Dear Members and Friends of St. Peter's by the Sea,
I thank the Lord Jesus Christ, and you, for entrusting me as your Stewardship Elder.
At St. Peters by the Sea, we have a lot to be happy about as we start the new fiscal year and continue along the path of becoming a Matthew 25 Church. Here, we learn how to transform, as we ourselves are transformed. These days the healing power of Jesus is so palpable.
Our congregation is dedicated to a sound financial future with a conviction that stewarding the money entrusted to us by God increases our spiritual awareness. As a member of our loving congregation, you are essential in providing security and stability to our annual financial church giving. Sharing the gifts that God gives you makes our common mission and ministry possible. It enables us to continue intentional efforts that further our administrative, community outreach, and spiritual development goals.
As part of our financial transparency, we will continue sending regular congregational financial statements. These statements will allow you to see the church's income every month. Many of you provided me with positive feedback and felt that the statements helped determine the amount of financial support you wanted to provide St. Peters during the 2021-22 year. We hope this information will be used in the same light.
As part of storing your treasures in the Kingdom of God (Matthew 6:19-21), I ask you to join us in this stewardship journey by participating in our 2022-23 Congregational Commitment Card Campaign. This process allows you to make a monetary commitment broken down by your choice of weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual giving. Knowing the expected income ensures that we can meet our budget with confidence. Our faith-giving goal this year is $850,000. Faith-giving represents monies directly received from members and friends for our general budget. Our $850,000 goal represents a $50,000 increase over last year’s faith-giving budget which we exceeded. Last fiscal year also we budgeted a $100,000 deficit which we balanced with reserve money to carry us through the pandemic. Moving forward, this is an unsustainable pattern. We are grateful for reserve monies generously given by members, past and present, that helped us navigate the unimaginable.
By the grace of God, we are now coming out of the pandemic, and we are recommitted to working toward a balanced budget. With the positive response to meeting last year's faith-giving budget, along with continued growth in new membership, our goal is to have less dependence on reserves moving us to a position of growth and expanding our ministries.
To help us meet our budget and expenses, we ask that you prayerfully consider increasing your 2021-22 faith-giving amount by 10% this season. Your continued support is truly a blessing. Please click HERE to access our online commitment form. Or you can fill out the enclosed congregational commitment card. You can also go to https://www.stpeterspres.org/serve/
We have been blessed to receive significant contributions from several congregational members. Still, to develop and sustain the existing budget, we must all prayerfully examine what God is calling us to give.
The Session invites us to recommit to each other, to St. Peters and to God as we move into next seasons of life together. I hope you will join me in partnering with Christ, looking deep into your heart, and to consider making your commitment today.
Thank you for being a part of our warm and loving congregation and this blessed church we call home. May the Holy Spirit continue to keep you and guide your hearts.
Yours in Christ Jesus
David A. Johnson
