Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
As we approach the 500th Anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, we have been focusing on how God is reforming us every day to follow in the way of Jesus. This happens in many different ways, but particularly as we approach our time of stewardship commitments for this year, we focus on how God is reforming our view of what it means to be stewards of the gifts entrusted to us by God. Specifically we ask the question of what does it look like to be reformed by the generosity of God to be more generous ourselves?
I hope that you hear us clearly say THANK YOU for all that you do to support the ministry of Prince of Peace and to support our ministry partners. Over and over again we are humbled and grateful for the generosity we see from our community as we raise up opportunities to respond and you do generously.
We are fortunate to live in communities where many material resources are entrusted to us. We have a clear abundance of intellectual and financial capital to invest in the Kingdom work before us.
As we walk together as stewards, there are many in our midst that have grown their giving to place of a 10 % tithe of their income. There are many others that are actively growing toward this goal, and there are some that I am sure would like to be generous but have great intentions of generosity but have simply not been intentional about it up to this point in their life.
Every year we encourage our members to give intentional consideration to their giving for the next year. We encourage members to give to meet the funding needs for our mission in which we believe, but even more importantly we encourage our entire community to grow in their giving because in our growth of giving, we grow in our depth of awareness and appreciation of all that God has given us. God reforms us through our giving as we grow in discipleship and in our witness to the world about where true joy and fulfillment are found.
Soon each family will receive an individualized statement of intent that we ask you to fill out and return to the church as we begin our planning for the upcoming ministry year. These commitments are important, as their collective impact helps our leaders make important decisions about the commitments we can make as a community to ministry for the upcoming year. This is their communal importance. They also have an individual importance by providing a vehicle for you and or your family to take a step of faith and create more space for God to reform you priorities as God reforms the world around you.
Thank you for your faithful stewardship that provides ongoing support for our daily ministry. Thank you for your faithful giving to the 20/20 Campaign that reduces our mortgage and invests in our ministry partners. Thank you for your gifts throughout the year to meets real needs of people in our local community and around the world. And thank you, for your prayerful consideration of your commitment to our shared ministry this coming year. May God bless us and continue to reform us as we grow in generosity and faith.
In Christ,
