A Commitment to Our Lord Jesus Christ and to The Church of Our Saviour Name__________________________________________________________________ Address ________________________________________________________________ City ___________________________________ State ___________ Zip ____________ Phone __________________ E-mail _________________________________________ In grateful recognition that all our time, treasures and abilities come from God, I/we gladly join with others in the support of Christ’s Church. $ _______________ for our ministries, including worship, pastoral service, education, church care and upkeep, and the world outreach of the church. Weekly _____ Monthly ______ Quarterly ______ Annually ______ Please return the upper portion in the stamped envelope. Prayerfully consider your commitment to Church of Our Saviour Almighty and everlasting God, ruler of all things in heaven and earth, hear our prayers for the parish family of the Church of Our Saviour. Your loving hand has given us all that we possess. Grant us your grace that your Holy Spirit may guide us in showing us how we may honor you with our substance, and remembering the account which we must one day give, may we be faithful stewards of your bounty. And we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Saviour and our Lord. Why should I make a financial commitment to the Church? Usually near the end of the calendar year, most churches have an annual stewardship campaign to collect pledges of financial support from parishioners. The outcome of that effort is to determine what the church can expect as regular income for the year. Pledging gives us a chance to assess our priorities in a planned and thoughtful way. When we think about giving, so often we view it in terms of how much of what we have will we give to someone or something else. But is that the way God expects us to think about giving, when from a Christian perspective, all that we have - our time, talents and treasure - is God's and given to us by Him? As someone once said, it is not about how much of mine I give God, but how much of His I keep for myself. At Church Of Our Saviour stewardship of your financial treasure is between you and God. Over the past few years there has been no annual pledge campaign, no pledge form to fill out and no budget to consider. Certainly the Vestry developed a budget, but the church has essentially lived by faith that the Lord will provide. However this year, because of the need to call a new rector, our staff expenses will increase an estimated $27,000. The Diocesan clergy guidelines require us to pay a minimum base salary of $60,750, plus 18% of the salary ($11,000) for the clergy’s pension and health insurance at an estimated $16,000. This budget increase necessitates that the Vestry determine if the call for a new rector is affordable at our church. The Search Committee also needs to know how to proceed. Therefore, this year we are asking you to prayerfully consider filling out a commitment card to enable us to formulate a realistic budget. As you pray and consider your giving remember that all that you have is from God. You are called to be a good steward of it all, for the good of God’s world. When you ask yourself how much does the Lord want me to devote, perhaps the answer should be, everything but what I need.