My Christian Stewardship 2023
Stewardship Letter – November 2022
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
Greetings to you in the blessed name of Jesus, our Lord and our Savior!
Each year in November, St. Paul’s turns its attention to the subject of Christian stewardship. Stewardship is our thoughtful managing of the many gifts and resources God gives.
Through our attention to this important subject, we hope to both encourage good stewardship decisions by our individual members and execute good stewardship together in our common life as a congregation. Regarding personal stewardship, St. Paul’s once again asks that you follow the Biblical teaching of setting aside a portion of your time and income for God’s work through the church. Giving through the church furthers God’s work in this world in the most direct and effective way possible. Giving regularly and proportionally also leads one to develop habits of charity and good planning, which not only serve you well but also your neighbor.
For your giving to St. Paul’s in this coming year, we ask that you please fill out and return the My Christian Stewardship 2023 form found here (Commitments and Opportunities 2023). The form includes a place to indicate your estimated financial giving (per month) and a place to indicate the ways you’d like to serve with your time and talents through the church. Please note the listing of our volunteer needs and wants that follows the form. If you have questions about any of them, please contact our pastor, staff, or church leadership.
St. Paul’s relies on both its volunteers and its offerings. Together we can continue to care for one another, minister to our community, and reach out with the Gospel. Further teaching and encouragement on our personal stewardship will come from this month’s Bible classes and sermons under the theme: All Live to Him (Luke 20:38).
As part of the stewardship of our life together at St. Paul’s, we are currently putting together our budget, identifying candidates for our leadership team, and recruiting needed volunteers for service opportunities. Please know that the commitments you indicate on the My Christian Stewardship form will help us in these efforts. Our proposed budget and ballot of leaders will be compiled by the Church Council and placed before the congregation at our Voter’s Meeting on Dec. 4.
As a reminder, financial offerings may be given in envelopes brought or mailed to the church, arranged through an online portal found on our website, or given by direct withdrawal from one of your accounts. For information on giving by direct withdrawal please contact our Business Manager.
As you think about your participation with us in the coming year, we’d also like you to be aware of the following updates regarding the condition and needs of our congregation:
- Through September of this year, regular contributions to the church are mostly in line with past years but with a slight decline. We continue to meet our obligations and carry out our work, and hope that we can make up the deficit at the end of the year. Thank you to all who are contributing! You are making a great difference in many people’s lives. God be praised!
- St. Paul’s continues to make its mortgage payments ($8k/month) on the 2012 building improvements through a dedicated Building Fund. As of September, we have $40k in the Building Fund and continue to receive several regular contributions toward it. However, at current giving levels, the Building Fund will run out sometime in the coming year, likely around April. To remedy this, we are asking all members to please consider giving an additional amount specifically toward this need. You may give through any of the normal means, but please identify these gifts as “Building Fund.” You will see that this opportunity has also been added to our regular Commitment Form this year. Pledged amounts help us greatly in making our plans.
- As most of you know, the church has been trying to sell a portion of its property to eliminate the remaining mortgage and fund new projects. At this time new offers are being solicited and a contract will hopefully be negotiated soon.
As has been our custom, we are again targeting a Sunday which we call Commitment Sunday as the day to return our stewardship forms and celebrate God’s provision. Upon prayerfully considering and estimating your giving for the coming year, we therefore ask that you return this form to the church on or around November 20th. You may bring the form in person to a worship service, drop it off in the office, or send it via mail or email to the attention of our Business Manager, John Bean.
On behalf of the entire congregation, we thank you for your partnership with us in the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ through St. Paul’s. Together we are proclaiming the Gospel and mutually serving one another through faith – all as part of the body of Christ.
May God bless us in our stewardship of His gifts and in our life together as His people.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Mark Shaltanis and the Board of Stewardship
