Letter to the Congregation
Dear Brothers and Sisters of St. Paul:
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:2-6).
These words of St. Paul to the church at Philippi are certainly applicable to our parish family. On four consecutive Sundays in May, you were informed of our lagging offerings and projected $90,000 deficit by the end of June. An appeal was made to eliminate that deficit and you responded. With your generous giving, the deficit was eliminated and we enter the new fiscal year on solid ground.
However, our work is not finished. We began our new fiscal year (Aug 1) with a budget in which we:
- Did not give a pay increase to our faithful workers;
- Reduced our mission giving to District, Synod, and other Lutheran organizations from 6% of our offerings to 4% (our goal is to give 10%);
- Reduced our monthly mortgage payment to the minimum payment required; and
- Eliminated several large requests from the Board of Trustees for important facilities repairs.
A second part of the appeal addresses consistency and growth in our regular weekly giving. The Board of Elders have committed to increase their personal offerings by 10% and have challenged the congregation to do likewise. We ask that you prayerfully consider this challenge: 5% to 5.5%, 8% to 8.8%, 10% to 11%, etc.
As St. Paul continues in verses 9 through 11:
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ – to the glory and praise of God.”
In Christ,
