ANNUAL REPORT 2023
“Your love, Lord, endures forever— do not abandon the works of your hands.” (Psalm 138:8)
This year has been marked with deep growth in our church, set within a context of fatigue and strain on our economy and society. As we think of the many trials and tribulations of God's people throughout the Bible and church history, we can perhaps see ourselves as in something of a post-war period. And then, war. Again, war! The impact on our families and workplaces has been significant. The impact on our spiritual life, even moreso. I am so hugely encouraged when I think of the fact that our hearts and souls have gone both deeper and wider during this time. As I write this summary, I look to so many encouraging signs that the Lord using these times of waiting, to allow new roots to grow.
Looking at this year's annual report, you will see that your faithfulness in serving, leading, praying and giving has once again helped us keep our community going. Our rental partners have struggled and so have we, as a result. Yet somehow, there is resilience and we made it through. Looking at our courses and Sundays, the story is strong! Strong in the Lord's great love!
Please read this report in prayer, as we continue to play our part in sharing again the good news about Jesus and the transformation of society.
Yours in Christ,
The Rev’d Graham Singh
Incumbent
BIBLICAL TEACHING AND PASTORAL CARE
In 2023, we continued with our team-approach to our Sunday teaching. This allows us to hear from the different voices and perspectives that make up St Jax. We sense a global shift in the Church as a whole, and pray for a sincere sensitivity to the Holy Spirit to respond and reflect this in our teaching of the unchanging Word of God.
In the aftermath of the pandemic, we are now beginning to see encouraging signs of a new openness and desire for gathering in person. We will also continue to avail ourselves of the phone and Zoom to cultivate a healthy pastoral environment.
welcome and hospitality
One of our core values at St Jax is a warm, welcoming and friendly atmosphere, and we keep getting feedback that confirms it’s working. Our Hospitality and Welcome teams have grown this year with onboarding new members to the team, and continue to be a valuable means for people to get involved and get to know more of the community. We can expect to continue to serve bagels and great coffee every Sunday morning!
WORSHIP
Worship Team at St Jax continues to be a thriving and vibrant part of the St Jax community. We are blessed with a rich and varied team which is growing. We’re developing a number of new young worship leaders. Christmas and Easter services are enriched by the different talents so readily shared by the members, and our Sunday to Sunday worship is so well served by our willing team.
audio visual
The Audio Visual (AV) team plays a vital role in enhancing our worship experience at the church. Collaborating closely with the worship team and pastoral staff, our dedicated AV team ensures seamless operations for our services. Meeting regularly on Sundays, they diligently manage sound setups for the band, lighting arrangements, and presentations, ensuring every aspect of the service runs smoothly.
In addition to supporting in-person worship, our AV team also focuses on enhancing our online presence. Through continuous improvements to our Zoom setup, we strive to provide those unable to attend physically with a high-quality audio and visual experience, fostering a sense of connection and inclusion within our community.
Furthermore, our collaboration with various organizations sharing our facilities allows us to stay updated with the latest equipment and technologies, further enhancing the quality of our services. We are grateful for the dedication of our tech team in ensuring that the congregation remains fully engaged in worship, both in person and virtually. Their commitment to excellence greatly contributes to the spiritual enrichment of our community.
ALPHA & small groups
What a joy Alpha has been this year! Many of the people who joined in 2022 returned as team members and leaders. We had 55 participants onsite and online, which included numerous people who are at the beginning of discovering who Jesus is. A number of these have been baptized in our recent baptism service. The Holy Spirit weekend was a rich experience for our people, and we also had the privilege of inviting the Alpha group from St Paul’s in Greenfield Park to join us.
Our Small Groups grew this past year! We ran a number of book studies and video courses which were well-attended and indicate a desire in our people to go deeper together in the faith. Our Alpha has helped to develop our small group leaders as well.
DATE NIGHTS
The Marriage Course, which we have branded, “Date Nights” at St Jax, has become an annual feature, running from mid February to the end of March. In 2023, we hosted it with 80% of the couples participating from outside of our St Jax community. We are encouraged and gratified by the response, and grateful for the opportunity to offer this valuable service to couples.
KIDS & YOUTH
How we love the children at St. Jax!
This year the Children’s Team added a new intern for our Nursery, Laura, and we are so blessed to have her on our team. This fall, we asked for some more participation from people in our community and we were so happy with the response! We now have six new members added to our teaching and helper team. The children have learned stories, sang songs, and crafted models expressing Kingdom truths. We’ve seen a shift in our Children’s ministry as some of our alumni have graduated and moved on to Youth Church. We’re preparing for an influx of new kids as new families continue to join the church. God bless the children!
This past year within our youth group at St. Jax has been truly inspiring.
