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Xenos Christian Fellowship
1995 Annual Report
Xenos Fellowship enjoyed a splendid year of blessing in 1995! We should all thank God from our hearts for answering prayers we have been offering up for years. Our unified and fruitful church is maturing and reaching lost people in dozens of venues, gaining health and momentum as we go. Our church has been reorganized this year, with six divisions instead of five, but since 1995 operated under the old structure, we will report our year in five divisions one last time.
| Xenos' Operations Division facilitates and focuses the ministries conducted by the other Xenos divisions by providing them with tools, information and administrative support. In support of this service mission, Operations provides timely, accurate financial and statistical data, enables effective inter-divisional communication, ensures that clean, comfortable and properly equipped facilities are available (including programming for new facilities), and provides professional administrative support. |
In May of 1995, Steve Bauer replaced Tad Hale as the Operations Division coordinator. In October, Steve took on dual responsibilities by also assuming the position of church Executive Administrator. These changes to our organization meant the division looked very different at the end of 1995. Operations departments achieved all major goals for the year.
Our accounting area managed the funds which were provided in an outstanding year of stewardship in the church. We managed general fund collections and associated expenditures in order to provide positive cash flow throughout the year. The church fiscal controller, Alan Burkholder, and his professional staff, helped management direct resources effectively through timely internal reporting and analysis. Since we ended 1995 with $100,000 of "black-ink," Fiscal Support Team members had the delightful task of deciding how to spend this overage on additional Christ-centered ministry.
In addition to general fund collections, the division supported a highly successful building campaign. The success of obtaining pledges, collecting against pledges and showing overall fiscal responsibility helped us secure financing for our first facility, and get well underway on its construction at year-end. John Circle has taken on the role of the church's "point man" in the field as we complete our office building, and progress in our programming for our new meeting facility. At the same time, John maintains a role in managing work at our existing rented facilities.
Andy Ault, our systems manager, delivered tools to our staff and volunteers to help us better perform our work. A new data base system now supports the many needs for information across the church and its diverse ministries. This system foundation allows us to have one central source of data, which can be maintained at distributed locations, eliminating the redundant sources of data about people and ministry we contended with in the past. This system has already allowed us to improve efficiency of our staff, and reduce the time it takes to gather and disseminate information critical to the mission of the church.
Our work to support presentations and music at central teachings, retreats and other events kept Mark Grover focused on improving our ability to respond and plan ahead. We made many improvements to our sound, light and stage tools, with all activity subject to ensuring it could be transferred to the new facilities, when complete.
Cathy Kaiser joined the administration area as church Administrative Assistant, after completing the majority of her work with the Commitment to the Future: A Time to Build campaign. Chris Lang's Media Concepts director role also moved over to the Operations Division during our Fall reorganization.
1996 will see the continuation of intense activity focused on the completion of our new facilities. The Operations Division will provide primary support for planning, design and completion of the buildings. In late spring, we will move our offices and resource center into the newly-completed office complex.
At the same time, we will continue to meet on-going goals related to facilitating ministry in each of the other church divisions. Operations needs to help focus human and financial resources, minimize cumbersome administrative processes and improve the accessibility of information for our ministries. Primarily, we will continue providing timely monthly financial statements, administering our enhanced Employee Benefits Plan, improving our capabilities at existing facilities, providing information and tools for better management, and improving our communications and publications to serve the church's needs.
We will also seek better ways to use staff and volunteers focused on five areas: human resource management, office assistance, systems development and support, facilities and grounds maintenance (e.g., landscaping), and communications. Ministry Teams will be analyzed for these key operational areas in the hope that we can more effectively mobilize the outstanding knowledge within our fellowship to meet the church's goals in these areas.
| Xenos' Evangelism Division administrates an effective witness for Christ in Greater Columbus, other cities in the United States, and to unreached people groups throughout the world. This mission is accomplished by providing effective structures that will help facilitate Xenos members in their attempts to help those in Central Ohio establish a personal relationship with Christ, by mobilizing all Xenos members to carry out their specific roles in the evangelistic task, and by administrating Xenos extra-local evangelistic projects, including cross cultural mission work. |
Student outreach was again one of our major goals, and we met nearly all of the goals associated with this important ministry. We saw student group attendance increase by one-third. More importantly, dozens of students received Christ and forty of them joined study groups. The Junior High Blow-Out meeting increased attendance by one-half, and high school groups expanded by 45%. The OSU campus group did not end the year with growth; however, three home churches were formed which have enhanced body-life and discipleship. We are determined to see a vigorous ministry on campus.
