Why set a giving goal? 

Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21). Setting a giving goal and making a pledge is first and foremost a spiritual discipline in which we intentionally and prayerfully consider how to use our financial resources. Setting a goal makes it easier to follow the Biblical instruction to give “of our first fruits” rather than from what is left over. A goal helps us track our progress during the year. Finally, a goal can help us determine how much to give. Many people find that considering a percentage of their annual income is helpful in determining how much to give. The Bible speaks of a tithe (10%) as a worthy goal.

Second, setting a giving goal and making a pledge helps church leaders to more accurately project our income – which makes it easier to manage our annual budget.

What is the General Fund?

It takes nearly $4.9 million to support our core ministries through the annual General Fund budget. Worship, missions, youth ministries, children’s ministries, fellowship, adult education, communications, salaries and benefits, utilities, building maintenance, administration, information technology…. Nearly every activity and ministry is supported directly or indirectly by the General Fund – including all of those described in this issue of the Stewardship magazine.

This chart is a “Narrative Budget” (sometimes called a “Missional Budget”) depiction of our 2020 budget. A Narrative Budget reallocates the traditional line item budget information into categories that depict what we actually do to fulfill our mission. For example, rather than place all salaries into one nondescript “Personnel” line item, this Narrative Budget classifies salaries by what people do. In this pie chart, all salaries have been folded into categories of worship, formation, mission, operations, etc. Certain operating expenses (like utilities) have been allocated in a similar way.

Because member contributions provide 85% of this budget, your General Fund contribution is the single-most effective way to support the whole ministry of our church.