Stewardship and Giving

Rick Panning

The Ministry Board
WHAT WE NEED IS HERE.

10/8/23

Later this morning, you will hear the choir sing Nick Mrozek’s arrangement of “What we need is here” based on Wendell Berry’s poem “Wild Geese”. Our stewardship committee is using this poem and the phrase “What we need is here” as the theme for this year’s stewardship campaign.

This poem reminds us to tap into our own resources, whether they be time, talent or financial. In past years we have talked about why we give. While that is still vitally important, this year, starting today, we will talk about the importance of your pledged gifts which enable the important work of St. Paul’s United Church of Christ. As moderator, I will provide a brief overall picture of how our financial resources are utilized and in coming weeks, representatives from our various ministries will do so in more detail. We all have gifts to contribute to the common good. The more often we turn outward for help, the more likely we are to forget what’s close at hand, within us. The roots of community are found within each of us, individually and collectively – resulting in an amazing abundance of self.

The largest single share of our financial resources, 45%, comes from your stewardship. Other sources are from space rental, interest income and our endowments. Today we will focus on stewardship.

So, where does your valuable support go?

• Spiritual life / music – This supports our amazing ministers – Sarah and Eli’jah, and our talented music staff – Judith, Geoff, Kristin, Nick, Azure and Trevor. This is the spirit and soul of St. Paul’s.

• Faith formation – for adults, youth, children, - programs such Sunday school, Milestones, OWL, Journey of Faith and more.

• Social justice and outreach – where do we stand and how do we contribute in the broader community and the United Church of Christ? This is an area for which our church is recognized and for which I have observed so much growth. We are Open and Affirming and stand for those who need us most and for the causes that matter most. This ministry Includes

  • Earthwise/Creation Justice

  • Our contributions and support of OCWM, The Minnesota Conference, Habitat for Humanity, Interfaith Action, Land Acknowledgement, our UCC seminaries

• Belonging and Community – We demonstrate Extravagant Welcome. How do we take care of each other and how do we welcome visitors and those looking for a faith home?

• Building & Grounds, and administration – this is the least “sexy” part of being a church (not sure if I can say that) but is literally foundational. Our building provides a home for valuable programs and activities in our community – among others, the Childhood Center, various AA groups, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. We must take care of our home on Summit Avenue.

I have been a member of this congregation for 39 years, having joined after marrying my wife, Liz, who was baptized at St. Paul’s. I have seen many changes and was here during difficult and challenging times when we really didn’t have “what is here”. Through the good and bad times of the church, this congregation and its members were always there for me and my family, especially when my wife became ill and died from ALS. I have always seen that we have cared for each other, and just as important how we stand for what is right and just in the surrounding community and the broader world.

Scarcity need not be the law of life — not if we know how to tap into the endless resources of self and community. We already have what we need to stand firm in faith, hope, and love. The lesson is to stand by each other in difficult times. Show up, share vulnerability, take the lead, and care for ourselves and each other. Your financial support is essential for our continued growth and the support of what we stand for. Thank you.

Lucas Cervi

Spiritual Life Committee
THE SPIRIT IS HERE.

10/15/23

You can hear me right now because of stewardship. If you have difficulty hearing and can still hear me it’s because of stewardship. If you are at home right now and can both see and hear me it’s because of stewardship.

What I want to talk about today are all the ways that this church invests in the technology that makes our ministry more accessible. I am on my second stint on the Ministry of Spiritual Life committee, where I get to use my talents in Audio and Visual technologies to make everything we do here at St. Paul’s United Church Christ more accessible to everyone. The last several years have presented unique challenges. None greater than a global pandemic that charged us with a need to deliver services to our homes, since we couldn’t be here in person. Like many churches, we had to quickly figure out how to embrace live streaming technology and put together a solution to continue serving the church community through worship. At its height we were streaming to between 50 to 80 households, and we continue to stream every Sunday to around 10 to 15 households, serving those that for whatever reason can’t be here, and reaching new people who can hear our message of open and affirming welcome before attending in person. As someone with social anxiety and an LGBTQ+ family, I wish this option was available when we were on a search for a church home several years ago. Although I know we would have ended up here, anyway. We even have a regular viewer in North Carolina - Hi Pat, sorry about the Panthers this year!

