Stewardship
Using the gifts God has given us, to do the work God is calling us to do.
2011 Stewardship Online Pledge Card
With prudent stewardship of your resources by our staff and clergy, the community of St. Michael’s has built a house--a house where everyone is welcome and one that is filled with the Holy Spirit and God’s grace. We thank you for the resources you have prayerfully given to build this house, and we thank our staff and clergy for their diligence in managing our budget. We have built a house that touches every heart.
This house you have built changes lives--through the passion of our worship services, the beauty of our building, and the outreach that serves those in need. Our Lord has taken each dollar and multiplied it in ways that we could only have imagined. Just look at the difference your pledge has made at St. Michael’s:
Programs for children and youth over a two-year span:
- 20% increase in Sunday School attendance
- 67% increase in JAM attendance (Jesus and Me is a youth group for kids in elementary school)
- 47% increase in attendance at children’s chapel at both 8:45 and 10:45 services
- St. Michael’s youth group contributed over 800 hours of community service serving meals and doing home repairs
Adult Formation programs over a two-year span:
- 77% increase in Lenten Academy enrollment
- 15% increase in Bigger Bible School enrollment
- 30 couples have attended baptism preparation
- 127 have enrolled in new member classes
The addition and continued ministry of a third priest, our beloved Rev. Bill Breedlove, who has:
- added a sacramental and pastoral focus to our ministry with children and families
- substantially increased our capacity to reach out to those in the hospital, families with illness, and families in crisis
- led a transition to a new Sunday School curriculum focusing on spiritual growth in the home
- energized our youth in worship, in a new youth Alpha program, in stewardship, and in an ongoing list that is a blessing to all
Outreach:
- Schooled over 200 elementary school children in Haiti
- Provided over $25,000 in earthquake relief
- Fed 61 hungry kids at Crestview School
- Added 70 Rushton School kids this fall
- Added a summer food program for Crestview kids, including produce from our own St. Michael’s vegetable garden
- Added an Interfaith Hospitality partnership to house homeless families in Johnson County
- Developed an opportunity to provide a water purification system for 75 families in Haiti
This list goes on in each category. Part of our walk with Christ is faithfully pledging a portion of our income to continue the work we have begun. This dynamic house we have built needs each of us to nurture it with our commitment and our resources. God provides, even in these difficult times.
God asks us to set aside the first fruits of our labor to give back to Him. In other words, we are to put God first in our lives. Please prayerfully consider the lives your pledge can change. With your pledge, we not only will be able to maintain our house, but also allow it to grow. Your 2011 pledge will transform lives in the upcoming year, not the least of which may be your own.
To complete our 2011 budgeting process before year-end, we ask that everyone get their 2011 pledge card in by October 10. For those who do so, you will be invited to a special evening event with Bishop Wolfe and Reverend Gail on Tuesday, October 12th.
Your Vestry has encouraged giving through the following statement:
of all gifts, spiritual and material. We commit to answering in gratitude
by giving of all our resources, including time and talent.
Joyful giving results in bountiful grace, and we urge you to join us in this
commitment to deepen our faith by giving back to the Lord in measured proportion
of our income, moving toward the Biblical standard of the 10% tithe.
Please join us in being a joyful giver.
Our prayer is that your gift to God will transform your life and give you the peace and joy that He wants for us all.
Faithfully,
Cyd Alloway & Kevin Smith
Stewardship Committee Co-Chairs
2011 Stewardship Online Pledge Card