" ... and you will be my witnesses"
Acts 1:8
April 21, 2024
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Dear fellow witnesses,
God calls all of us to be intentional about our giving. Giving is a spiritual act, an act of worship, and an act of faith as we strive to be good stewards of the gifts God has given us.
Each year as our committees, teams, volunteers, and staff draft a budget for Eastern’s ministries and programs, they ground their plans in our vision statement:
God is making all things new; therefore we are
moving with the Spirit in the messy and holy work of
renewing worship,
nurturing faith,
doing justice,
caring for creation, and
building community,
with our neighbors.
We draft our budget in hope and faith. We depend on our community at Eastern to recognize that God owns everything, every square inch of this world, and we are only stewards of God’s creation, witnesses for God’s generous bounty. We know that God’s work must be supported by God’s people for us to answer Jesus’ call to us to be his witnesses.
pledge
witness through worship
After prayerfully considering what God is calling you to give financially to Eastern for our fiscal year July 1, 2024-June 30, 2025, we ask you to pledge your support for Eastern's ministries and programs as you are able through this online pledge form or by using a paper form which you can request from the church office.
As you make your pledge, know that God asks of us equal commitment; God doesn’t demand of us equal contribution. Above all, God delights when we give with a willing and joyful heart.
witness through faith
On the pledge form, you can specify how you’d like your pledge shared between our General Fund, our Building Renovation and Expansion Fund, and our Christian Education Fund. We’re suggesting that we could better meet our ministry and program needs if
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80% of your pledge is for the General Fund
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10% of your pledge is for the Building Renovation and Expansion Fund
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10% of your pledge is for the Christian Education Fund
witness through justice
Our General Fund supports the majority of Eastern’s programs and ministries, everything from our worship services to youth programs to tutoring to the food program to lawn mowing to choirs and musical groups to simply keeping the building warm and the lights on. Thanks to your generous and faithful giving and the help of our new Community Connections Fund, we expect we can comfortably grow our General Fund expenses by 33.4% in our draft budget to fully fund Eastern’s programs and ministries at $1,030,420. We can do this comfortably because we’re growing our congregation and we’re giving more generously as individuals. Our draft General Fund budget details our hopes and dreams for the coming year.
witness through making
all things new
Our Building Renovation and Expansion Fund was used to pay down our mortgage for the building addition for more than 20 years. Now that we’ve paid off our loan, we’ve set a giving goal for this fund of $75,000 for our next year. This will go towards repaving our parking lot and replacing our roof over the next 2-4 years.
Our Christian Education Fund supports Christian day school education for our children. Our goal for that fund in the next year is $130,000.
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(Learn more about Eastern's different funds here.)
The Spirit-led messy and holy work at Eastern Avenue CRC is getting real. Thank you for all you do to make our ministries and programs a little less messy and a whole lot more holy.
Serving together with you,
David Bolt, President of Elders
Matt Boes, President of Deacons
Dave Bardolph, Treasurer
Lindsay Small, Lead Pastor
Marla Ehlers, Director of Operations
Serving together in spirit-led
messy and holy work
