Legacy Offering Next Steps
Between November 20 and December 31, 2022 our community gave generously and sacrificially, over and above our tithes, towards the Legacy Offering. The Legacy Offering was introduced during our “God + Money” series that look place in November and it served as a challenge for our community to put into practice all that we had learned.
Our community contributed $150,000, meeting our goal and allowing us to work towards the fulfillment of all our initiatives! We are both humbled and excited by how our community came together and gave to the offering, and we are confident that the funds donated will serve to make a difference in the lives of many in the Soul community and beyond.
In keeping with our desire to be a transparent and accountable community, here is an update (as of June 27) on our Legacy Offering initiatives.
1. Hiring of a Children’s Pastor
We are continuing our search for a Children’s Pastor to join our staff team. While we’ve received many applications for the position, we’ve yet to find the right candidate. Since the pandemic, church staffing across Canada has become increasingly difficult with many experienced pastors moving away from Christian ministry and with fewer young people choosing to enter into vocational ministry. Despite this, we remain confident that God will provide the right fit. Our Family Ministry team is continuing to ensure that ministry to our children and families remains a priority during this search period.
The addition of a Children’s Ministry Pastor will increase our ability to care for nursery and pre-school aged children during our Sunday gatherings and will release Pastor Beth to focus on more wholistic family-based pastoral care.
2. Production equipment upgrades
We’ve used the $50,000 earmarked for production upgrades on replacing technology that we’ve used at Soul since 2004. We first completed a stage lighting upgrade that updated all of our stage lights to LED fixtures, greatly reducing our power consumption, all the while providing more consistent stage lighting for our in-person and online participants. This change also ensures operational consistency for our Production Team members who control lights, cameras, sound, and visuals every Sunday morning. We also updated a computer in our Production Headquarters that presents lyrics and slides.
In our Soul Kids Room we upgraded our sound system, removing a bulky system that we’ve used since 2004 and installing a modern in-ceiling system that meets the needs of our space and ministires.
We still have a small allocation of funds in this category that will be used on further upgrades to our Production HQ this summer.
3. Atrium Renewal
Our atrium is a natural gathering space that serves our local south Winnipeg community through various events. We are currently in the consultation stage with a series of companies who will work together to give our atrium a much needed overhaul that meets the needs of the various community and ministry groups that use our space. Our plan also includes significant improvements to our Sunday coffee service equipment and atrium seating options. Unfortunately, we were not able to acquire government grants to offset the cost of the project.
Throughout the year we’ll continue to provide updates on these projects as we work towards actualizing our vision of being a place of refuge, repair, and rejuvenation for all people.