Stewardship Letter – November 2023
My Christian Stewardship 2024
Stewardship Letter – November 2023
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 the free and joyous activity of the child of God and God’s family, the Church, in managing all of life and life’s resources for God’s purposes.
Through our attention to this important subject, we hope to once again encourage good stewardship decisions by our individual members, as well as execute good stewardship together in our common life as a congregation.
Regarding personal stewardship, St. Paul’s asks that you follow the Biblical teaching of setting aside a portion of your time and income for God’s work through the church (often called a “tithe”). Giving through the church furthers God’s work in this world in a very direct and effective way. Doing so 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 this coming year, we ask that you please fill out and return the enclosed My Christian Stewardship 2024 form included in this mailing. This includes a place to indicate your estimated financial giving (per month), as well as a place to indicate the ways you’d like to serve with your time and talents through the church. Please note the separate page that includes many of our volunteer needs and wants. 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 sermons under the theme: Well done, good and faithful servant (Matthew 25:21).
As part of the stewardship of our life together at St. Paul’s, we are currently preparing our budget, identifying candidates for our leadership, and recruiting needed volunteers for our 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 put together by the Church Council and voted upon at our Voter’s Meeting on Dec. 3rd.
As you think about your participation with us in the coming year, please 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 in line with past years. The church continues to meet its obligations and carry out its work. Thank you to all who are contributing – you are making a great difference in many people’s lives! God be praised!
- As most of you know, the church is in the process of selling a portion of its property to eliminate the remaining mortgage and fund new projects. At this time we are under contract with a buyer who is working through the due diligence process. If all continues to go well with the sale, we should see proceeds in the summer of 2025.
- Paul’s continues to make its mortgage payments ($8k/month) on the 2012 building improvements as well as its sale-related legal & consulting fees through the Building Fund. However, the Building Fund is now almost depleted. Many of you have contributed generously to the fund this past year, and this has allowed us to continue our payments. But we will need additional contributions if we are to avoid taking out another loan. We respectfully ask you to consider helping us (again) in this way, as you are able.
Over the years we have found it helpful to target one Sunday as the day to return our stewardship forms and celebrate God’s provision, which we call Commitment Sunday. Upon prayerfully considering and estimating your giving for the coming year, we ask that you return this form to the church on or around November 19th. You may bring it to a worship service, drop it off in the office, send it via mail, or email it to the attention of our Business Manager, John Bean (stpaulstaff@yahoo.com).
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