Stewardship $1.75 million

2023 Stewardship Pledges (88% of $2M goal)

First Fruits by Julia Trizzino

In 2022, we re-formed the Stewardship Committee, led by members of the congregation. The purpose of the Stewardship committee is to plan and shepherd the annual Stewardship campaign in support of the church’s operating budget.

After months of meeting together and prayerfully considering options, the committee selected the theme of “First Fruits” for the 2023 campaign. All creation belongs to God, and we are God’s stewards. By giving to God first and offering our first fruits in support of the church, we demonstrate our faithfulness to God’s covenant, gratitude to God, and trust in God’s continued provision. We invited members to consider how we give and what it would look like in our lives to give our first fruits to God. We included a 4-week sermon series that explored the theme, creative representations of the theme in the Gathering Space, and some strawberry jam giveaways to have a little fun with it and remind everyone of the theme.

This giving of our first fruits has not only a spiritual benefit, but helps us keep the church operating each year. Our budget is set based on the pledges we receive during the campaign. The Vestry helped us to establish a goal of $2M in pledges for 2023. This represents an increase of 9% over the 2022 budget and is necessary to fully fund our 2023 budget and offset inflation.

As of late January, we have heard from 403 households for a total pledged amount of $1.75 million. The committee has followed up with those we have yet to hear from and are hopeful that we can.

Committee members included Julia Trizzino (chair), Courtney Barrow, Robin Caldwell, Cathleen Dolt, Peggy Kwoka, E.T. and Sally Manning, Mark Ramsay, Rev. Rebecca Tankersley, and Nancy Torrell, with additional support from Fred Ellis, T.J. McCoy, and Lana Mederos.