Through engaging Bible studies, thought-provoking video series, and deep discussions about God, our youth have grown immensely in their faith and understanding. Our three faithful youth leaders have been instrumental in guiding and inspiring our young members every step of the way. Their dedication, passion, and love for God have created a welcoming and nurturing environment where our youth feel supported and encouraged to explore their spirituality. St. Jax is incredibly fortunate to have such devoted leaders who selflessly invest their time and energy into shaping the spiritual journeys of our youth. As we reflect on the past year, we are filled with gratitude for the meaningful experiences shared and the profound growth witnessed within our youth group.
PRAYER
Our annual beginning day of prayer is always a highlight as we enter into the new year. This past year we had many join us for prayer, including young adults and members of our Farsi speaking community. We worshipped The Lord, seeking His favour dedicating the year to Him. Regular prayer times shifted, adjusted, and continued Sundays and Wednesdays for most of the year, both on Zoom and on site.
We participated in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s prayer initiative “Thy Kingdom Come”, praying for loved ones and acquaintances to come to know Jesus. Date Nights and Alpha were supported with regular prayer, and we did the Lectio Divina course where we learned to hear God through the practice of bible reading. 2023 was another year of rebuilding after the pandemic, establishing weekly prayer as a regular practice.
“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.” Phil 4:6
CENTRE ST JAX
Sharing our historic church space with other non-profits, charities and arts groups remains a key focus for St Jax.We operate this under the ‘Centre St Jax’ banner and continue to host hundreds of events, activities, concerts and artistic performances, in addition to our longer-term partners (tenants) who, together, offer hundreds of thousands of community contact hours out into the community. Amongst those partners are also several other Christian churches, which further amplify the impact from our space.
Impact at the Centre St Jax is measured in rent discounts for these activities and this year, rent discounts exceeded $150,000 meaning that, in a sense, every dollar given at St Jax Church also gave a dollar of rent discount, to these vital community organizations. We continue to celebrate this virtuous equation!
Despite this success, 2023 has also been perhaps the hardest year financially for both our partners and, resultingly, St Jax. Pandemic supports from the government are no longer and the impacts of significantly higher operating costs have led to many organizations being afford space rental and in some cases, planned events were cancelled. In other situations, matched grants and other related financial supports for our partner such as Cirque Le Monastere, have been much more difficult than in previous years. In short, overall revenues for 2023 are significantly less than budgeted.
Looking ahead, we are hugely encouraged to see hope ahead as our economy begins perhaps to stabilize, if not recover. We are also buoyed along by hopes of our garden sale to the City of Montreal and a number of outstanding grant requests, including with the Government of Quebec’s Conseil du Patrimoine Religieux. It remains the hope of our Centre operations to see these grants come in and continue our good works. Further in the future, we look forward to establishing the Centre St Jax as an independent and non-religious non-profit corporation, operating on a lease from St Jax Church and able to navigate the landscape of rentals, leases and grants, in an even more effective and efficient manner. Thank you to all of St Jax Church for its leadership in the sharing of space. The best has yet to come!
FINANCIAL REPORT
Our 2023 financial results should stir rejoicing, reflection and action!
Rejoicing, because our significant overall revenues for both donations in the church and rentals. This is thanks to the generous and sacrificial giving of our core members as well as good management of church and centre. During these extremely challenging economic times, times giving is in a sense even more significant in the lives of our core families and individuals and thanks to God should be given, for this faithful and overflowing generosity.
Reflection, due to the significant economic shifts which we have faced. We are no longer receiving pandemic supports from the government and the impact of inflationary pressures has hit every aspect of church life. We have not stopped at reflection on new and better ways to manage St Jax, in light of these shifts. Income received in 2023 from both Givings and Event Rentals were well below budget and the prior year. In addition, St Jax experienced significant unplanned spending in Ministry costs, and Repairs & Maintenace costs. The net result of these factors was a cashflow shortfall (operating deficit) in 2023 of $117,954.
Action, through what we pray are steps taken to reverse these trends in the current year, as reflected in the 2024 Budget for St Jax. We remain both hopeful and dependent upon the completion of the sale agreed with the City of Montreal for $3.5M, of the green spaces around St Jax - as well as a renewed grant application with the Quebec Conseil du Patrimoine Religieux. If we can meet our budgeted revenues and bring in these two significant sources of capital for necessary renovations on our site, we can live to see another day, as it were! Nevertheless, our principal action must be to continue earnestly in prayer for what is possible for St Jax in 2024 and beyond.
Michael Smtih, Treasurer
CONCLUSION
Praise God from whom all blessings flow! As we look ahead to the year to come, let us give thanks for these amazing steps in our journey. Please join in thanking our oustanding volunteers, leaders, supporters, friends and donors as we do so. Thank you for your time in considering this report and we look forward to discussing it, in the annual church Vestry meeting.
Yours in Christ,
Graham