Where do we go from here?

Rev. Stephen McHale’s Faith Full Giving Letter

Dear Good People of Christ Church,

Have you seen all the new faces at Christ Church on Sundays, volunteering at the homeless shelter, roasting marshmallows on our camping trip, and mingling at coffee hour? These days we draw new people looking for three things: community in an isolated world; sharing our traditions with children; and serving our less fortunate neighbors. With the Holy Spirit providing a tailwind, the question is, Where do we go from here? 

Every October Christ Church’s leadership has a Faith Full Giving campaign to help fund the church during the following year. This year our theme is Where do we go from here? Everyone at the church is invited to small dinners to answer that question and talk about how we can support Christ Church. On Sundays we’ll hear three members answer the question: Christina James on social justice, Kate Fayngersh on children’s ministry, and Sarah Passard on community life. 

Wait, didn’t we just raise a bunch of money for showers and laundry? Yes, thanks be to God, but the church won’t keep any of it. We spend every penny we raise for the shelter, showers, laundry, Thanksgiving, etc. on direct costs. It’s relatively easy to raise money for Social Justice, because people like contributing to tangible causes. But our Social Justice Ministry puts pressure on the mundane operations budget which we use to support the people who support Social Justice and everything else that we do as a church.

Our Where do we go from here? campaign funds the operations budget, which includes salaries, benefits, utilities, insurance, maintenance, paper for leaflets, our streaming service, the photocopier, bread for communion, candles for prayers, paint for our buildings, supplies for the Sunday school, etc. The operations budget is under pressure from three directions: 1) Rising costs of living, insurance, utilities, salaries, etc. 2) More newcomers to support. 3) The death of some older, long-term members who give at a relatively high rate. These forces put pressure on discretionary spending for things like coffee hour, retreats, and redoing our kids’ area. As we grow in vitality, we need to increase the operations budget to keep up. Our answer to the question, Where do we go from here? directly impacts our operations budget. 

We want to know how you answer the question, Where do we go from here? And we challenge you to consider how you can support that journey financially in 2026. If you want to make a gift to Christ Church today you can use the enclosed pledge card, which you can drop it in the collection basket or mail to the church. You can also make a gift via the Website or the QR code. On the back of that card there’s room to share your answer to the question Where do we go from here?

I look forward to working together with you over the next year to share more of God’s love as we ask ourselves Where do we go from here?

-Stephen