The Weekly Word from Pastor Jim... The people of Trinity Lutheran Church are generous, thankful, community minded, compasssionate, and caring. We are Blessed. We are Blessed to be a Blessing. Consider for a moment the offertory prayer that we share most Sundays. “Merciful God, we give you thanks and praise for the gifts which you have entrusted to us. Your mercies are great and our blessings are numerous. Receive now the offering we return to you, that all may share in your abundance. We pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.” Blessed to be a Blessing! You probably think that this is the point where I am going to ask you for money. No, this is the point where I THANK YOU for the marvelous generosity that you have already shown. Each week lots of money is “returned to God” and placed on the altar of TLC. Total offerings this year will be somewhere in the neighborhood of $900,000. That is amazing. That is wonderful. Where does the money come from? It comes from you. TLC has no other funding sources other than the offerings of our people. We get no money from the ELCA. We receive no money from the Government. We receive no grants. The money that drives our mission comes from us. We recognize that all that we have is God’s, and we joyfully have the privilege of sharing some of our money with others. Where does the money come from? Some give $5 a week, some give $500 a week. Some of the money is given through TLC, but it is earmarked for Good Cheer, Helping Hand, or any number of other charities. Some money is given for building projects and some is given for debt reduction. People designate a portion of their offerings to our TLC 4 TLC campaign. The TLC 4 TLC campaign is a special effort to care for our church home, to make our campus more energy efficient, and to pay off our debt. Where does the money go? After resting on the altar for 15 minutes that money is put to work. The counters tabulate the offering, accounting for every penny. The money is then deposited at the Whidbey Island Bank. $700,000 a year is used to support the General Fund. Heat, lights, Choir music, Sunday School materials, coffee, food, staff salaries, and office supplies are all paid out of the General Fund. In addition, the General Fund donates $70,000 to charities on Whidbey Island and across the globe. All told we give away about $150,000 a year to benevolent causes — that is $3,000 a week, every week, all year through! We are able to do all of this because of your generosity. Now, I want you to know that we are careful with every dollar. We try to be wise stewards, and able money managers. We are now setting aside more money for major maintenance items, and we are building an emergency fund. We plan on being debt free by 2015. So this email is just a thank you. Thank you for supporting your Church. Thank you for trusting this ministry with your hard earned dollars. Thank you for being generous and joyful. Thank you for working with me in this amazing Church. Blessed to be a Blessing! Pastor Jim
Posted on: Fri, 28 Jun 2013 21:55:18 +0000