questions to assist you in your vote
vote
On Sunday, September 28, you’ll get an email as a member of our church family where you’ll be invited to vote between 9am-9pm. We’ll make sure we follow up to let you know the results via email. Thanks.