Stewardship

Since becoming Moderator in May, I have been regularly attending the Stewardship Board. I attend because I am required to, not because it is fun. Don't get me wrong. All of the people on Stewardship are great. I love to see them and interact with them. However, the big job of Stewardship to to ask folks for money, which is not my favorite way to spend time.

The board has come up with a Stewardship campaign for the coming year. I won't give any details now, because it is their plan to unveil. The main discussion revolves around how to make the appeal. Should we ask folks to joyfully give as a response to God's love? "God loves a cheerful giver" was last years theme, and fell squarely in this camp. Or, should we give folks the hard numbers about the financial condition of the church, and let them know how much we need to keep our missions alive and well?

Here are some of the numbers. We currently have a structural deficit of about $50,000 per year. That means we spend about $50,000 more than we take in each year. We have managed to continue several years of this by finding one time monies to cover most of the deficit, and by drawing on long or short term reserves to make up the difference. Short term reserves are almost depleted right now. Current projections are for that structural deficit to grow by about $12,000 per year. Those projections are based on the current trends: pledge income increases by about 1% per year, while expenses increase about 3% per year. Note that expenses are increasing at about the rate of inflation. It is not as if the church is involved in some huge spending binge.

The simple solution to this issue is for each family that pledges to increase their pledge by $5 per week, or $260 per year. Since we have just over 200 pledging families, we can take 200 times $260 and arrive at $52,000 in additional pledge income. If this occurs, our structural deficit will all but disappear. Of course, not every family can afford to increase their pledge by $260 per year. On the other hand, many of us can afford to increase our pledges by $260 or more. My family will be increasing it's pledge by slightly more than the $260. It is not that we have "extra" money sitting around, but I know from experience that if we commit by making a pledge, we will find a way to meet that pledge. I am constantly aware that we have been given so much, and consider it a privilege to have the opportunity to give back.