Save The Stamp: Complete Your Intent (Pledge) Online!

We are in an amazing growth stage here at St. Stephen’s! Our goals for 2022 were achieved and we are poised for our next steps to fulfill our Ministry Result Area. Thanks to your generosity, our connections were truly inspired in 2022 and have stimulated more ideas for outreach and sharing God’s love. In 2022 we were able to:

• Zero in on our Ministry Plan for St. Stephen’s to begin short and long-term planning for improvements to our worship and fellowship space.
• Inspire community connections in giving and outreach through support and transformation of local teenagers through Young Life, creating the Journey of Generosity Gift Match and the great St. Stephen’s “Giveaway” events to name a sample.
• Continued attention on ministry results areas, including increasing our small group ministries, growing participation in our Wednesday night programming for all ages, establishing Faithful Connections, a volunteer calling ministry, and developing a modern website platform to include storytelling initiatives and a new online giving platform.

St. Stephen’s is actively Growing Connections and is now poised to increase Connections In Action!
Our hearts are filled with desire to do more for each other, our community, and our world.

“Doing God’s work is always in season!”
Vicki Jackson, Missions Committee Chair

With an additional $20,000 in intentional giving, it would allow us to respond to the new levels of ministry God is calling us to.
 

ENGAGEMENT IN ACTION

This will involve additional time, effort, and expense as options are explored and vetted. It also needs to be supported on an ongoing basis over the next several years in order to be effective.

BEYOND OUR CONGREGATION: Team with Augsburg University Riverside Innovation Hub, a cohort program designed to assist churches like ours with structuring and designing our connection strategies and growth.

WITHIN OUR CONGREGATION: Intentionally connect us with each other furthering our mission and engagement goals.

STORYTELLING IN ACTION

There is much excitement around the power of storytelling. After learning more about developing, implementing, and utilizing a storytelling plan, we are ready to explore the following ideas to build and deepen our relationships with God:

• Introduce a modern, easily updated website with enhanced storytelling and communication capabilities, including the Vanco Giving platform and enhanced access to videos, stories, and images.
• Create a database of our members/congregants’ time, talents, interests, and abilities.

STEWARDSHIP IN ACTION

A key component of our vision plan focuses on increasing our connections with the community around us. Over the next year we will be exploring additional service, mission, and outreach opportunities to include:

• Increase outreach opportunities and understand the needs of our community by participating in service projects, offering our space for outreach opportunities, and sponsoring field trips to engage and enrich our relationships with others and with God.
• Create mission trips for both adults and youth in order to demonstrate God’s love and compassion for others through service and generosity in His name.

We can achieve these goals and more by increasing intentional giving by $20,000 in 2023! We have a tangible action plan, we have amazing volunteers, and we are ready to continue on this amazing path that God is leading us on, forging more connections into bonds of love and faith. Thanks to you, St. Stephen’s is thriving and growing in our tradition of ministry excellence!

With your joyful, generous participation, we will reach our goal of $20,000 in new intentions in 2023! These charts demonstrate our giving history and how, together, we can reach our goal. Study the charts - where are you now and the current giving chart? Ask yourself these questions:

• How does my giving level compare with other ways I use my money?
• How adequately does my offering reflect my gratitude to God for all the blessings I receive?
• Where would I be on the chart if I doubled my giving? Can I consider doing that?
• How much more could I give if I really wanted to?

Please pray about your giving plans and what your intentions are 2023. Pray for our congregation’s missions and ministry goals, and pray for guidance in your response to the letter from the Stewardship team asking you to turn in an intention for the coming year.
Be ready to complete your Statement of Intent for Intention Sunday, November 20, 2022. Intentions can be completed online, in service or by mail to the church office.
We are excited about our vision for Connections in Action where we continue to build on our goals of bringing God’s love and justice to the world, to our community, and to each other! God is working through each of us, inspiring us with bravery to be generous in our actions as we help build a more unified world. We’ve got this - thanks to God and thanks to you!

If you need some giving envelopes, contact the church office and we can get some out to you pronto so you can mail in your offering.   If you’re ready to explore electronic giving, here are a few options we offer: 

*   Try “Text to Give” by texting to phone#8449072702 and in the message field, add your offering amount. Have a credit card ready for your inspired contribution. 

*   Download the GIVE PLUS+ mobile app to create an account, sign into your Vanco account or simply choose “Give Now”.

*   With GIVEPLUS+ you can give whenever you are inspired to support a mission or need, or you can set up a recurring donation to the general offering. 

*   Don’t have a Vanco account yet? Visit https://www.ststephenswsp.org/ and select the GIVE ONLINE option at the top to get started.

*   Volunteer with us!  Share your gifts and talents in thanks to God!  St. Stephen’s thrives because of our amazing volunteers and the many shared talents we enjoy. 

If you wish to participate in our ministry and help out with some of our goals and missions, we’d love to hear from you! Contact the church and get connected today!

Your support of and participation at St Stephen’s is valued, appreciated and necessary to keep God’s love and message of hope alive.   Thanks for all you do! What a blessing you are to God’s amazing world.

 Stewardship Ministry Resources

Click on Links below: