2024 Annual Report
Celebrating 10 years with a giant all-church picnic at Turtle Lake Park on September 8, 2024.
Executive Summary
We are in the strongest position we’ve been in since before the pandemic to grow in size, discipleship, and community impact. However, slower growth in our finances and staffing could limit that potential.
Key Points
This was our most successful financial year on record, with nearly $400,000 in revenue.
Church attendance grew 27% — 22% at St. Paul and 40% at Brooklyn Park.
Our giving and staffing have not kept pace with our growing.
It was a milestone ministry year, with a 10th anniversary, our largest Easter Egg Hunts, and record baptisms.
Goals for 2025 focus on improving our infrastructure, discipleship, and staffing to support the church’s continued growth.
RiverLife in 5 Numbers (from the Last 2 Years)
Attendance—The church has grown 61%.
Faith Decisions—58 people have gotten baptized.
Revenue—Total revenue increased 27%.
Individual Giving—Giving per adult has dropped 25%.
Staffing—We only increased our total staff hours by 4%.
Analysis: Our numerical growth has been disproportionate to the resources that support that growth. We are ministering to 61% more people with the same amount of staff and proportionally less money. In other words, our giving and staffing have not kept pace with our growing. This creates a serious sustainability risk for the future.
Table of Contents
2024: Where We’ve Been
Highlights from 2024
Attendances
Sunday Snapshot
Current Church Leadership
2024 Goal Scorecard
2025: Where We're Going
Goals for 2025
Financial Updates
Strengths & Growth Areas
Balance Sheet
Revenue Sources
Giving Snapshot
Monthly Revenue
Salaries
Expense Breakdown
Statement of Activity
2025 Budget
Where We've Been: Highlights from 2024
10 Highlights from 2024
We celebrated our 10th anniversary with a huge, all-church picnic—a beautiful milestone for our community.
This year marked a record number of baptisms, with 20 at our Brooklyn Park campus and 11 at St. Paul.
Our church family continued to grow, with an average weekly attendance of 297 across both campuses (Brooklyn Park: 120, St. Paul: 177).
Our offerings grew 13% ($37,000) compared to 2023.
In February, we launched Plug’d, our weekly Friday night youth gathering, at the Brooklyn Park campus, which led to a near doubling of youth participation there.
The congregation generously gave $7,200 to support the youth fall retreat—an incredible show of support for the next generation.
Both campuses hosted Easter Egg Hunts which drew a combined 1,800 people! The Brooklyn Park campus even caught the attention of the Associated Press. You can watch their coverage here.
We celebrated our largest-ever Level Up Sunday with 18 incoming youth members and 12 graduating high school seniors.
Pastor Greg enjoyed a well-deserved four-month sabbatical after a decade of faithful ministry.
Jeremy Garland leveled up from Kids Ministry Director to Kids Pastor—an exciting new chapter in his ministry.
2024 Attendances
This was a year of BIG growth!
Every segment of the church—adults, youth, and kids—grew at both campuses.
Average Total Attendance: Up 27% (233 in 2023, 297 in 2024)
St. Paul Campus: Up 22% (133 in 2023, 162 in 2024)
Adults: Up 22% (84 in 2023, 102 in 2024)
Youth: Up 18% (22 in 2023, 26 in 2024)
Kids: Up 27% (27 in 2023, 35 in 2024)
Brooklyn Park Campus: Up 40% (85 in 2023, 120 in 2024)
Adults: Up 44% (42 in 2023, 60 in 2024)
Youth: Up 89% (10 in 2023, 19 in 2024)
Kids: Up 20% (34 in 2023, 41 in 2024)
Sunday Snapshot
Here’s what a typical Sunday service looked like at RiverLife in 2024.
St. Paul Campus: 102 Adults, 26 Youth, 35 Kids. Total: 162
Brooklyn Park Campus: 60 Adults, 19 Youth, 41 Kids. Total: 120
Current Church Leadership
St. Paul Campus
Lead Pastor: Greg Rhodes
Worship Director: Shong Vang
Youth Pastor: Tommy Lor
Kids Pastor: Jeremy Garland
Spiritual Growth Director: Pang Foua Rhodes
Brooklyn Park Campus
Campus Pastor: Kong Moua
Worship Director: Johan Yang
Youth Pastor: Tim Thao
Family Ministry Director: Pang Moua
Board Member At-Large: Gao Zoua Lee
2024 Goal Scorecard
Stabilize and strengthen our financial position. (10/10)
We consistently have $15,000 - $20,000 in the bank every month.
