All posts by Cedar Hills

Annual Report 2025

2026 Budget Plan

PROPOSED BUDGET CHANGES for 2026

2025 status and 2026 budget plan:

  • Total 2025 giving as of the end of September is up $41K from the same time in 2024.
  • Total 2025 expense as of the end of September is down $7K from the same time in 2024.
  • Giving declined due to the pandemic and has been flat since that time.
  • Expenses have been well-managed to help us maintain a stable financial picture.
  • 2026 budget is $911,610, which is an increase of $26K over 2025 budget.
  • Salaries are up 3% ($15K)
  • Physical plant remained flat.
  • Church insurance with a new company with better rates.
  • Utilities will come in considerably lower than budget in 2025.
  • Ministry teams up $11K mostly due to technology upgrades for a computer and four sound monitor replacements.
  • Missions remained flat as we increase considerably last year.
  • Every gift matters and we appreciate your generosity!

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Annual Report 2025

Youth Ministries

Youth Ministries

 There have been so many blessings during 2025 in youth ministry! Students have grown spiritually through regular worship, prayer, and reading their Bibles during youth group and Sunday class.

Teens have committed and recommitted their lives to Christ at summer camp, retreats, and conferences. One high school senior recommitted his life to Christ at the Dare2Share youth evangelism event last November.

A young lady professed a new expression of faith to Christ in her life while attending the Ignite conference in Des Moines last spring. Several other youth renewed their faith this summer at camp and have been more connected to Jesus than ever before.

A heart-warming testimony from this summer is how one student has grown significantly in their faith over the last two years through the encouragement and mentoring of a camp counselor whom I mentored when they were a part of our youth ministry. Journey youth remains a sanctuary where students can come and feel welcomed as they explore and practice their faith, their identity in Christ and their calling to love and serve others.

~ Pastor Steve Poole

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Annual Report 2025

Children’s Church

Children’s Church

Pictured are just a few kids from our children’s worship on Sundays. One of their favorite things they love most is to play outside. We have been blessed to see God’s faithfulness through it all: scripture memorization each month, Bible stories, laughter, worship and fellowship. This ministry reminds me of Matthew 19:14 – “Jesus said, ‘ Let the children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.’”

 ~ Frankline Tshombe, Children’s Worship

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Annual Report 2025

New Sunday Class for Women

New Sunday Class for Women

Recently Lindsey Steinkamp started the Women’s Sunday Class: Find Your People. This has drawn lots of new women to class and into connection. The premise of the book is about finding and leaning into friendship. Many women have reported the Holy Spirit working on their hearts in this area of their lives since the class started.

In October, we started a continuation of the women’s class “Stress Less: Finding Rest in a Busy World” to address the anger and stress women feel in the holiday seasons.  Women connect on Sundays to explore ways to stress less and approach life with ease, joy, and peace.

~Lindsey Ungs, Connection

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Annual Report 2025

Preschool Celebrates 56 Years

Noah’s Ark Preschool celebrating its 56th year,

Our school is licensed by the State of Iowa and we have full classes at ratio. Noah’s Ark is very fortunate to be a partner/mission of the church.

We always try and do our best to respect the space by keeping our rooms clean and in good repair. Thank you to everyone who helps support our school’s mission of spreading God’s love to all the “littles” in our community.

Kris Crowther, Director & Lunch Bunch Lead
Katie Curtis, Lead Teacher, 4s
Melissa Eiselstein, Lead Teacher MWF, 3s

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Annual Report 2025

Sunday Class Kids

Sunday Class Kids

Children’s Sunday classes kicked off the year praising God for having men teaching in all but one classroom. Three new teachers are  joining our team this year and students have been blessed through their relationships. A preschooler was excited to see his teacher at a football game. A young elementary student was excited to go on a field trip outside of church with his teacher.

In September, students wrote and drew prayers for their upcoming year, placed them in a time capsule and buried it in the church yard. We anticipate digging the time capsule up in May and seeing how God worked through our prayers.

Teachers are commenting weekly about better transfer of the most important Biblical concepts through the Grow Curriculum where you’ll find rooms decorated and kids dressing up to learn about their faith in applicable ways. Even the youngest children can tell their teachers that God listens to them, they can talk to God and God guides and helps them. Older elementary classes have been busy welcoming guests, getting to know them and have learned that God has a purpose for each of us in meeting new friends and sharing the gospel with them. We are thankful for a couple new families prioritizing bringing their children to Sunday class where they can learn more about Jesus’ salvation.

~ Cathy Poole, Children’s Sunday Class Director

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Annual Report 2025

Food Pantry Bright Spot

Open Hands Food Pantry Bright Spot

Faithful, hard-working volunteers keep the pantry stocked to serve hundreds of families in need. The pantry is open two days every week, but volunteers work to stock the pantry almost every day!

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Annual Report 2025

Angel Tree Prison Fellowship Ministry

Angel Tree Prison Fellowship

This ministry blessed 19 local children with a lively Christmas party, including food, games, gifts and fellowship. One parent noted,

“I felt love like I’ve never experienced when I walked through your doors last year and the same exact thing happened this year. That can only be God.”

A young teen exclaimed, “I’m so glad I got to come back again. You love me like my Dad cannot.”

Due to the generosity of our congregation, we were also able to bless 8 children within an hour’s drive with gifts delivered to their homes and a warm meal. The spring found us hosting an Angel Tree Fun Night with about 25 kids in attendance, eager to be loved on and hear about the Gospel. 20 Central College students assisted in making the night memorable. The Angel Tree kids always need more hands to help show them Christ’s love.

~ Cathy Poole, Children’s Ministry

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Annual Report 2025

Cedar Camp

CEDAR CAMP

Returning for the 3rd summer, Cedar Camp continued the vision of fostering relationships to foster faith. 35 mentors faithfully attended 3 nights and poured love into 40 elementary aged mentees.15 adults taught a skill that they enjoy to the mentee groups. New this summer, the Bible curriculum was based on our Bible Recap and incorporated the texts being read in June. Each child had appropriate questions based on what “chair” they were currently in based on the 4 Chairs Discipleship program. Hands-on activities helped support the kids as they worked through interactive workbooks with their mentees. Comments after Cedar Camp were:

  • “Kids saw great role model behaviors!” 
  • “I saw my child’s faith deepen.”
  • “We were able to have a great conversation about the next step in my mentee’s life being that he needs to share his faith with others.”

We are thankful for our entire church family who makes these nights possible!

-Cathy Poole, Children’s Ministry

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Annual Report 2025

Worship Ministry

Worship Ministries

I love my worship ministry volunteers! On any given weekend, it takes 19-45 volunteers to lead our weekend worship services. Wow! And we have faithful crews in both services to lead music, choir, children’s messages, tech, prayers, welcomes and announcements. We have volunteers to come in and do tech prep, assemble notebooks, and file music. Some of these jobs serve weekly, others every other week, some once a month, and some every six weeks.

They are a mix of seasoned and young, men, women and youth. We have retirees and others juggling multiple jobs and businesses. Some are serving in multiple ministries around the church, some serve the community through boards and volunteerism and some who only have a chance to serve on my teams. We have moms juggling their children on stage, parents running between band competitions and show choir and sporting events, and grandparents coming back and forth from seeing their favorite grandkids do amazing things.

We have families serving together – husbands and wives, mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and sometimes more! But they all have this one thing in common: We love the Lord, we love this church, and we are devoted to leading this congregation to the best of our time and abilities.

~ Pastor Leah

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