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2024
quarterlyREPORT
In the 2nd quarter, we made sense of Man and Sin with Susan Farnham's new class; hosted another Orchard Orientation; kids dug for artifacts at our Literacy Night tent; baptized 5; prayed and stood for Israel together, recognized 12 graduating seniors, dedicated 5 families at our Parent/Child Dedication; took 42 youth and leaders to Fuge Camp; began training 9 Spiritual Fathers; shared the gospel with 79 kids at Scuba VBS; and served 720 lunches through the Seamless Summer Lunch Program. We've been busy!
As you take a look at this page, we hope you're as excited as we are for what this year has already brought and for what is ahead!
Making the Gospel Relevant
by
Loving God
Decisions for Christ
Loving Others
People in LifeGroups
Making Disciples
Equipping & Serving in some capacity
5 Baptisms
and 20 decisions for Christ!
Engagement Growth
Warmer weather always sees a down tick in attendance on Sundays and in LifeGroups that mostly take the summer off.
Service Attendance Up Almost 20%
AVG APRIL 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG APRIL 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG MAY 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG MAY 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG JUNE 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG JUNE 2023 ATTENDANCE
Lifegroup Participation
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AVG APRIL 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG MAY 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG MAY 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG JUNE 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG JUNE 2023 ATTENDANCE
Student Ministry Attendance
(June attendance is low because of several factors: we did not meet the week of VBS; the 3rd week of June numbers are based on Camp attendance; and week 5 is based on our off campus bowling night attendance. Overall, we had 82 unique students come to youth on Wednesday nights.)
AVG APRIL 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG APRIL 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG MAY 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG MAY 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG JUNE 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG JUNE 2023 ATTENDANCE
Celebrate Recovery Attendance
AVG APRIL 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG APRIL 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG MAY 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG MAY 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG JUNE 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG JUNE 2023 ATTENDANCE
Student Ministry
This quarter, we added some new leaders to our Student Ministry Team including volunteers to help organize our meals on Wednesdays and a community liaison to help coordinate local missions projects. We already have some serve projects lined up for end of summer and beginning of fall! Excited for God to use these key volunteers to further expand the ministry to students and through our students to Gilmer County.
IMPACTING THE NEXT GENERATION
Out of our large graduating classes from 2024 and 2025, 3 students will be heading to college to pursue ministry degrees this fall! In addition, God has already placed a calling on the heart of one of our 10th graders to go into ministry in the future. That's 4 callings in 1 year!
Graduates in 2024
Pursuing Ministry Degrees
FUGE CAMP
We enjoyed a great week at FUGE Camp in June. Students spent the week studying through the essentials for revival in the morning and digging through Jonah in the evening. We had a group of 42 go to camp including 19 who were going for the first time. This year, we had a larger number a middle schoolers versus high school. While our middle schoolers were enjoying track times of games and bible study on campus, the high schoolers served on mission sites where they did yard work, packed meals at a food bank, and visited patients at a nursing home. By week’s end, we got to celebrate one student accepting a call to ministry as well as another rededicating her life to Christ!
Orchard Guys
In June we hosted a community wide Spiritual Fathers Orientation with Ten Thousand Spiritual Father's. 15 men from The Orchard Church attended.
Spiritual Fathers Commitments
These 11 men committed to starting a 15-month Spiritual Father/Spiritual Son relationship and will be receiving training to become leaders who will disciple younger men.
Our men's ministry continues to meet monthly for breakfast at iHop for a men’s devotional, prayer, and to provide updates from our OG Leadership Team on upcoming plans.
![Image](https://theorchard.life/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_1811.00_00_02_33.Still001-scaled-e1720714930828.jpg)
Celebrate Recovery
Lot's has happened this quarter! Jason Bryson and Lori Gaddis have taken over the lead of our Dinner Service Team. We began preparing our female leaders for the jail ministry in Fannin County, and we held a one day training specifically for our childcare workers, volunteers and parents of children in our children's ministry. We also gave out a lot of chips. In case you didn't know, chips are milestones in recovery, and we love to give them out!
