Your Pledge to Hope

Over the past few months, the Cabinet has been busy preparing the draft 2010 budget for Hope Church.  As part of the church’s annual stewardship campaign, a brief presentation on the proposed budget was made on November 22, 2009, with printed copies distributed following the worship service.If you would like to receive an electronic version of the budget, please send an email request to the church treasurer, Ms. Pat Straw at treasurer@hopeucc.org.

The proposed 2010 budget is ambitious, maintaining or increasing funding for current programs of the church. Additionally, the proposed budget increases funding to the United Church of Christ through Our Church’s Wider Mission offering and membership fees to the Potomac Association. The draft budget prepared by the Cabinet calls the congregation to be mindful stewards of our human and physical resources. Voting to approve the annual budget for Hope Church will occur at the Congregational Meeting on January 31, 2010.

The coming year at Hope is going to be wonderful! God is doing good things in our life together of prayer, friendship, worship, and service. Thanks to all who have already turned in their 2010 pledge toward Hope’s vision of ministry.

We celebrate that and look forward to hearing from others.  Prayerfully consider our splendid future and your giving.  Please return a pledge card by Sunday, January 3.

It only takes a minute but means so much…

Pledge Cards are available online and may be mailed or submitted online. For any questions, please contact Rob Krupicka, chair of Stewardship Ministry Team, by email or phone 703-838-0280, or Harry Shepler, president at 703-329-9249.

Some Things to Consider When Making Your Pledge

Tithing — “Grow One”

Faced with raising kids, mortgage payments, car payments and a never ending list of bills each month — how do we respond to God’s call to deepen our financial commitment to him?

Considering that a “tithe” is 10% of our gross income, how do we make that kind of a significant financial contribution to the church? Especially when it seems there’s nothing left over at the end of the month?

For many of us that do not have a lifelong discipline of tithing — and this is the case for most of us — tithing may seem like an unrealistic, really unreachable goal. Fortunately, what many of us have discovered is that growing toward a tithing relationship with God is much easier we approach it like any of life’s great challenges — in small steps.

Let’s take a look at the concept of “Grow One.”

Here is the very simple “Grow One” chart that we use as a tool to help us move toward a tithing relationship with God. Look at Fig. 1, below and then scroll down to the example.

Fig. 1

First of all, let’s determine our current level of percentage giving based on our current income. After all, tithing is percentage giving. As shown in the example, Fig. 2 below, if one has a household income of $50,000 per year and gives the church $20 dollars per week, then one’s household would be giving just under 2%.

Fig. 2

In the next example, Fig. 3, we see that if one’s household contributed $96 dollars per week, then that would be a tithe, and anything beyond that would be giving “beyond a tithe.”

Fig. 3

For most of us, when we see where we are on the chart, it is very revealing and very challenging. Until we see it on the chart, most of us think we are giving more than we actually are!

Further, we can see that, for the most part, moving up one level of percentage giving can be a rather minor adjustment in our weekly or monthly budgeting.

For many of us moving up two, three or even five percentage points may be less than two tickets to a movie and a light meal afterwards.

And if all of us answered this call to increase our percentage giving, it would make a tremendous difference for God’s ministry here at Hope Church and help accomplish our primary goal of bringing people into a closer relationship with Christ.

The important thing is not to play with the numbers, but to listen to what God is calling us to do.

We all need to prayerfully consider our current level of giving. You may be surprised to learn just how easy it will be to “Grow One” percentage point — and possibly more!

The future of Hope Church depends on our being faithful to God’s call to give joyfully, sacrificially, and maybe even hysterically!

A few words from the Finance & Stewardship Ministry Team

The guidelines above have only partially to do with our church’s need to raise money; they’re also about our own need, as members of the Hope Church family, to make giving a way of keeping our lives focused on God and of doing in this world what God calls us to do.

The pledges and commitments we each make will combine to ensure that God’s vision for Hope Church will be fulfilled. At the same time, they will bless us immeasurably — for we can never out-give God, nor can we find any greater satisfaction than that which comes from knowing that we are helping to accomplish God’s will. Thank you for your time, your attention, and your generosity.