Churches live in a space between
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus the Messiah, who teaches us every day how to walk and live and love as he did.
Churches live in a space between listening for God’s direction and finding the financial resources to respond to God’s call. Those aren’t opposites! I believe that discerning God’s plan is an essential part of church life, and God’s provision is an affirmation of our response and action.
Moving out of the COVID restrictions (mostly) was always going to lead to an increase in spending. The campus is open, which means added costs of cleaning and repairs. We have families with kids coming for in-person worship, meaning more staff are needed to teach and care for them. For more than two years we haven’t really been able to get the word out and invite more people to join us in our worship and mission, and now we can. On top of all of that, everything is more expensive these days!
All of those new (glorious) opportunities for growth require a little more financial support from all of us. As we move past the middle of 2022, the trends point to a significant deficit at the end of the year, and that threatens to stall some of our potential growth before we really even get started.
I’d like to avoid that.
The leadership of First Pres is inviting all of us to review our giving for the current year. Keeping up with pledges is a good first step. Special giving is certainly welcome! We’ll be looking for ways to hold expenses down as tightly as we can, and we’re looking for new ways to generate revenue through strategic use of the campus. I encourage all of you to consider increasing your support for the work of First Pres as we emerge from a 2+ years of holding the line.
I don’t want to ask for anything that I’m not willing to do myself, so I’m going to increase my own pledge by 25% for the rest of this year, and renew at that level for 2023. Please see that as a sign of my own commitment to the work we can do together.
As we move into this season of reflection on the life and work of St Francis of Assisi, my hope is that we’ll all renew our commitment to this shared ministry. There is so much good work to do! This would be a much harder letter to write if we weren’t serving each other and our community with love and care. Now is the time to join our discernment of vision with generous—even sacrificial—financial support.
I look forward to seeing what we can do together in the second half of this year. Thank you for your continuing encouragement and support of this great work!
Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John