Giving
Pathway Points
Stepping Up for Jesus
There’s no “magic amount” that you should be giving, just that you’re following the Holy Spirit’s prompting and helping the church make disciples. On top of maintaining the ongoing ministries here at Grace Church, as United Methodist’s, we are a part of a greater connection of churches who take on huge initiatives that individual churches cannot accomplish alone. Each church takes a special offering six times per year to support some of these projects. You can read about these Special Sundays and other ways your regular offering helps here. Periodically, there are also Conference and District level initiatives, like One-Week-One-Street.
Grace Church also has quite a few projects of our own that
go beyond the weekly needs of doing local church ministry (we’ll talk about
time and talents in another article). Monthly, SOS (Senior Outreach Saturday)
provides a meal to the seniors in our community needing a little assistance,
and the team could always use a donation to purchase food and door prizes. The
same is true of our quarterly Food of Faith participation where we feed the
homeless in Bay City. If you’re more interested in helping the other end of the
age spectrum, you could donate to the Rev. Gary Damon scholarship fund or watch
for our special family gatherings and donate money to purchase prizes and food.
If the Spirit isn’t prompting you to support a particular project, perhaps you
could be supporting the Pastor’s Discretionary Fund. This is the money that
Pastor Eric has on hand to confidentially help members of Grace and members of
the community at large when they’re in a bit of a financial crunch. For more
ideas, check with Pastors Eric or Jeff, Monica, or one of the members of the
Church Council.
As you take this Next Step, remember that everything we
have, from the breath we breathe to the car we drive, is a gift from God.
Worship is one of the ways we respond to our loving Provider. Returning a
portion of those gifts, in the form of money offered, to help the church make
disciples is another.
Stepping up with you in His strength!
Monica Lebsack
Creative Ministries Director