Adult central teaching attendance only grew by 20-30 people this year. We suspect that crowding in our children's program affected our ability to grow in the adult meetings. This trend may continue until we move into our facility. Implementing the "Welcome Receptions" helped incorporate dozens people into home fellowship groups, which was a major goal for 1995.
"Conversation & Cuisine" and "Mom's Play Groups" grew substantially in number during 1995. Our goal was to increase the number of these groups by 50%. The actual number of groups doubled this year! Now, hundreds of Christian workers are actively using these pre-evangelistic tools to reach their unchurched friends. Over 500 guests attended "Conversation & Cuisine" and "Mom's Play Groups," and many have since accepted Christ and become involved in Xenos. Patty Flores gathered outreach data for "Conversation & Cuisine," which revealed that so far over 100 of the 400 guests have also attended at least one Central Teaching this year.
World Ministries mobilized two missions teams in 1995. Jim and Beth Himsworth and their children left for southern Brazil, where they will be equipping Brazilian workers for a church-planting ministry. The Eastern Europe Team, was fully accredited for church-planting work in Eastern regions of Europe . World Ministries also began to establish and implement a long-term missions strategy, including fund-raising strategies for Xenos missionaries.
The Evangelism Division operated frugally, ending the year 5% under budgeted spending.
We will again prioritize outreach to students, and include an increased focus on discipleship. Xenos has formed the new Student Outreach Division to enhance our student ministries. We hope to see student groups grow by 50% in 1996. This goal is attainable, but it will require the recruitment of several more adult volunteer workers. We also plan on implementing a junior high program at the adult central teachings. This should prove very fruitful in reaching students of adult guests and newer families. The high school groups will relocate to our new facility this spring, and we will decide whether to combine our two high school groups or keep them separate. We hope to multiply ministry houses which will help the transition of high school students to our college groups. We are also making efforts to rent a more suitable campus central teaching facility.
Dave Merker, the new coordinator of this division, will prepare for an increased influx guests at our adult central teachings as we begin relocation to our new facilities in early 1996. We plan on strongly promoting home group involvement, while strategically enhancing displays that will assist our guests and members. Dave will also initiate more comprehensive oversight of our Central Teaching task teams.
In our Adult Special Projects Department, we hope to form a ministry team focusing on outreach to parents of children between the ages of 5 and 10. We also want to offer a few evangelism workshops, including a fellowship-wide effort. "Conversation & Cuisine" leaders and facilitators will hold a retreat for planning and motivation for the coming year. We will continue to pursue forming relationships with our unchurched friends so they can learn about the love of Christ.
By summer, we hope to have all of our extra-local churches (Cleveland, Dayton and Cincinnati) formally independent from our Columbus base. Our director will consult with two experienced extra-local church planters and then write an extra-local church association policy that will detail strategies for planting new groups and supporting existing groups.
In our World Ministries Division, we hope to send the Eastern Europe Team to the field by mid-year. We also hope to accredit another team for field work, and personally visit an existing Xenos missions team. Finally, we'd like to develop a training track for future missionaries.
| Xenos' Pastoral Division assists Xenos members toward Christian maturity by providing Christian community and spiritual care for them. This mission is accomplished through offering home groups, ongoing development of deacons, various ministry teams, and pastoral counseling. |
The Pastoral Division, led by Phil Franck, made some significant advancements in 1995. Under Danny Walker's oversight of the home group department, home groups made a net gain of six groups over last year, adults home group attendance rose from 835 in 1994, to 1128 in 1995. This growth was due in part to the successful reincorporation of over 280 Xenos people, many of whom had previously belonged to home groups that ended for various reasons. The new "Welcome Receptions" contributed immensely to helping these people find home group fellowship.
We called on home group leaders to pursue discipleship relationships with some of their groups' members, with the goal of raising up new Servant Team members. We also emphasized other themes of continuing education for leaders and informed them of new ways to enhance evangelism. We continued home group enhancement nights, which brought additional encouragement and training to leaders. Experienced Xenos leaders began home group visitations, which helped the quality of home group oversight.
