Stewardship

Stewardship – "And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work."   2 Corinthians 9:8

"Give from the Heart" is the theme of our Stewardship Campaign for 2008.  Matt Wright, our former High School Youth Ministry Coordinator, prepared the beautiful heart graphic for the campaign.  The sermons from October 14 through November 11, 2007, audio versions of which are available from our Sermons page, followed the theme of H_E_A_R_T.

We have wonderful programs and ministries here at First Presbyterian Church, and we want to keep them and expand them.  None of these would be possible without the time and talents of our members, but we have to also have the funds to support them. 

Our youth programs - from our infants and toddlers enjoying the church nurseries, our preschoolers learning about God and Jesus during Sunday School and their special time during sermons on Sundays, and our weekday preschool - to the high school students in WF and Confirmation Classes and all their activities - are terrific!  In between we have a huge LOGOS program, Genesis and the BLAST activities for our middle schoolers, and all the special events such as retreats, Vacation Bible School, Easter Egg Hunt and craft parties, and many more.  A new program, Coffee House College Fellowship, was begun in 2007, to keep our college students connected with their friends and church family.

We support numerous missions, both locally and in other countries.  Christian Education is provided at First Presbyterian for all ages - from children through adults - through our Sunday School and Adult Education Pathways classes.  We have a wonderful music ministry program and worship services in the diverse styles preferred by different members - including Heritage, Tapestry, and Celebration style worship services.  The dedication and talents of members make these possible, but there are costs for music, equipment, including new audio and video equipment and supplies, as well as instruments, educational supplies, etc.

We have a beautiful church home here at First Presbyterian, but there are costs for utilities, interior and exterior maintenance, repairs, grounds, supplies, etc.; and these costs keep increasing.  Our Live the Vision additional donations have been used for all of our loan interest and principal payments since the beginning of 2006, but these additional donations end in 2008.  Because of the deficit we have no budget for and emergency fund for boilers, roofs, or for remodeling or updating office space and meeting areas.  Our Sanctuary boiler is over 50 years old.

There are also costs, of course, for administration including our per capita obligation to the Presbytery and insurance, as well as for staffing, supplies, member life (which includes communications, the church website, Caritas Team Ministry, Deacons, Pastoral Care, Stephen Ministry, ChristCare, communications, the church website, hospitality, and the church libraries).

Our 2007 Annual Report is available online.  The State of the Church presentation by Dr. Paul J. Kirbas during our annual congregational meeting on January 27, 2008, can be downloaded as an audio file in mp3 format or as a video file in mov format.  The video format includes the slides from the powerpoint presentation and is about 75 MB in size, while the audio format is only about 5 MB in size (a much faster download). Right click either link to save the target on your own computer.

PLEDGE CARDS:  If you did not already return a pledge card for 2008, it's certainly not too late to do so!  You can do it right now.  Just print your pledge card from the website and prayerfully complete it.  We also need a completed electronic funds transfer (EFT) form if you are adding or continuing your EFT procedure.  These can then be mailed to or dropped off at the church office.   Thank you to everyone who has already completed a pledge card!  

Can you dig a little deeper and help us meet our expenses?  Read the message from Dr. Paul Kirbas below.  Your pledge card increase form can be printed right from the website and returned to the church office.  Why not do it right now!

Please contact Denny Lawson at dennylawson@hotmail.com if you have any questions. 

From our February 2008 Newsletter  . . . .

Dear Congregation,

I want to thank everyone who attended the Annual Congregational Meeting on Sunday, January 27, 2008.  During that meeting, those in attendance heard an important message about 2008 and the crossroad that it presents for us here at the First Presbyterian Church.  I would like to take this opportunity to restate the challenge facing us and the invitation of the session to each and every one of us.

Last fall, my son Jeff had a motorbike accident. He tore his Achilles Tendon and had to wear a cast for a few months. During that time he was able to walk by using crutches.  After some time and physical therapy the Doctor told Jeff that it was time to start putting down the crutches.  At first, it wasn’t easy. He had some pain and discomfort to deal with, and he wasn’t very confident in his walk.  But he couldn’t stay on the crutches forever. The time came for him to put them away and stand on his own two feet.

For several years now, our ministry has been leaning on a financial crutch.  In order to keep the church moving forward during a time of transition, the church supplemented its operating budget with funds from our capital campaign Live the Vision.  Even with the supplement our budget has been very lean.  There is no perceivable way to reduce the budget of our church without seriously diminishing our ministries and our mission.

Now that we are entering the final year of our Live the Vision campaign, it is time for us to put the crutch down.  It is time for our operating budget to stand on its own two feet, fully funded by our operating pledges and gifts.  But this doesn’t happen easily.  There is some discomfort that accompanies this process.  Yet, together we can do it.  We can put the crutches down and walk forward with confidence.

The session of our church has wrestled with this challenge and has concluded that if we all do our part, we can easily meet it.  If everyone who has made a pledge for 2008 would be willing to increase that pledge by $400.00 (about $33.00 per month), or by 15%, our 2008 budget would be fully funded and we as a church would be standing strong.  If some can do even more, we would be even stronger.  Indeed, the answer to our challenge is totally within our grasp.

I want to invite you to prayerfully consider the invitation of our session.  If you were not at our Annual Meeting, and therefore did not receive the new pledge cards that have been designed for this purpose, please contact our church office and we will be happy to send you the materials, or you can print them from this website.  Please know that the leaders of the church have taken the first steps.  Because of that, we have already seen a significant and positive difference.  Together, let’s put the crutch down, and walk on healthy financial feet again!