How We Give
Matthew: 5:21-26
These past few weeks we have been in what most United Methodist Churches call a "Stewardship" season. We spend time orienting worship, our communication, and our thinking toward the future while inviting members of the church to do the same.
To be blunt, we are fundraising for the goal of identifying the best prediction of what our revenue will be in 2023 so that we can build a budget around it. So I figured this week I would talk a bit about finances at Lakewood UMC, and also discuss why we call this season a time of "Stewardship" and not a pledge drive.
Every year, we use a pledge drive form of fundraising to make the best guess on how much money we can anticipate the church having available to do a lot of things: pay staff, purchase supplies for sunday school, worship, or other events we might put on, offer assistance to those who come to us for help, run our safe parking ministry and operate our community garden, repair things, maintain the building, pay for stamps, and so many other things! In 2022, we have a budget that planned to have about $360,000 in expenses.
Last year, when we did Stewardship, we received about $150,000 in pledges. Now you might be wondering "how are we going to afford to run this church?" but there are other ways we generate revenue at Lakewood UMC. Some of it comes from our community partnerships like the one we have with JeffcoEats. In return for being able to use our church to run their operation, they pay us a fee each month that helps support ministry at Lakewood UMC. We also generate revenue by providing spaces for artists to have studio spaces for a fee that is much lower than market rate in our area.
We also generate revenue from investments made by funds that were given to the church by many people who are no longer with us. There are quite a few ways that we as a church can find ways to fund ministry! But that doesn't always mean things work out easily each year! Our most valuable source of revenue is your generosity. We depend on it to keep our church running!
We have had some narrow close shaves this year. Sometimes revenue doesn't come at the rate we need it. Or sometimes our guesses on expenses are off. But when I take time to take stock of the resources we have and what we have accomplished, I can't help but acknowledge just how blessed we are. How lucky we are!
How large a share of God's abundance we have been given care over.
That is why we call this time of fundraising stewardship. We are stewards of God's abundance. This building, our assets, the investments you make in us are all things over which we are stewards! And you are stewards too--for all of the provision we have been blessed with is from God. What a gift so many of us have been given! And what an opportunity for us also to see what can happen when we share that abundance we have been given.
When you share your portion of God's abundance with us, we can put it to work in our neighborhood. We can make sure we are gathering to worship each week with the blessing of music and technology and heating and cooling. We can use this abundance to run ministries that feed our neighbors, provide space for our neighbors, and create spaces for growth in our neighborhood. We can use this abundance to support our preschool and PDO programs that provide vital child care to people in our part of town.
There is so much that can be done with God's abundance when we bring it together. And our stewardship of that abundance will bear fruit. I hope you will consider what abundance God has given you that you can share with us so that we can put it to work helping God's will be done "on earth as it is in heaven!"
