Jill Duffield, Senior Pastor
As we prepare to make our financial commitment to the ministries of our church, I want to begin by saying thank you to the 473 individuals and families who made a pledge this year. Thanks to your generosity, with God’s help and the power of the Holy Spirit, our congregation is vibrant, serving, and seeking to follow Jesus Christ wherever he leads. We have just shy of 2,500 members on our rolls. That translates to around 1,000 “giving units” in stewardship speak. For example, Grant and I are one “giving unit” even though we are two people on the rolls (and one flesh per the marriage covenant…but that’s another article). Back of the napkin math would indicate then that a little less than half of those who might give, do give. This is somewhat typical in a church our size, but who wants to be typical?
Currently, after the Finance Committee calculated the proposed budgets for all our ministries, we’d need to raise around $3 million to fund everything we need and hope to do next year. That would be a jump of around $300,000 from this year’s projected pledges and gifts. Our three largest expenses are salaries and benefits, property costs, and technology needs.
Personnel, paying our people, is the largest line item. We have talented, passionate, kind and committed people on our staff. They work hard, willingly and with joy. They go the extra mile and act with the utmost integrity. I can’t imagine working with a better group. Our buildings, as we know from the ongoing capital campaign, are expensive to operate and maintain. Doing so isn’t only a matter of preserving history or aesthetics, it is a matter of mission. The events and experiences within our walls shape not only our members but our community and world: children learn their numbers and letters and, more importantly, learn they are loved, those struggling with addiction meet together in order to stay clean, people wanting to make their lives better get training, the hungry get fed physically and spiritually, praises lift to heaven and friendships are forged. I can’t imagine this city without this congregation. Technology is ever changing and integral to staying connected. What isn’t impacted by technology? It is how we communicate with each other, how we worship with those in our faith community unable to come in person, and how we share the gospel well beyond our doors. I recently met a member of a small congregation in the rural county where I grew up. They are, and have been, without a pastor. He told me that during Covid, their congregation worshipped with us and we “got them through.” We are, through technology, truly the Body of Christ, united no matter how far apart we are geographically.
If we are to fully fund these and all our other ministries next year, we will need to close the projected gap between revenue and expenses. We’ll need to raise about $300,000 more than we project to receive in 2024. There is no other source of revenue than us, you, me and the other “giving units” in our church. The 473 of us who pledged and gave this year could increase our giving by about $635 each or the 527 who haven’t participated could give $570 or some combination thereof (please, don’t make me do any more math). I am sincerely grateful to each of you for gifts. Yes, and importantly, they fund the budget, but more than that they reveal in a tangible, material way, what matters.
Early in my ministry a mentor of mine encouraged me to tithe. He said, “Start now. It won’t get easier as you make more money.” I thought highly of him, so Grant and I decided we would follow his counsel. I remember thinking at the time that the amount wasn’t all that meaningful in relation to the size of the church’s budget. I discovered that regardless of the amount, it was incredibly meaningful to us. Setting that priority shaped all the other ones.
I hope you will make a pledge, an estimate of giving, to the work of Christ’s church in this place. The amount is far less important than the act itself. If we all prayerfully do our part, imagine what might come next.
Thank you!
Peace,
Jill
