It’s that time of year again… beautiful fall weather, Carolina blue skies, echoes of school bands playing at football games, and church talk about Stewardship.
Wait! Don’t quit reading!
There is a lot of meaningful information in this pastoral letter, I promise.
Along with most of society and long-standing institutions, we have been reflecting on, and living into, ;“new normal”. Over the last few years, we all have been through a lot and what I have heard repeatedly is an appreciation of how our community of faith has remained vigilant, helped pull us through, and remind us of our deep connection to one another and God’s love and grace.
As we move forward in our collective “new normal”, together we are rediscovering and leaning harder into our mission, vision, and core values as a Congregation. As we head into our fall stewardship campaign, we are shifting our language and understanding of our life together from “attendance to engagement”. Yes, people attend our church services - but more than worship attendance, we are reflecting on how people are engaging with our ministry and mission as a community of faith.
Each week we have hundreds of people engaging with our four worship times of 8:30 AM, online streaming worship, 11:00 AM, and Wednesday night Lutheran Campus Ministry Worship. We have even more people engaging with our weekly emails and social media posts. We also have neighboring community programs, non-profit organizations, and civic groups using our buildings each week, as well as college students gathering in our Campus Ministry Center for fellowship and studying. Even though it’s sometimes hard to see with our eyes, as we look at the numbers, we actually have more people engaging with our community of faith than before the pandemic.
Over the next few weeks, we are going to lift up ways to engage with our Congregation, as well as ways our gifts have an impact and sustain ministry excellence. Leading out of our core values we are asking our members to fully support and fund our goals of; “Engaging Worship”, “Healthy Staff Transitions”, and “Empowered Campus Ministry”.
Over the next few months, we will lift stories of how those connected to Holy Trinity and Lutheran Campus Ministry are engaging with our community of faith. As we hear these stories, we are asking you to reflect and pray over these questions...
How is God calling you to be more engaged with our community of faith?
What financial gifts, and gifts of time, can you grow in giving here at Holy Trinity?
Mark your calendars for Intention Sunday, November 19th.
In the meantime, we encourage you to stay current in your financial giving and to catch up if you are behind in your intention for 2023. This makes a huge difference in our planning for 2024 and how we do ministry together in the coming months. Our hope is to finish the year strong and ahead of budget so that this momentum will carry us into what God has in store for us in 2024.
If you are out of town and primarily worship with us online we ask if you can give a give online to help sustain and support the ministry we do at Holy Trinity and Lutheran Campus Ministry. You can click on this link and it will take you to the giving page...
We are so grateful for the many ways God is working with, in and through us as a community of faith. And we are thankful for you support and partnership in our life and faith together.
Pastor Will and the Stewardship Ministry Team
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