Shining the Light On Church Operations

New developments in 2015 impact how we operate going forward

Recognizing that it is our responsibility to utilize God’s gifts of people, time, and financial resources in the most efficient and effective manner possible, implementing good business practices has been the focus of our Business Manager, Ruthie Baum, who joined the St. Paul’s ministry team in May of 2015.

As the Business Manager, Ruthie has been able to update and implement several best practices in relation to how we operate. Church and Early Learning Center vendors are now uniformly and fairly evaluated based on multiple criteria, assuring the best pricing, service, and quality. Ongoing scanning and archiving of church documents has resulted in reduction of paper files and file cabinets, while improving data accessibility for all staff.

To assist our ministry, facility, and teaching staff to better perform in their roles, outdated and inconsistent position descriptions were updated, and 3 new position descriptions were drafted over the course of the year. The outdated staff performance evaluation form was updated and is being digitized for ease of completion in 2016. The SPL Colleague Handbook has been revised to incorporate good business practices. The SPL Conflict of Interest Disclosure Statement has been implemented to assure ethical business practices when financial and/or vendor decisions are made on behalf of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.

Additionally, we celebrate other staffing developments in relation to our facility management and team function. In October we welcomed Kay Sleeth to manage the area of Accounts Payable/Payroll/Benefits Administration in about 10 hours weekly. Also, under the leadership of Mick Bollhorst, SPL’s facilities team ended 2015 with a full complement of janitorial staff (including Debra Williams and David Kibler), assuring optimal care of our 139,000 sf building, 46 acres of property and all equipment required to maintain both.