Calumet Christian School is doing better than ever! Dave Glover did an excellent job managing the school, SAT scores were their highest in five years. We made significant plans for capital improvements, as well as numerous organizational and procedural improvements. We also formed a new school board which relieved the elders of this responsibility. God answered our prayers for enrollment to reach 300 students total and 40 in middle school. Today we have 304 students and 41 in middle school!! There is good evidence of spiritual vitality in the students, and some of them are reaching friends for Christ. We applaud and thank the many CCS (Calumet Christian School) parents who volunteered on various school projects--they made a measurably positive difference in the school's ministry.
In OASIS, we were finally able to move into Building 9 this fall. Even though we expect to reach capacity there soon, the extra space enabled the children's program to grow. Under Kathy Steinman's able leadership, the teacher recruitment plan was successful, and we generated our own curriculum.
In the counseling department, Katey Downs offered the "Marriage Readiness" course and "Resolving Divorce" class. Her "Biblical Framework for Human Emotions" will be offered in early 1996. The counseling department collections are at 100%, and the department ran smoothly even though the number of weekly clients was at 20% over expectations. Katey is known for her solid spiritual counsel for people in need..
In addition to the central emphasis on evangelism, discipleship, teaching and body-life, home groups will focus on leadership development. We anticipate significant home group growth after we move into the new facilities.
Calumet Christian school is now in the Student Outreach division. It will focus on building spiritual maturity into the students. The school's administration will continue to closely evaluate the state's curriculum as an ongoing commitment to resist postmodern elements in education. The CCS school board will concentrate on increasing enrollment, particularly in the middle school grades. The board hopes many parents--in and outside of Xenos--will learn of our outstanding program and decide to educate their children at CCS.
For the Counseling department, Katey Downs will focus on equipping home group leaders and workers to provide solid counseling for many of the people in their groups. She wants to debunk the notion that effective biblical counseling can only be done by professionals in most cases.
OASIS, which is now in the Student Outreach division, will seek additional writers and editors to continue developing our own curriculum. OASIS will also focus on getting ready for the move to new facilities.
| The Xenos Equipping Division provides educational resources for Christians to understand and apply biblical truth to their lives, and to prepare for fruitful ministry. |
1995 has been an exciting year for the Equipping Division. We birthed the Crossroads Project, our equipping ministry to the broader evangelical church. The Crossroads Project is a group of Christian scholars, researchers and leaders dedicated to preparing God's people for effective ministry to contemporary culture. This purpose is accomplished by applying biblical and critical analysis to current cultural thought and by providing practical tools to reach the lost and strengthen the church.
We completed important projects, such as The Death of Truth, a multi-authored book by members of the Crossroads team, that explains postmodernism and its effect on the culture. We held two "Postmodern Challenge" conferences, at Ohio State and Eastern Michigan University. The feedback for both the book and the conference has been extremely positive.
Enrollment in adult education significantly surpassed last year's projections. This is an indication that our church affirms that learning is essential to spiritual growth and effective ministry. We offered an average of seven courses each quarter--a broader curriculum than we have ever had. Most significantly, over 90 students completed the four-unit Christian Principles class, which is the core curriculum for membership on the Servant Team.
The Study Center continued to add to its excellent collection and memberships remained stable. The general response to moving the Study Center has been positive and may provide an opportunity for significantly increased use next year.
The Crossroads Project will hold at least three "Postmodern Challenge" conferences in 1996: Kent State University, University of Michigan, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. We will also be promoting The Death of Truth and the Crossroads Project Summer Apologetics Institute, to be held July 8-19 in our new facility.
The adult education program will continue to offer a broad and excellent range of classes. Our goal is to meet the 1995 enrollment level of 1400. We will be exploring some new options to make our courses more accessible to the church, such as offering a limited number of weekend and day time classes.
The Study Center will continue to add to its excellent collection of periodicals, books and tapes. Perhaps most significantly, we will add three powerful new computers, loaded with software that will connect patrons with the internet and state of the art programs for biblical and theological research.
| Xenos' Service Division provides practical service to the Xenos, non-Christian and broader Christian communities. This mission is accomplished by creating and administering in-house service ministries, carrying out Xenos' strategy for community development, and building working relationships with other organizations, especially churches. |
From various points of view, this was our busiest year yet. As The Crossroads Project and its conference developed, we logged many hours of fruitful labor. We provided logistical support at Eastern Michigan and The Ohio State Universities. With the help of many staff members and volunteers, we began construction of our world-wide web site.
