I wanted to take this moment to express my gratitude to you for submitting your 2024 pledge and supporting our efforts to plan for the coming year. We will be busy in the coming weeks preparing a budget that will most effectively use our available funding to reflect the church we want to be. This comes in the form of planning our youth and music programs, in addition to planning our outreach and fellowship goals that aligning with the vision you have helped us define. In the last 12 months, we have made great progress through open discussion in closing the gap between understanding what we all want to be as a church and what it takes to become that church, and to sustain that in a real, meaningful way.
As we close out the year, I am happy to report that it looks like our giving will slightly exceed our 2023 pledge and the actual deficit is somewhat less than the planned deficit at the beginning of the budget year. So, thanks again for your generosity and for stepping up to give with your hearts to support the mission of St. Andrew’s. With that added boost, we have been able to spend more time together in fellowship, give more in outreach and provide more programs for our children to grow in Christ’s love. As we discussed at the Family Meeting, however, we will still close the year with a deficit which we can all recognize as unsustainable, so in this season of giving I urge you to think about submitting a year-end gift to help us Close the Deficit and start the new year with a clean ledger without the burden of “borrowing” from our savings so we can all be responsible stewards of this church and ensure it will be healthy for our children and our children’s children. In the analogy given at last year’s Family Meeting, it’s the bottom of the 9th and you’re up to bat; if we all help the team with one more small contribution, we can end the year ahead!
I look forward to celebrating Christmas with all of you at the various services planned during this season. I look forward to hearing the beautiful music that tell the story of the birth of Jesus and that reminds us of the new beginnings we all share at this time of year.
Merry Christmas and God Bless,
Jeff Herrera