September 30, 2024
Dear Saint Stephen’s Community,
In Lisa Feldman Barrett’s book How Emotions are Made, she writes, “You may think that in everyday life, the things you see and hear influence what you feel, but it’s mostly the other way around: what you feel alters your sight and hearing.” If we accept this as true, how we care for ourselves, how we are formed and shaped emotionally, spiritually, and morally can transform our worldview. If anxiety can reduce our vision, imagine how compassion, joy, empathy, and gratitude can change how we see the world and each other. The spiritual practices that we put in place can open our eyes to see the kingdom of God breaking through in our midst.
In today’s anxiety-filled world, I could not be more grateful to serve at Saint Stephen’s. This is a place where love, renewal, and sacredness are shared, and our faith can transform how we see this world by helping us to see Jesus Christ in all things. This community and your faithfulness have helped me to become more generous, more hopeful, and more faithful. Together, we have lived into being the Body of Christ.
Our stewardship theme this year is “Walk in the Light” from Isaiah 60:1. By giving of ourselves and our treasure, we walk in the light. We are a vibrant and growing church with increased demands and needs. One area that I’m especially focused on for this coming year is to build more support in our children’s ministry. We have had over 30 children in children’s chapel each of the last few weeks at the 9 a.m. service and over 250 children ages 0 – 6th grade actively involved in programming! I am also excited to share that in 2025, we will be the lead sponsors of a Habitat for Humanity house in honor of Barbarann Beckett-Gaines as she modeled what it means to walk in the light.
I invite you to visit our stewardship page or make your 2025 pledge commitment here. My prayer is that your financial commitment is a spiritual practice that fills you with gratitude, hope, and joy. In turn, I hope that Saint Stephen’s supports you in living out your faith. In this email is information about our church budget so you can see how your support helps us live into our faith. To walk in the light is to give, to serve, and to live in meaningful ways. Saint Stephen’s is a place where people are incredibly generous in their time, talent, and treasure. Maybe how we feel is already transforming the world.
I am grateful for your support and look forward to growing in our faith as together, we walk in the light.
Faithfully,
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