2024
quarterlyREPORT
We're growing and it shows! Third quarter was busy. In July, Pastor Steve introduced a new Crash Course, Think Like Jesus; we wrapped up Seamless Summer; and fed 215 teachers breakfast! Plus our Celebrate Recovery ministry began Celebrate Recovery Inside with the female inmates at the Fannin County Jail. We kicked off August with a "Day at VBS" and delivered 67 backpacks to children in our community. We also taught a New Life Class and participated in the planning and execution of the multi-church youth event C4 for the third year in a row. We rolled into September with a Labor Day Ride, Launched LifeGroups at our Super Tailgate Sunday in River Park and wrapped the quarter up with our Orchard Orientation. In addition, our Orchard Guys men's ministry continued to meet monthly for breakfast, and 12 Men began their training to become Spiritual Fathers.
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
19 Baptisms
and 14 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 JULY 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG JULY 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG AUGUST 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG AUGUST 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG SEPTEMBER 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG SEPTEMBER 2023 ATTENDANCE
Lifegroup Participation
While some still meet up, most LifeGroups take a break in July and August. All the LifeGroups start back up in September after our Super Tailgate Sunday event.
AVG July 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG JULY 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG AUGUST 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG AUGUST 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG SEPTEMBER 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG SEPTEMBER 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 JULY 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG JULY 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG AUGUST 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG AUGUST 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG SEPTEMBER 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG SEPTEMBER 2023 ATTENDANCE
Celebrate Recovery Attendance
AVG JULY 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG JULY 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG AUGUST 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG AUGUST 2023 ATTENDANCE
AVG SEPTEMBER 2024 ATTENDANCE
AVG SEPTEMBER 2023 ATTENDANCE
Student Ministry
This year’s C4 had the most churches participating yet, for a total of 9! East Ellijay Baptist Church hosted with Covenant’s youth band leading worship. 220 were in attendance, with 55 students and 13 volunteers from Orchard Student Ministry. It was a successful event of encouraging and equipping students to be fluent in the gospel to confidently go share their faith! Chase Johnson delivered an absolute on target message from Acts 17 of how Paul made the gospel relevant to Athenians by connecting God’s truth with the philosophies and art of the Greeks. Youth were instructed on how to share the gospel and utilize tools to share the gospel in today’s world.
Orchard Guys
10 guys are on track for completing their Spiritual Father's Training, and 2 over achievers have completed their training. These 12 men committed to starting a 15-month Spiritual Father/Spiritual Son relationship and will connect with younger men to disciple on completion of their leader training.
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. 22 attended in September!
Celebrate Recovery
In July, we were welcomed into the Fannin County jail to begin Celebrate Recovery Inside with the female inmates. We provide weekly meetings where we help the ladies work on their hurts, hang-ups, and habits through our Christ based program. We also mentor women one-on-one during visitation hours. The inmates are grateful for the lessons and testimonies we bring. They really enjoy the worship music. Our goal is to help break the cycles that led to incarceration. 3 leaders ran our weekly meetings and we had 9 one-on-one inmate visits. We also gave out a lot of chips on Friday nights. 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
Our Super Tailgate Sunday was pushed back a week and at a new location, River Park. It was the best decision we could have made. The weather was perfect with cooler temps and sunny skies! 425 were in attendance, including 15 first time guests! We worshiped, baptized 19, and launched our LifeGroups. There was plenty of food to be had, lots of creative tent decorations, and 10 “NEW” LifeGroup sign-ups! Everyone had a great time.
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
Back[packs] to School
We brought a Day at VBS to our Seamless Summer families and delivered 67 backpacks stuffed with clothes and school supplies. There was worship, storytelling, crafts and ice cream sundaes for all! 27 volunteers served 14 families.
Teacher Breakfasts
Feeding our teachers before school begins is just something our staff really enjoys doing. We brought Chick-fil-A biscuits, Bojangles biscuits, fruit, breakfast bars, and coffee to help fuel them up as they prepare for school to begin. We served 215 teachers at Gilmer High School and Clearcreek Middle School combined.
Seamless Summer
The Seamless Summer lunch program wrapped up in July. 20 volunteers served 1,000 lunches to 50 kids in our community throught the month. Nothing could keep us away from serving these children! It's just one of the opportunities we have to shine Jesus' light to families in our community.
MEETING TOGETHER
=
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
$188,313
Current Fund Balance
$187,275
3rd Quarter Budget
$206,659
3rd Quarter Giving
$201,927
3rd Quarter Spending
2022
$885,149
Total Contributions
2023
$745,000
Total Contributions
2024
$605,223
Contributions to Date
Student Ministry
$25,922
Current Fund Balances
$3,671
Total Giving
$1,757
Total Spending
Celebrate Recovery
$6,961
Current Fund Balances
$6,118
Total Giving
$7,957
Total Spending
For Gilmer
$574
Current Fund Balances
$3,614
Total Giving
$4,413
Total Spending
Guatemala
$110
Current Fund Balances
$270
Total Giving
$3,717
Total Spending
($3,667 went towards Iglesia Bethania Familia de Dias church construction, plus a $50 bank transfer fee.)
Building Fund
$3,310,831
Current Fund Balances
$167,722
Total Giving
$199,156
Total Spending
"Right Now" Pledge Progress
$1,989,862
Total Pledged
$1,186,977
Total Received
*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.
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:
The Orchard Church
7288 Hwy 515 N
Ellijay, GA 30536
706-621-5160
hello@orchardellijay.com
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