Giving at Grace United Methodist Church is more than putting a few dollars into an offering plate on a Sunday morning. Its about a lifetime commitment to seeing the kingdom of God here on earth. We give money to partner with the Lord to see the world transformed as we make disciples of Jesus Christ. I hear many people say the church is just like a business. It needs money and has to deal with staff needs just like everyone else. I would argue the church is more than a business, though. Yes, money matters, and yes we have our challenges regarding buildings and people just like other institutions, but where else can you have the confidence that everything you give goes towards the work that God would have us do?
You can tell us ahead of time how much you plan to give this year with a ‘statement of intention’ card. Read more about what that means here: https://www.gumc.org/stewardship/pledging-and-giving And pick up a ‘statement of intention’ card at church or fill one in online: https://www.gumc.org/giving (click ‘statement of intention’)
When you give, you can be sure that your money is properly categorized and deposited so that it can go toward the ministries you care about. Read more here: https://www.gumc.org/stewardship/pledging-and-giving
If you are curious about what your money goes toward you can read more here: https://www.gumc.org/stewardship/how-giving-helps-the-church
And if you are like me, and you wonder about why we give and the the value of giving, I encourage you to read more about being a ‘cheerful giver.’ It’s not meant as a way to strong arm you into giving when you don’t want to. It’s a process of intentionally spending time with God to discern just what it is that God would have you give in this year. Read about it here: https://www.gumc.org/stewardship/a-cheerful-giver
Finally, I’m excited to share with you about something new we are trying at the church. For years we have wrestled with a few different factors. One is that many people don’t fill in a pledge card/estimate of giving/statement of intention. I would estimate that about 60% of our givers do, and 40% do not. Now, the good news is that many of those people who don’t fill in a card still give to the church. In fact, that group of 40% is a rotating group. Sometimes people give a card, sometimes they don’t! Yet, they continue to faithfully give to the church. Previously, the finance committee would note two different categories of givers to the church - those who submitted a statement of intention and those who did not, but still give faithfully to the church. The committee would try and estimate how much money would come in from these different groups even as people rotated in and out of them. Recently, we decided this wasn’t very helpful and, instead, we would put everyone in one group - contributors. If you give, great! We are blessed by your contributions and we hope you will continue to give consistently. We are going to expect giving from you to remain at about the same level as last year. In fact, we are going to enter into our giving system an estimate that your gift in 2027 will be the same dollar amount as 2026. This will help our finance committee make better plans for the next year.
There are, however, some who may need to change what you intend to give to the church next year. For you, we strongly encourage you to submit a statement of intention card. This informs the church that your giving will change from what it was in 2026. You can submit one at any point in the year, but we will have a moment in worship, November 22nd, to bring those cards to the altar as a sign of our commitment and devotion to God. I hope you will participate! If you experience a financial hardship, or receive a gift of money, and you would like to change your statement of intention, simply fill in a new card and place it in the offering plate on a Sunday morning or use the online link at www.gumc.org/giving to update your information. When you receive your 11 month giving statement in November of 2027 and your end of year statement in January of 2028 those statements should reflect your giving from 2026 or the latest information you provided in a statement of intention card. If you notice that your statement does not reflect what you intend to give, please contact the financial secretary, Hilda Gomez, at finance@gumc.org or by phone at 201-891-4595, ext. 5. You may also receive a request from the finance committee at some point in the year asking for an update on your intention to give. This is to help the church discern how much will be available from the largest portion of financial support the church receives - the contributing members and friends of Grace United Methodist Church. We thank you for your support and look forward to another successful year of stewardship and ministry to our community. God bless!
— Pastor Brian Neville