We successfully fundraised through the Twins games to rebuild some savings.
We created a budget, integrated it with QuickBooks, and published quarterly updates.
Our total giving, number of givers, and number of gifts all increased.
Improve the capacity and depth of our leaders and volunteers. (8/10)
Gave Pastor Greg a rest-filled 4-month sabbatical after 10 years of faithful ministry.
Held our first Volunteer Mega-Rally since 2017.
Added new volunteers to every core ministry (worship, kids, youth, cafe, spiritual growth, etc.)
Thrive Youth served throughout the church monthly through their Serve Sunday program.
Develop a comprehensive discipleship strategy (5/10)
Create a 6-part framework for discipleship at RiverLife.
Planned new sermon discussion groups for Q1 of 2025.
Planned a discipleship sermon series for Fall 2025.
Become a Voice of Influence for Next-Gen Hmong Ministry (1/10)
Followed current trends in social media influence.
We didn’t work much on this goal in 2024. Our leaders have struggled to find time to create content given current ministry demands.
Where We're Going: Plans For 2025
3 Strategic Goals for 2025
1. Improve our systems and processes to align with our growing size.
We have crossed a significant attendance threshold for church size (250), transitioning from a small to a medium-sized church. However, our systems and processes need to adapt as well, otherwise, we risk our infrastructure not being able to support our growth.
Key Tasks:
Reduce the number of smaller, weekly tasks for which Pastors Greg and Kong are responsible.
Automate current manual systems, e.g. scheduling volunteers through Planning Center.
Centralize church documents in a single online storage (Google Drive).
Restructure bi-weekly leadership team meetings for greater campus-specific productivity.
Revisit our use of church spaces to best meet the needs of our current congregation.
2. Expand the capacity of our leadership teams.
Our church has grown considerably, but our leadership teams haven’t kept pace. When we did—by hiring Tim Thao as the BP youth pastor—the results have been extraordinary.
Key Tasks:
Raise up Connections Directors at both campuses. This is a position that has been vacant for years.
Revitalize our Community Engagement ministry with project-specific leaders who have a passion for individual aspects of community service.
Recruit younger voices into the leadership team through internships.
Launch a first-of-its-kind paid internship for Hmong women pursuing vocational ministry.
Pursue two equity hires (paying people for what they’re already doing): increasing Tim Thao from 10 to 15 hrs/wk and hiring Pang Moua for 10 hrs/wk.
3. Refine and flesh out our discipleship strategy.
Last year, we created a discipleship framework. Now it’s time to develop and launch programs to implement that framework.
Key Tasks:
Develop a discipleship pathway to help people navigate and discern their next steps to grow in their personal discipleship.
Expand the number and types of groups we offer through our Spiritual Growth ministry.
Explore additional discipleship opportunities such as classes, conferences, and one-on-one mentoring.
Teach a sermon series based on John Mark Comer’s book Practicing the Way.
Financial Update
Strengths from 2024
Closed the year $2,115 ahead.
General giving has continued to increase every year. Up 15% from 2023.
Bank balances have been more stable throughout the year.
Our total giving, number of givers, and number of gifts all increased.
Growth Areas from 2024
Our finances didn’t grow as fast as our attendance.
Savings is still drastically lower than is healthy for an organization.
2024 Balance Sheet
Income: $388,656
Expenses: $386,541
Net: +$2,115
2024 Revenue Sources
Offering: $334,552 (86%)
Facility Rentals: $10,230 (8%)
Fundraising: $29,236 (3%)
Covid Clinics: $8,500 (2%)
Misc: $6,138 (2%)
Giving Snapshot (2023 / 2024 / Change)
Average Attendance: 233 / 297 / +27%
Total General Giving: $297,132 / $334,552 / +13%
Total Givers: 212 / 287 / +35%
Total # of Gifts: 1,873 / 2,279 / +22%
Median Gift: $60 / $60 / 0%
50% of giving comes from 8% of the givers.