Chips Awarded
Dinner Volunteers
Meals Prepared/Served
Leaders/Apprentices
Hours of Training
Salvation
Rededicated Lives
![Image](https://theorchard.life/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/for-gilmer1.png)
We continue to find innovative ways to inspire growth and share the gospel with those around us both physically and digitally. Our For Gilmer strategy has adapted and grown in ways we never imagined! From serving meals to playground maintenance, we have been hard at work continually identifying and meeting the needs of our community.
Here are a few ways we are doing just that weekly:
Weekly Family Resource Packets Available On-Site Each Week
Praying for our Community, Leaders, and Individual Needs
Community Partnerships with the School System, Food Pantry, and local EMS
![Image](https://theorchard.life/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024VBS-underwater-image.jpg)
![Image](https://theorchard.life/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024VBS-Scuba-logo-Web.png)
We had a fantastic week at Scuba VBS diving deep into friendship with God. Kids explored what it means to have a friendship with a real, loving, trustworthy God—a friendship that lasts forever!
Workday Volunteers
Camp Volunteers
Kids in Attendance
Salvations
$1,474.49
Raised for a well in Kenya
Literacy Night
Kids really enjoyed digging for artifacts at our Literacy Night tent. Our staff buried 100 stones with crosses on them in sand boxes filled with other rocks. Kids got to keep the first cross stone they found. We also were able to hand out 15 New Testament Bibles.
![Image](https://theorchard.life/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_1458-scaled-e1720723264664.jpg)
Seamless Summer
The Seamless Summer kicked off in June. 80 volunteers served 720 lunches to 50 kids in our community throught the month. There were hot sunny days and muggy rainy days, but none of it stopped our volunteers from serving and loving on these kids!
![Image](https://theorchard.life/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/IMG_1838-scaled-e1720723248163.jpg)
MEETING TOGETHER
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DEEPER CONNECTIONS
We continue to look for new ways to engage with our online audience. We understand not everyone can meet in person, which is why our digital presence is so important to us, both on Sunday mornings and throughout the week. Take a look at the social connections we're making!
2024 Quarterly General Fund
$190,245
Current Fund Balance
$187,275
2nd Quarter Budget
$223,734
2nd Quarter Giving
$176,144
2nd Quarter Spending
2022
$885,149
Total Contributions
2023
$745,000
Total Contributions
2024
$398,564
Contributions to Date
Student Ministry
$23,109
Current Fund Balances
$9,004
Total Giving
$9,098
Total Spending
Celebrate Recovery
$9,708
Current Fund Balances
$5,221
Total Giving
$6,838
Total Spending
For Gilmer
$1,372
Current Fund Balances
$300
Total Giving
$268
Total Spending
Guatemala
$3,558
Current Fund Balances
$226
Total Giving
$0
Total Spending
Building Fund
$3,331,102
Current Fund Balances
$110,132
Total Giving
$198,922
Total Spending
"Right Now" Pledge Progress
$1,989,862
Total Pledged
$1,011,647
Total Received
![Image](https://theorchard.life/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Pledge-Bar-Revised.png)
![Image](https://theorchard.life/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Pledge-Circles-1.png)
*Percentages represent average pledge progress of donors. Green indicating the dollars from donors who have completed their pledges. Blue for donors who have given 55% of their pledges thus far, and so on.
![Image](https://theorchard.life/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Staff-Deacon-HeadshotsLarryLynch-e1628270723110.png)
We hope that this information gives you a complete and well rounded look at how we seek to steward our resources. Your obedience and generosity makes all of this possible. If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to reach out to our executive director, Larry Lynch. You can call at 706-621-5160, or email through the button below. He manages our accounts and is more than happy to help!
If you would like to give towards our mission for 2024:
![Image](https://theorchard.life/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/dotlife-header-logo-150x150.png)
The Orchard Church
7288 Hwy 515 N
Ellijay, GA 30536
706-621-5160
hello@orchardellijay.com
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