The following statement was read by Sending to Serve members in worship on September 21st, 2022.

Good morning St. Paul’s friends,

We are taking a moment this morning to celebrate the amazing work that you have done as God’s generous vessels through our quarterly offerings during this past year.

As you may recall, a little over a year ago, Sending to Serve decided, based on feedback from many of you, to change how we do special offerings. We heard your concerns that there were too many special offerings, that they felt diluted and sometimes overwhelming. Some of you even said you were worn out from special offerings.

So, Sending to Serve got to thinking. How could we bring the joy of giving back into our special offerings? How could we focus, renew our enthusiasm and perhaps have an even bigger impact with a few things?

We decided three things were important:

1. One, we should take special offerings in church just four times per year. We could offer other opportunities on our website or through the Outlook, but when we bring something to you during worship we want it to truly feel special.
2. Two, if offerings are going to have an impact, we need to focus on issues you all have shown you care about through your actions. As often as possible, we want to have our offerings be for places where you’ve put your faith in action through hands-on support. After a lot of conversation, we decided special offerings will focus on food, housing, immigration and education. We feel like these are all issues St. Paul’s will get behind.
3. Third, we want to challenge the congregation to set audacious goals and then let you know right away how we’re doing.

So, how have we done? You all have been amazing! You have reached or exceeded every single goal Sending to Serve has put in front of you. I want you to listen closely as I share some of the impact numbers. During our 2021-2022 quarterly offerings, you:

• Gave $10,700 to Education through backpacks, personal dignity kits and ELC scholarships. You helped lots of kids.
• At Christmas, you raised $26,500 to support the homeless and those living in substandard housing. Some of those funds were used to help fix a young woman’s house just a couple of blocks from St. Paul’s.
• At Easter, you raised more than $18,000 to support immigrants through United We March Forward, the Migrant Movement for Justice and our African Nationals ministry.
• And finally, this summer, through the food offering, you donated nearly 1,000 pounds of food and over $5,500 to feed the hungry.

Over the last year, you all have raised more than $60,000 to support the most vulnerable in our community. You have truly been God’s hands and feet and shown the grace of Christ to others. You are a generous people. Take a moment to give thanks to God and one another for this faithful work. Amen.