2024 Monthly Revenue (with Budget Line)
2024 Salaries
Greg Rhodes — Lead Pastor, FT— $54,080/yr
Kong Moua — Campus Pastor, FT — $41,600/yr
Jeremy Garland — Kids Pastor (50%) / Facilities Manager (50%), FT — $35,695/yr
Tommy Lor — PT Youth Pastor, 25 hrs/wk @ $14.56/hr — $20,000 (includes living in the parsonage)
Tim Thao — Youth Pastor, 10 hrs/wk @ $14.56/hr — $6,984/yr
Johan Yang — Worship Director, 17.5 hrs/wk @ $14.56/hr — $12,230/yr
Shong Vang — Worship Leader, 5 hrs/week @ $14.56/hr — $3,495/yr
Analysis: We are underpaying our pastors and ministry leaders. Most of our staff haven’t received a raise in 5-7 years (except for an across-the-board 4% cost of living raise in 2023.)
2024 Expenses (2023 / 2024)
Payroll: 49% / 49%
Facilities: 26% / 26%
Ministries: 16% / 14%
Administrative: 8% / 8%
Other: 1% / 3%
Analysis: Our 2024 expense distribution is nearly identical to 2023. We are, once again, spending less on operating the church and more on the ministry of the church.
2024 Statement of Activity
REVENUE
Tithes/Offerings: $334,552
Facility Rental: $29,236
Fundraising: $10,230
Covid Clinics: $8,500
Misc. Income: $5,493
Interest Income: $43
Great Commission Fund: $602
TOTAL REVENUE: $388,656
EXPENSES
Facilities
- St Paul Campus: $45,403
- BP Campus: $32,940
- Loan Interest: $16,339
- Loan Mortgage: $7,719
Total Facilities: $102,400
Administrative
- Office Supplies: $4,887
- Advertising & Marketing: $4,887
- Subscription Fees: $4,392
- Accounting/Bookkeeping: $3,708
- Leadership Development: $5,934
- Miscellaneous: $1,112
- Copier/Copies: $4,490
- Facility Rental Expenses: $2,114
- Bank Fees: $2,583
Total Administrative: $29,267
Payroll Expenses: $167,993
Health Insurance: $20,542
Ministries
- Worship: $4,185
- Youth Ministry: $6,459
- Kids Ministry: $4,230
- Family Ministry: $64
- Connections: $16,056
- Online Ministry: $278
- Spiritual Growth: $456
- Community Engagement: $2,816
- Special Events: $14,171
Total Ministries: $48,714
Other
- Benevolence: $664
- Service Supplies: $2,325
- Appreciation Gifts: $1,159
- Unbudgeted Expenses: $359
- District Contribution: $12,101
- Great Commission: $1,017
TOTAL EXPENSES: $386,541
NET REVENUE: $2,115
2025 Budget
REVENUE
Tithes/Offerings: $386,800
Facility Rental Income: $25,000
Fundraising: $15,000
Vaccine Clinic Income: $4,500
Miscellaneous Income: $5,500
Interest Income: $50
Great Commission Fund: $1,500
TOTAL REVENUE: $438,350
EXPENSES
Operations
- St Paul Facilities: $46,000
- BP Facilities: $33,000
- Loan Interest: $16,000
- Loan Mortgage: $8,000
Administrative
- Office Supplies: $5,000
- Advertising/Marketing: $200
- Subscription Fees: $4,500
- Accounting: $5,400
- Leadership Development: $10,000
- Miscellaneous: $1,000
- Copier/Copies: $4,500
- Facility Rental Expenses: $2,000
- Bank Fees: $2,500
- Payroll Expenses: $183,200
- Health Insurance: $20,000
Ministries
- Worship: $6,500
- Youth Ministry: $7,500
- HLUB: $15,000
- Kids Ministry: $6,000
- Family Ministry:$500
- Connections: $12,000
- Online Ministry: $300
- Spiritual Growth:$500
- Community Engagement: $3,000
- Special Events: $14,000
Other
- Benevolence: $700
- Service Supplies: $2,300
- Appreciation Gifts: $1,200
- NCD Contribution: $26,050
- Great Commission: $1,500
Total Expenses: $438,350
Net Balance: $0
