Monthly Financial Update

We serve a great King and Lord!  We have once again seen the evidences of His grace, love, and power all around us in May.

May was a significant month in many ways, with the first 3 Sundays of the month over 2,000 in person attendance, and even much better attendance Memorial weekend than a year ago!  We continue to see guests every week and thank the Lord for allowing us to be a part of His plan to connect to people in our communities.

We also continued to see people saying 'YES!' to Jesus as Lord every week in May!  To God alone be the praise and glory!

Thank you for being outward-focused as a church.  I cannot emphasize enough how this makes such a difference in the life and health of any local church to keep the passion and priority of Jesus THE first priority of how it functions and ministers. So invite someone to “Come and Sit with Me” this month for the month of June as we are conclude the Milestones series on Moses!  If you have missed the messages May 24^th and 31^st, please make sure you go on our website and watch them, as they are very important messages during this season of transition.

I hope that as many of you as possible will be in person at your campuses in June as I preach June 7, 14, and 21, and then there will be a special celebration/thank you service on June 28^th, followed by the Annual Meeting. If you would like to attend the Budget Informational meeting prior to attending the Annual Meeting they will be hosted on June 16th and 22nd at our Big Lake campus.

Our digital connections help people engage each week as well; as a reminder, if you and/or members of your household are traveling or not feeling well on a Sunday you can stay connected online, too! You can stream the services Sunday morning, or visit our message series page to watch anytime at your convenience.

We praise the Lord for every one of you who give to the ministry of Riverside, and our financial position is solid.  Your giving makes a difference in real people’s lives here and around the world every week. Giving in May, the 10^th month of our fiscal year was just the 2^nd time this fiscal year we met/exceeded our unified budget for Fuel for Ministry.

We are about 1% behind of our giving from a year ago so far this fiscal year, we are praying for a strong last month of giving in this fiscal year. We praise God for good giving to our Fuel for Global Missions Fund, which is 6% ahead of a year ago! We simply want to be able to meet our approved budget of $5,596,505 (which is the same as last year for our Fuel for Ministry Fund, but we have added back into our budget the $1 million we have included for many years to help prepare us for the next new campus God will open a door for us to pursue) so we can move forward with all the ministries God wants to use in us and through us.

Please ask the Lord what He wants you to do when it comes to your engagement in giving, and let God challenge your hearts.  Pray for everyone who considers Riverside Church their spiritual home to practice the grace of giving, that generosity will simply be a “normal” response for our church (no matter what the economy is like) so we can reach more people for Jesus. 

Digital giving makes such a huge difference in so many people’s lives here, and it is the main way people give.  It is a great tool that helps people develop the consistent practice of the grace of giving and putting God first in their finances.  On average, 73% of all our giving happens digitally, and we have more households making reoccurring digitals gifts than ever before! Join many others at Riverside who are discovering how this makes such a difference in their spiritual journey.  You can always give it a try following the directions HERE.  We also have the ability through our partnership with Orchard Alliance to help you organize a will, and/or learn how to give stock gifts, property, or other appreciated assets and special gifts.

God is at work in and through Riverside, touching the lives of thousands of people every week in significant ways. Your gifts help make that happen, both now and for eternity.

This will be my final financial update as Senior Pastor at Riverside.  Pastor Skipp will most likely do the June update, and then he and Pastor Kyle will figure out a new rhythm for this update starting in July.

It has been my privilege to be your Sr. Pastor these nearly 23 years.

God bless you all!

Pastor Tom

Weekly Averages for May 2026:

• Average In-person Sunday Attendance: 2,059
• Average Online attendance: 489
• Fuel for Ministry Fund:  (Our approved Big Lake/Sauk Rapids/Buffalo/Central weekly budget is $88,394): $89,630
• Fuel for Global Ministries Fund: $7,426