As January concludes and a New Year is well underway we thought it best to release an elder update for our Hope Church family.

What The Lord did in 2024
2024 has marked our first full year as an autonomous church. We took a big step of faith, and we believe The Lord has evidently blessed us in this step.

This year we have seen our church grow in both membership and Sunday attendance numbers. We are now seeing our average attendance on a Sunday morning between 100-120 adults and 40-50 kids. With this we are seeing a growing number of volunteers and an increase in our church giving which amounts to an ability to perform more ministry and widen our influence for the Kingdom of Christ. Praise God! We believe our church is not just growing numerically, but also in spiritual depth with one another.

This past year we have been able to celebrate 6 baptisms in our church family. 6 people publicly declaring their saving faith in Jesus Christ. We are thankful for The Lord’s evident hand at work.

We also saw 5 child dedications as parents commit to raising up their children to be followers of Jesus Christ and entrust them to His care.

This past Fall we have been thankful for 10 Life Groups beginning a new ministry year in our church and many new people entering into this method of discipleship in our church body for the first time. We have also gathered diligently and intentionally each month to pray and seek The Lord. We believe He is answering our prayers.

Growing Ministry Oversight
In the summer of 2024 we were able to hire Amy Martin as our Administrator and Bookkeeper, allowing Susan Boyes to focus on Hope Kids and Chris Somers on Worship and Youth Ministries as our staff team. We have seen our corporate worship, kids ministry, youth ministry and organization of our church grow and we are thankful for the staff dynamic The Lord has provided.

This year we have seen Leon Jantzi become our Treasurer, assisting with financial oversight of our church. This is certainly an answer to prayer and is a much needed role that he will continue to serve in.

Loretta Jantzi will be taking on the ministry lead of Hope Hospitality. This includes oversight of The Market, Second Sunday’s, and provision of food for events and classes at the church. Many of you serve and contribute to our church’s hospitality needs and for that we are so grateful. We are encouraged that Loretta feels called to use her gifts to provide direction and organization to the growing needs.

Facilities Team
Praise The Lord for our building. It’s a provision we could easily take for granted now, but many many churches don’t have the ability or opportunity to have their own facility. We are so thankful that we have a building that allows us to minister as we want, when we want! Between Life Groups, Prayer Nights, Youth and other meetings our building is often in use 3-4 nights a week.

Chris Somers has been able to oversee the formation of a Facilities Team of 8 people who are willing to identify needs in the building, help with upkeep and maintenance along with looking to future projects.

Evident Provision
As we conclude the finances for 2024, there’s great reason for praise!
We had an amazing finish to the year with just over $86,000 given in the month of December.
This year we had proposed a budget of $291,126.22

2024 Budget

$291,126.22

2024 Expenses

$243,854.80

2024 Givings

$349,758.59

2024 Surplus

$105,903.79

The 2024 giving also includes our Bless Hope Campaign contributions. All glory to God. His Spirit at work has stirred generous hearts who love Him to passionately and sacrificially give to the work of the ministry here at Hope. In so doing, this allows the church to move forward on a strong financial footing for the year ahead. This was our hope and prayer for this year as we stepped out in faith!

As The Lord provides, we seek to respond in faith and wisdom as to what He is calling us to as a church. He has and is providing in ways we could never have thought or imagined. We serve a big God, and we seek His will for the days ahead; staying humble and dependent upon him. God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. We are certainly humbled by His grace poured out on our church and will seek to be generous, wise stewards with what He has entrusted to our church body.

Staff Restructure / Hire
In the spring of 2025, Susan Boyes will be stepping down from her role as our Hope Kids Director. Susan has served faithfully in this role at our church for a number of years now, but more recently has felt The Lord preparing her for a change in ministry role. We are thankful to Susan for her faithful service, but we are also excited to see how The Lord uses her moving forward as she supports and continues to serve alongside John in his role as an elder.

With seasons of transition comes opportunity for evaluation and potential change. We are prayerfully considering what a potential future staff position could entail and if there is an opportunity to restructure some of our current staff responsibilities to further enhance our ministries. Please be in prayer as we seek The Lord’s leading in these things.

Annual General Meeting
We would like to invite everyone who calls Hope home to our AGM on March 17th at 7.30pm. Our Annual General Meeting is a time where we will have various ministry reports from staff and volunteers, along with a more detailed presentation of our finances and budget for 2025. It’s a great time to hear and understand more of the vision we have for the church in this coming year and worship The Lord together in thankfulness.

You Are Loved,

Elders of Hope Church Parry Sound

(John Boyes, Collin Spithoff, Godfrey Wilkinson)