Monetary gifts also made it possible for us to hire Marcus Strong, who runs the live stream once a month so that I can take a break once in a while.

When our aging soundboard started failing, we were able to replace it with a modern system that allows wireless control from an iPad creating a flexible solution that can be used anywhere in the sanctuary. That means John can sit with his family if he wants and Marcus I can operate both the sound and video if he’s not here.

Perhaps just as old as our previous soundboard, was our assistive listening system. After receiving some complaints about the cobbled together receiver packs and snipped earbuds we had been limping along with, as well as occasionally running out of available setups, we decided to invest in a more modern system, one that functions better in this noisy wireless world. It features much better reception, a dedicated feed from the soundboard, and has 12 receiver packs so we know everyone who needs one can have one.

Accessibility is important to our mission - it folds directly into our Social Justice ideals - and I am proud to be part of the team that is responsible for enabling that accessibility through technology. We want to be an inclusive and inviting place for everyone.

But technology can be expensive, and none of it would be possible without stewardship.

Lori Peiffer

Faith Formation Committee
DEPTH IS HERE.

10/15/23

I joined St. Paul’s about 15 years ago, shortly after the church had faced the possibility of closing for good and had instead made the courageous decision to attempt a revitalization. I joined because the community was just as warm and authentic then as it is now. But at that time, having what we ultimately needed here was not a forgone conclusion.

My family was the first one to join after the decision to revitalize, and kids were scarce back then. At times one or two children made up the entire Sunday school for the week, and sometimes I wondered whether joining had been the right decision. In some ways, staying felt like an act of faith. I was concerned about whether my kids would find what they needed here, and in some ways, staying felt like an act of faith.

But this community made a commitment to grow programming for children, and it showered resources on the children who were here. And, in fits and starts, their numbers grew.

Today, I don’t need to lean into faith to know that what we need is here. I can look around and see it, notably in our Faith Formation ministries for Children, Youth, Families and Adults, with the icing on the Faith Formation cake being our Church Camp Weekend. This morning I’ve chosen three facets of Faith Formation programming as illustrations of the richness that is here.

As many of you know, our Sunday school centers around sacred stories. The stories are told using engaging and simple objects. Following the story, the children are invited to wonder about what they have heard, considering what part of the story they felt was most important, and where they saw themselves in the story. This space to consider the impact of the story on them is as important as the story itself.

But before the listening and the wondering, we practice what we call “getting ready.” If you’ve ever found yourself distracted while listening to a sermon, you know that it’s not possible to take in a message if you’ve drifted away and found yourself musing about how the Vikings might do in the game later that day or whether you’d have time to get those hoses drained before the first hard freeze. For growth to happen, we have to sustain attention. This can be a challenging thing whether we are 3 or 53.

The Wendell Berry poem, “What We Need Is Here” that is the theme for our stewardship campaign this year, ends by saying that what we pray for is to be “quiet in heart, and in eye, clear.” When we are quiet in heart and clear in eye, we are able to receive and consider, whether we’re considering the message in a sermon, the theme of a sacred story, or where we are called to show up in the world. Supporting our children in starting to learn the life-long practice of finding quiet and clarity in heart and mind, of getting ready, is central to our children’s ministry.

So each week’s Sunday school starts with a ritual for getting ready. We invite the children as well as the adults in the room to expand their lungs like balloons with slow exhalations. After three deep breaths they are invited to notice if their minds and bodies feel quiet, if they are ready to listen to the story. Our hope is that this supports them in learning a practice of getting ready they can use throughout their lives.

My next example is from our youth programming. Shortly after Eli’jah came on board at St. Paul’s, the opportunity arose to get the youth involved in a project building a tiny home for someone who was un-housed as a part of the Settled program. Participation would require raising $8000, and since Eli’jah wasn’t even clear yet how many youth would be involved, this was an extravagant goal. But he jumped in, rallied the youth, coordinated with other churches, and, supported by the congregation, the youth helped build a tiny home. This reminded me of the way the church invested in the few children who were here 15 years ago – it said ‘”yes” in a situation where it could have said “well, maybe in a few years when our youth program is larger and more established.” I know I still remember my involvement in youth group service projects, and I imagine the youth who worked on the tiny home project will hold that experience close for many years.

