Dear Lakewood Family,

First, thank you for your faithful giving to our church over the years. Your gifts help support our church and its ministries, and we could not do it without you.

Next, we had a conversation with our bank recently and were informed that technically, as of July 1, they cannot accept for deposit a check that is payable to Lakewood United Methodist Church. The bank accounts are now set up using our legal name of Lakewood Church of Jacksonville, Inc. Thus, it is imperative that beginning July 1, your check should be payable to Lakewood Church or Lakewood Church of Jacksonville, and NOT Lakewood United Methodist Church or LUMC.

If you give to the church from your IRA, using the "Qualified Charitable Distribution" (QCD) strategy, you will need to inform the custodian to make the check payable to Lakewood Church of Jacksonville, Inc. and provide the custodian our new EIN, which is 92-3462471. The same is true if you are utilizing a Charitable Trust or Community Foundation or any other strategy that generates a check to the church.

If you give through ACS (our online church giving platform), you do not need to do anything; your giving will continue without interruption.

Finally, some members have named our church as beneficiary of their will, a trust, an IRA, or other retirement plan after death. While not as time-sensitive as current giving, it will be important to make similar changes in your documents.

Please contact the church office for further instructions.

Thank you for your understanding and your faithfulness to the mission of Lakewood.

John Edgecombe, Finance Chair