Many of you have been hearing from Jasmine quite a bit lately. She has taken on the enviable job (not:) of sending out reminders for monthly reporting and following up if they are overdue. We're very grateful for her willingness to take on this very useful but sometimes thankless task!
At our monthly meeting this past week she made the comment that she gets the question quite frequently: What is the Gold Sheet?
This question didn't surprise me as we have so many new leaders and churches coming from different church backgrounds. Which is great! We also have been restructuring the national office reporting process so this may be generating some uncertainty as to what reports are required.
The following will be useful in keeping current:
Up until recently, the Gold Sheet has been the monthly reporting requirement of all registered Foursquare churches. The report includes both Ministry and Money information. The form can be downloaded from the home page of the Foursquare website http://www.foursquare.ca/.
The Ministry side of the report provides the national office with statistical data like attendance, salvations, baptisms (water/Holy Spirit), healings and testimonies.
The numbers from each church are combined together and published in our yearly Annual Report which then gets distributed to all licensed ministers in the AGM packet for convention. They also become part of the global report published by Foursquare International.
The Money side of the report provides the financial activities and position of the church. Some of the financial data is also combined and reported in the Annual Report but are not reported in the global report.
For those churches who have been set up on the Confluent Accounting system the Money side of the Gold Sheet is no longer required. Reports are now generated right from the accountings system and are called either "Financial Reports" or "Financial Statements". The Ministry side of the report still needs to submitted along with the financial statements.
Church Plants are also responsible for the same monthly reporting, however, their reports are submitted directly to the mother church (including extension tithe). The mother church includes the ministry/financial information of each church plant along with their reports when submitting to the national office.
We will be creating a new Ministry report in the near future as the current one doesn't fully reflect the ministry that our churches need to report. Jasmine will be revising the form with a new format and name. Your comments and suggestion about the form are welcome so please email her directly at jasmine@foursquare.ca.
The new Ministry report will have a separate section on the form for church plants. For the time being, please attach the church plant reports to the mother church reports. The financial reporting should be reported within the financial statements of the mother church.
Once the new Ministry form has been created and all our churches have been set up on the Confluent Accounting system there will no longer be a Gold Sheet.
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Whether ministry or money, keeping current on your reporting is important. A case in point that you can confirm for yourself from this years Annual Report. Over the past ten years we have averaged, together, between 500-700 salvations annually. Last year's report (July 30/10) showed only 330. If you didn't submit your ministry reports then you weren't included in the count. Please know that your ministry and reports do matter!!
Useful Quote of the Day:
"God's purpose has always been about redeeming a people...there is a radical difference between leading one person to faith and leading a people to faith. The former produces a follower of Jesus Christ; the latter produces a movement of Jesus Christ. The first requires one heart bound to God. The second requires many hearts bound together in God...God sent his Son not only to call individuals to himself, but also to transform culture. And he prays for us that we would be one even as he and the Father are one."
Erwin Raphael McManus, An Unstoppable Force.
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