As we close out the 2018–2019 ministry and fiscal year, we reflect on God’s faithfulness and the awe-inspiring way that He continues to provide abundantly more than we can ever ask for as a church. We see God’s provision in multiple areas including people, program and property.

In the area of people, we are certainly grateful for the continuity of leadership at the bridge over many years, as well as for the healthy transitions and additions to the staff team over the course of the past year. How fitting it is that October marks both Thanksgiving and Pastors Appreciation Month! We welcome Pastor Shauna Weir as our Children’s Ministry Pastor and are appreciative of Pastor Ruth Crawford’s many years of investment in Kidzone leading up to her retirement. We also welcome Keith Jones (Facilities Coordinator) and Darius McKoy (Worship Pastor). Not only are we thankful for our pastors and staff, but also for the volunteers who help to make ministry possible.

In the area of program, we highlight Pastor Brian’s vision for a more expansive approach to connections and also for a worship approach that emphasizes consistency of the elements (including both creative and vocal arts). One key enabler of program was very strong general fund giving from our congregation, which increased year over year by approximately 12%, exceeding the 2018-2019 budget by 6%.

Finally, in the area of property, we concluded the sale of property to the west of our church. The Board owes a debt of gratitude to Kevin Aide and the Building Project Committee that oversaw the details leading up to the closing of the sale. This transaction paved the way for the church to become debt-free while also funding a significant building project!

To learn more about what God is doing here at our church, please attend our annual general meeting on November 17, 2019.

Chase Bethel | Board Member

Board Nomination Update

This year’s annual general meeting of the bridge will take place on Sunday, November 17. We will reflect on and celebrate the past year, and look forward in anticipation of the year ahead. Pray with us as to what God would desire for us as a church this next year.

This year, we have three board positions open. Jon Roland has completed a six-year term and will not be eligible for re-election. Tim Jenkins and Winston Stewart completed their first three-year term and are eligible for re-election; thus, three positions need to be filled. We would like to thank Jon, Tim and Winston for serving on the board with diligence for these past three years.

The Board Nomination Committee consisted of Grace Lee, Joanne Williams, Paul Yoon, Bill Buck, Pastor Brian and myself to facilitate the process. The committee called for board nominations in June. We thank all those who nominated members, and for upholding the process in your prayers. The desire for the committee was to uphold the principles of the constitutional guidelines for the nomination process with the hope that we would have members who surpassed the qualifications, and those who would reflect the diversity of our church body.

We received a total of 14 nominations. Out of those nominations, seven were qualified. The qualified nominees were notified and encouraged to give prayerful consideration to taking on the role as a board member.

After prayerful consideration, three nominees felt led to allow their names to be considered to become board members. They are:

• Tim Jenkins
• Neil Maskery
• Winston Stewart

We would like to thank all the other nominees for taking part in the process, having taken the time to discuss with their family and for giving it prayerful consideration.

Affirming the nominees:

The membership still needs to accept the nominees via a vote of affirmation. You will have the opportunity to do this through a vote at the annual general meeting. If you are not able to attend, we encourage you to complete a proxy form, which is available online and at the atrium. Proxy forms are due by November 14.

Thank you for your prayers and fervent engagement in the matters of the church.

Sincerely,

Jey Anandarajan  | Chair of the Board Nomination Committee

Finance Update

2018–2019 has been another great year financially at the bridge. Because of your generosity, this past year was the highest giving year we have ever experienced. In addition to general giving, you also stepped up and financially assisted many families who experienced loss and crisis this year. Thank you! Every dollar you give goes to further the mission and purpose God has for the bridge in the community and throughout the world.

Financial stewardship is one of our priorities. We ended the year with a positive net income. Earlier this year, and as a result of completing the land sale, we were able to pay off all of our debt—praise God for being debt-free! The rest of the sale proceeds are being held in conservative, restricted investments and will be used to fund the future building project. Throughout the summer months, the staff and the Finance Committee worked together on the budget for the upcoming 2019–2020 year. This involved ensuring the various ministry plans were appropriately resourced financially, while balancing planned expenses against projected income. The committee will continue to meet during the year to review the church’s finances, ensuring good stewardship of the operational budget, building project, and investments.

The financial statements will be made available online in early November. We encourage you to join us at the upcoming annual general meeting on Sunday, November 17 where we will discuss the finances of the bridge in a more in-depth manner. See you there!

Tim Jenkins | Chair of Finance Committee & Board Member

Facilities Development Update

Progress cannot always be measured by what you see; this is certainly the case with the building project.  From the outside, it may not appear that much has changed; however, that would be so far from reality.  Over the past several months, our architects and engineers have been busy responding to the second round of comments that the City of Markham has made as part of the Site Plan Application process.  This process is nearly complete and will soon be submitted back to the city for their review. Our architect and engineers have also been busy working on the detailed drawings for our project. This is a big job. We have begun a detailed look at ministry specific requirements such as staging, sound, lighting, children’s area, youth and young adults’ area, connection spaces, staff offices, etc. Working with the staff to bring their vision of ministry to reality is very important to us—remember: the building is to serve the purposes of the ministry.

We recently took a big step forward with the construction process by hiring Hawkey Church Management as our construction management company. Their job will be to work with us and our architect to expand the building in the most efficient and cost-effective manner. Hawkey specializes in building churches and was selected through an extensive procurement and evaluation process. We’re excited to start working with Hawkey, not only because of their expertise in building churches, but because they understand that a church is more than just a building and they too want to see lives changed. It is our hope that you will start to see more visible changes in early 2020; however, the timing is highly dependent on the development and approval process with the city. Please keep this project in your prayers, as well as our staff, who not only are being call upon to provide input into this project, but who will also need to work around the changes that this project brings to their respective spaces.

Join us at the annual general meeting to get a further update on where we are with the project and its design.

Kevin Aide | Chair of the Building Committee & Board Member