God’s love calls us on a journey of faith and service to nurture an open and affirming spirit with each other, our neighbors, and the earth. Stewardship Sunday is Coming in November! Dear Church Folk, The “S” word – Stewardship is almost as bad a word in our church as the “E” word – Evangelism! Stewardship has always been a time of struggle, trying to make our finances balance so that our church could indeed just survive. Well, this letter is different. This letter is one of great opportunity, excitement, congratulations, and celebration. After our church council meeting this past Sunday, it looks as if we will be on solid ground January 1st. If we continue to follow the trend that we have been following, estimates suggest that at the end of the year, our church will be $6000 in the black. Yes, you heard correctly. We will actually have money in our account to take care of the big pension, insurance, and health cost payout that we always dread each year. And it is all due to YOU. You have cared enough for this church, for Dee, and this church family, that we are now at the threshold of being self-sustaining. A couple points about this: 1. Our work is not done. We achieved this goal this year due to the UCC grant that we received at the beginning of the year. The grant was worth $9000 and was incorporated into our 2013 budget. Having the $6000 at the end of the year tells us that we still have to make up a $3000 difference in our budget next year for us to be truly self-sufficient – assuming that we will no longer have grant help. 2. This is assuming that we still fundraise approximately $4000 a year. This year, we had a $3000 summer garage sale, plus a pancake brunch, Mother’s Day brunch, and perhaps a few other smaller fundraisers. 3. This is also assuming that we don’t lose any pledges from members for this next year, and as you know, our membership tends to fluctuate quite a bit due to transient folk who are attracted to our church but then tend to move on to other cities. 4. We have given back $1000 this month to the UCC New and Renewing Church Grant, to help support them in their continuing mission. We would like to also this next year, start working toward a tithing pledge to the UCC conference. After all, they helped save us from closing our doors at one point, and now it is our turn to pay it forward, don’t you think? So, as we enter the month of Stewardship – November – please consider renewing your pledges. On November 10th we will take in pledges for the 2014 budget. Please see the enclosed pledge sheet. As you consider your pledge please consider upping your pledges if you can. Also, please consider mostly, how absolutely wonderful all of you are for making this church what it is today – a safe, social justice seeking, question-filled, loving-full, singing-hearty, God-loving, family-hugging, and spiritually-growing church family. “You’ve done good, folks.” Be proud and bring on the future! Jim Olm Council Chair Guy
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 21:09:31 +0000
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