2024 Pledge Campaign

Dear St. John’s community,

Thank you for being part of the St. John’s community! With fall upon us, we reach out to ask you to prayerfully consider and make your pledge to support St. John’s—this includes our amazing staff, services, building, programs, and outreach. Making your pledge will enable your vestry to plan and develop a budget for 2024. As you know, in 2023 we passed a deficit budget in which expenses exceeded income by $58,000. While we can cover this in the short term, we will need to adapt and innovate to be sustainable for the long term. Your pledge will help us do that.

The theme of this year’s pledge drive is Sharing in Beloved Community. St. John’s is a faith community that is rich with tradition, and hopeful and curious about the future. Sharing in Beloved Community evokes the incredible gifts shared within and outside the walls of our sacred gathering space. Sharing creates a reciprocal flow of giving and receiving with each other, with our neighbors and with God. During October services, you’ll hear several St. John’s members express why they pledge. At the core, financial giving and generosity are spiritual practices that express our lives’ deepest intentions and energy.

We are asking you for an annual financial pledge as a way to Share in the Beloved Community we are always co-creating with God here at St. John’s. You can do so by completing and mailing the attached pledge card to St. John’s, bringing it to church on Gratitude Sunday, November 12, pledging online, or by emailing our new bookkeeper Hillary Clayburgh. Whatever you pledge is important! In addition to helping St. John’s through your pledge, we invite you to consider including St. John’s in your estate plan. There is more information about this option, as well as other helpful information, on this document. And regardless of whether or not you can contribute financially at this time, you are deeply appreciated and important at St. John’s.

God works through us. How we express community may evolve, but the church’s purpose—joining God’s mission to heal the world through love—will never change. Because we seek a balanced budget and need time to allocate our resources wisely, it would be helpful if you could make your pledge on or before Gratitude Sunday, November 12.

We offer our profound thanks in advance. With your gift, we will respond to God’s Spirit by Sharing in Beloved Community. May God’s blessings be with you and yours. Amen.

Kari Rusch-Curl (Chair, Ministry of Stewardship)
Stewardship Team: Mike Walters, Doug Mensing, Madison Gies-Guy, Peter Stebinger, Rev. Lisa Wiens Heinsohn