We made some changes in key staff positions in 1995. Jay Reilly resigned as Internal Service Director, and Tad Hale took his place. Lou Spinks went to full-time with Urban Concern. We re-hired Jay Reilly as Marketing Manager for the new External Relations Division. Heidi Ann Klingler returned to work at Xenos as a secretary. Sherri Fojas took on a new role as Administrative Assistant for the External Relations Division.
We met most of our primary goals for 1995. The Servant Team grew substantially in size and quality, and we had a very successful Servant Team retreat at the Cherry Valley Lodge in Newark, Ohio. We also ended the year under budget.
In Community Development we opened the Harambee Center. We also began renovation on a property which will provide additional office space for Urban Concern and housing for a family from South Linden. Lou Spinks and Jim Swearingen were busy developing our strategy for a low-income project.
As a part of a reorganizational strategy implemented last fall, we disassembled the Service Division and formed a new division from one of our previous departments -- External Relations. This division provides administration, logistical support and promotion for Xenos projects reaching out to other churches and Christian organizations.
Dave Merker was named coordinator of External Relations, and all other service ministries were relocated to other divisions. In late December, we realized that it made more sense to have Dave coordinate the Evangelism/Missions Division. Doug Patch has now become the coordinator of External Relations. This move should provide us with focus and the ability to serve in areas for which everyone is well suited.
External Relations has four primary objectives for the coming year. First of all, we want to continue to establish national name recognition for certain Xenos ministries. This will happen, in part, as we establish and build relationships with important Christian leaders throughout the country. We also plan to form a "speakers bureau" for Crossroads Project contributors and set up six speaking engagements for them. We plan to add three exciting new Crossroads programs this year:
Secondly, we want to complete or have in progress eight "Postmodern Challenge" conferences. We already have conferences planned for Kent State University in February, the University of Michigan in March, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in October. Our church in Cincinnati is working to set up a conference there sometime this year.
Thirdly, we want to develop and promote our world-wide web sites. Already we have hundreds of pages on our sites and there are plans to add many more. Hundreds of people from all over the world have visited our site and the feedback we're getting is very encouraging.
Finally, we want to try to market 4000 copies of The Death of Truth. This important new work is scheduled for release the second week of January. Plan to attend the signing party January 17! The book will be available at our conferences and through our web site. We are already arranging radio interviews for some of its authors.
1995 giving proved to be the highest ever, and exceeded budgeted collections by over $72,000. In addition, division coordinators met their goals while spending under their budgets by over $82,000. The December Fiscal Support Team retreat targeted an overall 1996 budget of just over $1.8 million. The following is a summary of financial information for 1995 and 1996.
| 1995 Based on current (1/10/96) management projections | |||
| Division | Projected Net Actual | Modified Budget | Underspending |
| Operations | $740,540 | $753,598 | $(13,058) |
| Evangelism | 211,172 | 227,644 | (16,472) |
| Equipping | 136,924 | 155,160 | (18,236) |
| Service | 139,680 | 144,608 | (4,928) |
| Pastoral | 236,803 | 266,170 | (29,367) |
| Totals | $1,465,119 | $1,547,180 | $(82,061) |
| 1996 | |||
| Division | Base | Modules | Total |
| Operations | $769,149 | $66,500 | $835,649 |
| Pastoral | 130,324 | 16,788 | 147,112 |
| Evang/Miss | 220,975 | 28,295 | 249,270 |
| Student Out. | 227,404 | 39,721 | 267,125 |
| Equipping | 129,821 | 20,142 | 149,963 |
| External | 62,327 | 18,090 | 80,417 |
| Pay Increases | 0 | 72,369 | 72,369 |
| Totals | $1,540,000 | $261,905 | $1,801,905 |
1995 will go down as one of the most important years in the life of our church. Although a number of key accomplishments lay beneath the surface, or out of sight from most members, we broke several barriers and opened new ministry that contains explosive potential for the coming years.
Taken together, these major accomplishments along with scores of smaller but important attainments constitute the turning of a new page for Xenos. It's time to rev the engines and mobilize our church as several years of investment come to fruition. If our buildings are completed as expected, we will be experiencing substantial new growth and new responsibilities during 1997. The growth goal adopted by the Fiscal Support Team is a crucial part of our overall plan for expansion. Also, the time to build the needed leadership, training, and nurturing capabilities needed to accommodate this growth is not in 1997 but today! Join us in thanking God for what he has allowed us to do so far, and seeking his empowering to do even more in the near future.