Finally, I will share some scenes from Church Camp Weekend. I say that Church Camp Weekend is the icing on the cake of Faith Formation programming both because it weaves the programming all together and because frosting is the funnest part of a cake.

Church camp makes space for people to connect: people who range in age from very early childhood to mid-70s; people who are long-time members and members who are brand new. Camp also includes people who aren’t members, giving them an opportunity enjoy a connection with our congregation at camp. Generous support from the Reinke-Salstrom fund has allowed children to attend for very little cost.

Some of the best parts of camp happen in informal connections with others: at camp I saw children having a blast dunking Eli’jah at the waterfront, adult members taking children on their first ever canoe ride and others helping youth learn how to stand up on a paddle board. I saw a swarm of kids working hard to push a beach ball taller than I am all around camp, and adults gathered, some of them laughing until they cried while they played a large group game of Telestrations.

Campers of all ages also found opportunities for exploring and deepening their faith in small groups, and the weekend ends in a contemplative Taize service.

These are just several examples of the Faith Formation opprtunities at St. Paul’s. I’m grateful to all who have invested their time and talents to bring us to this point, and I invite us to sustain and grow this programming. IN doing so we will continue to have the opportunity to deepen in our ability to be “quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. What we need is here.”

Becky Lindquist & Jonah Grussing

Youth Ministry Committee
HOPE IS HERE.

10/29/23

• Wess Stafford, Founder of Compassion International, a Christian humanitarian aid foundation, once stated, “Every child you encounter is a divine appointment.” I must say, I agree with this quote. And at the risk of sounds like Whitney Houston, I believe the children are our future, without them, what do we have next?

• For the past 5 years, it’s been an honor for me to be able to walk alongside of the youth at St. Paul’s UCC; Watching them grow, learn and fight for change. Last year our youth group spent several months planning for and building a tiny home; learning about homelessness, hard work, and the true meaning of Jesus’ words regarding loving our neighbors.

• These wonderful kids have spent hours fundraising and building a tiny home for a person in need. They’ve participated in the crop walk, created essential bags for homeless persons, and come up with innovative ideas on how to create something beautiful out of used guns, just to name a few; all while having fun creating an essential loving, inclusive, and accepting community with one another.

Ben Jaques-Leslie

Social Justice and Outreach Committee
JUSTICE IS HERE.

11/5/23

Hello everyone. I'm Ben Jaques-Leslie. I'm a member of the Ministry of Social Justice and Outreach. I'd like to share some about how your giving to the church supports the work of this ministry and why I think that's important.

For me, activism and working toward social justice came before church. The home I grew up in was full of academic books about religion, but anti-church-going. In high school, I started to be interested in social issues. I joined clubs, attended rallies, protested. And while it sometimes takes time to explain, my career choices have been motivated by the desire to pursue equity and increase freedom.

What is most exciting to me about our work in the Ministry of Social Justice and Outreach is the understanding that social justice is not a single issue, but part of all that we do. Marginalization and oppression are not simple problems to be solved, because they are integrated into our society and psychology. That sounds pretty overwhelming, but I like to think of it this way. If oppressions is so knitted into our world, then we have many opportunities to struggle against it. In our language, in how we spend money, in how we vote, we have so many ways to pursue justice.

And in the Ministry of Social Justice and Outreach, we are trying to connect through out the church to pursue justice in many different ways, leveraging capacities and interests of other ministries and members. Next year we plan to spend 13% of pledged giving on supporting community partners. These partners include Interfaith Action (which is also the Dept. of Indian Work, Project Home, and Opportunity Partners like a free legal clinic). Also partners including Habitat for Humanity, reparations work through Indian Land Tenure, Minnesota Interfaith power and light for environmental justice, and the wider work of Our Church’s Wider Mission, which supports the UCC and their work on LGBTQ issues, Racial Justice, and Disaster Assistance.

The work of our Ministry is broad, internal and outreaching, much like the challenges we see improving equity and fighting for social justice. Thank you for your giving.

Dani Readinger

Belonging and Community Committee
BELONGING IS HERE.

11/12/23

TBD.

Ryan Readinger

Stewardship Committee
WHAT WE NEED IS HERE.

11/19/23

TBD.