GIVING FOR MISSION
Rooted in Love
An Invitation to Financially Participate in God’s Mission at St. Mark’s in 2024
As we sink our roots deeper into this Beloved Community, we join together each year to fund God’s mission at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. Over one hundred individuals and families pledge their financial resources as we plan for a 2024 budget of over $360,000. Last year, we increased our financial capacity to an astounding degree, and with lots of new faces in the church this year, I believe we can match this total again so that we can fully fund God’s mission at St. Mark’s. This year, in recogntion of the large bubble of children who are rapidly aging at our parish, we added the position of minister for children and youth, and we hope to be able to fully fund it in the budget next year.
Thank you so much for rooting yourselves into this community, helping the branches of God’s love to spread far and wide. Thank you also for considering your financial pledge to God’s mission at St. Mark’s. Below, you will be able to download a pledge card with several options for discerning your pledge for 2024. Please mail the card to the church at 15 Pearl Street, Mystic, CT 06355 by the end of October. Please take the pledge card with you in your prayer to God and make your pledge a joyful and faithful offering back to God.
We invite you to join us in financially supporting God’s mission at St. Mark’s, where Christ dwells in our hearts as we remain rooted in the love of God.
GIVING AS SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE
We give back to God out of the myriad gifts God has showered upon us for two reasons. First, by giving back we stay in right relationship with God. We worship the giver instead of the gift. We live full lives enriched by multitudes of blessings instead of tiny lives in service to lifeless idols. And second, giving back offers us the opportunity to partner with God and use our unique constellations of gifts to turn the raw material of blessing into new and abundant life for all.
OUR GIFTEDNESS
Our God-given gifts come in many forms: talents we’ve honed over the years, time we dedicate to service, and financial resources, to name three. At St. Mark’s, we walk in love in worship and song, in teaching and learning, in fellowship and in friendship, in going out into the world in peace to see, name, and celebrate God’s presence. Our participation in God’s mission involves countless hours by myriad volunteers: Sunday worship leaders, children and youth ministries guides, altar preparers, flower arrangers, Eucharistic visitors, event organizers, knitters, singers, painters, carpenters, vestry members, and mission workers, to name a few.
THE STORY WE TELL
The money we spend each year to support God’s mission at St. Mark’s flows nearly all from the generous financial pledges of over 100 individuals and households. Each autumn, members of the parish join together in pledging their financial resources to God’s mission for the next calendar year. Knowing these numbers helps us generate the next year’s budget. Once completed, this budget helps narrate the story we are able to tell as one chapter of God’s people serving God’s mission.