Our Finance Team pays close attention to our spending and helps us use the money given to Live Oak wisely. I thought to make sure everyone knows how we are doing, I’ll start keeping a regular update here in my blog. As you can imagine, I sure pay attention to the finances of the church. When Live Oak sold the old property, there was a profit. We decided to invest/commit a large portion of that profit in the move to Surrey Ranch. Why, to increase our effectiveness in reaching our vision of touching lives and families in our communities. So, we began at Surrey Ranch knowing that we would have higher expenses than present giving. We would use our savings. Well, Live Oak has been and continues to touch lives and families. However, giving has not risen as we hoped. A good projection is that at the present rate, our cash reserves and cash flow will run out in about mid-August, 2011. Most of our expenses are pretty much fixed and we already run a lean operation. So the ole’ cut expenses approach is not the answer. The answer is to increase our giving. The vision is clear, the need is great, now is the time to invest. Prayerfully consider giving and increasing your giving at this critical time in what God is doing through Live Oak.