By now you’ve probably seen our stewardship theme of Responding to God’s Cosmic Generosity 2022. I’m really enjoying the brief videos about how God’s Cosmic Generosity is experienced in people’s lives at St. Mark’s. This year we want to focus not on our church budget or how much the church needs to receive which has been a focus in the past that helped us to become financially viable as a community. We are taking a more spiritual approach to our giving. We want to emphasize the way in which our own giving is a pathway to spiritual growth and relationship with God. Each of us has a need to give back a portion or tithe of what God has given us as an act of worship.
Stewardship is an opportunity for each of us to grow in relationship with God by supporting our church’s mission and ministry with a percentage of our incomes. Stewardship is meant to draw us closer to God, making tangible our commitment to God’s work in the world through our community. Giving back to God some of what God has entrusted to us, ensures that we are invested in sharing God’s love in the world with others. We don’t want to treat each other like members of a club that should pay dues but rather as followers of Jesus who want to give generously as an act of faithful discipleship.
As a congregation we are going on a spiritual journey over these next few weeks. We’ll be seeing videos of what is important to people about their faith community and how they are experiencing the Cosmic Generosity of God even in the midst of these strange times. We’ll be encouraging people to prayerfully consider how they give of their resources to the work of God in the world. Our goal this year is to encourage people toward proportionate and systematic giving in response to the question, “What percentage of my income is God calling me to give?
During our morning worship on October 24th, we will ask our entire congregation to make a financial commitment to St. Mark’s ongoing life and ministry.
At our Celebration Sunday on October 24th, we will ask every member and friend of St. Mark’s to fill out a Responding to God’s Cosmic Generosity 2022 Pledge Card together on that same day and either place their commitment in the offering plate, put it in the mail or drive by the church during coffee hour where you can place your pledge in our Celebration Sunday collection box in the east parking lot and celebrate with our whole community the gifts that God has given to each of us.
To be sure the pandemic has really changed our life at St. Mark’s and we want to use this as an opportunity to continue to grow in loving relationship with God in Christ. As the people of God in this place we are blessed by God’s Cosmic Generosity and we want to give back to God some of the many blessings we have received so that the work of God in the world continues through this faith community in healthy and vibrant ways.
