Saint John’s community is ready to thrive together with renewed energy! We nurture our discipleship roots through meaningful worship, inclusive fellowship, study and formation. We extend God’s love and hope out into the wider community through impactful ministries, helping others, and providing a welcoming, safe space. We’re back, we’re energized, and we’re ready for a year of robust engagement with our members and with the world beyond our doors!
The ministries that provide these opportunities are only made possible by you-our current members and supporters. Once again those richly blessed among us invite you to make a pledge for the first time or, if possible, increase your pledge by offering to double your impact. Any increases or new pledges will be matched up to $1,000 each.
If you needed to reduce your pledge during the pandemic, please consider returning to pre-pandemic giving levels. Otherwise, please consider a 5% increase for your 2024 pledge.
Vitality happens when all of us share our resources to connect, grow and spread a canopy of God’s love.
2024 Vision and Priorities
- Increased ministry spending. In nearly every program area, leaders are expecting to do more work, reach more people, and serve more folks in need, totalling budget requests of 30% more than last year. The increase may seem dramatic, but in many cases just reflects the ministry spending returning to pre-pandemic levels.
- Caring for our beautiful historical building. We did some serious maintenance work this past year: a new roof on the 1957 building, exterior painting, and retooling the 2nd floor for new tenants (Big Wonder Child Care). These projects significantly depleted our newly created building reserve fund. Running a building such as ours has ever-increasing costs, and an increased fund for future repairs allows us to fix issues as they arise and get out ahead of future problems. A vital faith community needs a vital and healthy building!
- Supporting our staff (which also supports our volunteers.) Like many organizations across the country, we are experiencing a downturn in volunteer engagement. It’s understandable, and it’s a good thing that individuals are finding clarity in their priorities and taking care of themselves to avoid burnout. But this reality makes our paid staff even more important to ensure we can reliably provide much of what our members expect. Rising costs for insurance and other employment-related expenses, and hiring of new staff (especially a senior director for the vital Children, Youth, and Family program area) have increased financial need in this category. While volunteers rest, re-engage, and reconnect, our vital programs must resume!
Each contribution, no matter the size, is a significant gift received with gratitude and used faithfully to further the mission and ministry of Saint John’s. Thank you for being part of this vital faith community and for your prayerful discernment. It is wonderful to be together in communion with you.
Yours in Christ,
St. John’s Stewardship Committee
Alice Johnson, George Kinkead, Jon Lahti, Lynn Hartmann, Dan Vogel, Sarah Dull
