What are the goals of this year’s Stewardship Campaign to support BMPC’s ministry?
The first is a spiritual goal – to grow in appreciation for the abundant life we have been given by God and to respond with the generous offering of our lives as we seek to follow Jesus Christ. Making a financial commitment to the church is a tangible response to the intangible reality of God’s love and grace and goodness. Faithful people embark on a spiritual journey with God that leads us to grow in generosity.
The second is a practical goal - to increase BMPC’s financial pledges to meet an estimated 3 % increase for our church’s budget in 2016. The church is growing. We have increased participation in Children and Family Ministry, Youth Ministry, a new Young Adult group, Adult Education offerings and worship attendance. We are being called to reach out into the communities of need around us and in the world with the love, compassion and healing touch of Jesus Christ. The financial commitments of the congregation enable us to realize this growth in ministry and mission.
The third is an impractical goal – 100 % participation of all active BMPC members to the stewardship campaign. This most impractical goal is perhaps the more important one because it envisions a realization of the first two goals: a growth in the spiritual life of the congregation and an increase in financial participation to support the good work we are doing as a congregation.
I invite you to help us move toward meeting all three of these goals on Sunday when we celebrate Our Stewardship Journey. If you have already mailed your pledge card or pledged online, thank you. If you have not sent your pledge already, you may bring your pledge card to worship on Sunday and place it in the offering plates when they are passed.
If you are not in the spiritual habit of making a financial commitment to God through the church, I encourage you prayerfully to consider making a pledge this year. You may begin your own stewardship journey at any giving level. The first step is a most important one.
If you are a regular contributor to BMPC, I encourage you prayerfully to consider increasing your pledge as a sign of your growing in generosity. The chart on the back of your pledge card helps calculate what proportional giving might look like for each of us.
But before you do the math and consider an amount, I hope that we will pause and consider the gifts God has already given to you. Take an inventory of your gratitude for the abundant blessedness of your life and then decide what to give. I’ll see you Sunday for a great day of celebrating Our Stewardship Journey, as a church and as individual members, with the hopeful optimism that we are congregation that is growing in faith and faithfulness.
