October 14, 2024
Dear Saint Stephen’s Family,
Our Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church community is flourishing. We are faithfully embracing exciting new opportunities, expanding our worship, and advancing our outreach in the larger community. The church is filled with energy, friendship, and faith. All these wonderful things we share at Saint Stephen’s are because of you. As we embark on our 2025 Stewardship Campaign, I want to recognize your contributions and say thank you. Thank you for building and supporting a thriving, joyful place to worship and share God’s word. Thank you for nurturing and sustaining a community in which my children—Kate, William, and Jack—can grow in faith, education, and life. Because of you, my family has a place to “Walk in the Light,” and I am deeply grateful for it.
Our theme for the 2025 Campaign is “Walk in the Light” and is based on the scripture of Isaiah 60:1: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.” While we may all experience this inspiring text differently, I’d like to share the impact it has on me. Saint Stephen’s shines a bright and powerful light that guides me. When I “walk in the light,” I feel I am growing closer to God, and I am compelled to help that light shine even brighter for others. We all have different gifts and contribute in various ways to sustain and brighten this light. One of the ways I am going to help this light shine brightly for all, so we can all walk in the light, is through my pledge.
For 2024, pledged offerings made up 79% of the budgeted revenue and plate offerings (general unpledged gifts were 12%. Your pledge is an essential input to our budgeting and planning for the next year, helping your Clergy and Vestry allocate resources for all the programs we should support. As you know, our community has amazing programs to support our members and numerous outreach programs to support our community, and the Threshold Center, a new ministry of Saint Stephen’s, has begun offering programs this fall.
Our 2025 Campaign is crucial, not only to support all of Saint Stephen’s established and new ministries but also to address the impact of inflation and our expanding needs, such as our commitment to safety and security. We already anticipate an increase in baseline expenses for 2025.
The Stewardship Campaign kicked off on October 6th and will conclude with Consecration Sunday on November 17th. Last year, we had 288 families sign pledge cards and 15 others contribute with recurring gifts (without a pledge). This year, our goal is for every family who attends to make some form of commitment. As Saint Stephen’s has grown, we have yet to see a corresponding increase in the number of pledges. My hope for this campaign is that 300 families and individuals will make pledges. The best way for us to reach this goal is for more families to participate. If you have not pledged in the past or are new to our church community, we ask that you consider including Saint Stephen’s in your giving.
On behalf of the Stewardship committee, I thank you for your pledge and ask that you pray with us as we launch our annual gathering of gifts and gratitude and consider how you can use your works to support Saint Stephen’s in 2025. If you are ready to make your gift, you can do so here.
Thank you for all do you and the multitude of ways that you help us all walk in the light.
Faithfully yours,
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