Texts and Readings

The following texts (from the Revised Common Lectionary) are the basis for Sunday worship in the coming weeks. I encourage you to read these passages before each Sunday service.

As we continue to restructure our process of Missions Giving, the committee wants to keep everyone up to date on the process. To that end, and on behalf of the committee, I am using the Pastor's page this month to explain what we have worked out so far in order to keep up with our church's longstanding commitment to Missions.

This past month the Mission Committee met to discuss and form a plan for how we will meet our Missions Giving Goals under our new Budgeting Structure. As a reminder, in January of this year we made changes in our budget in order to meet the growing financial needs of the church as we move into the future. We first want to briefly go back over the basics of this change.

The basic change was that we no longer include in our overall operating budget any Missions Giving dollars. All our regular offerings now go to support what we are calling our Home Church Mission. The Home Church Mission includes expenses such as maintenance, insurance, utilities, salaries, office supplies, etc. Such expenses cover all the things that provide for the daily operation of the Church. It no longer includes any giving towards other Missions. This was necessary to allow the church to keep pace with increasing expenses. The cost of operating rises just as the cost of living does and we have been falling behind. The result for Missions is that, starting this year, we will be supporting outreaches to our other Mission work through giving over and above our regular offering.

There were two ways we have given to missions in the past:

1. Budgeted Giving to Designated and Undesignated Missions;
2. Special Denominational Offerings.

Our changes in Budgeting affect only the first type of giving (Budgeted Giving to Designated and Undesignated Missions), so we will look at that first. Some numbers may help explain the past better.

The table below shows our Total Church Budget for and our total Missions Giving for 2001-2004. Please note that the figures for Missions Giving are part of the Total Church Budget for each year shown.

Taking 2004 as an example, our total budget that year for was $72,436.00. From that we sent $3,977.00 to missions such as ABC United Misions Fund, Camp Vick, NABA, Upstate Home, and others. The largest portion of this giving from the budget went to the American Baptist Churches -USA United Missions Fund. That fund is like an umbrella fund that is undesignated-- that is to say, United Missions distributes those offerings to many denominational ministries based the on current needs of those ministries. At present, 65% of all undesignated United Missions giving is directed back to Regional ABC Ministries (like the ABC of New York State). In 2004 our giving to United Missions was $2,592.00, which was more than half our total missions giving. The rest of the Missions contributions we made were Designated Gifts to specific organizations such as Community Missions in Niagara Falls, Camp Vick, Seminaries, Upstate Home, and others.

For each of us this means simply that, in terms of missions giving, if you gave an offering of $30.00 on any given Sunday during 2004, 5.5% of that $30.00 ($1.65) went towards missions. The remaining $28.35 went towards the operating costs for our Home Church Mission.

Beginning this year, ALL of your example regular offering of 30.00 on any given Sunday goes towards the operating costs for the Home Church Mission. NONE of it goes towards other Missions. Since we are a Church that has always been committed to missions, we need to address this commitment

within the context of our current financial and

Institutional goals as a body of believers in Jesus Christ.

Since it is important to maintain our Missions Giving the Missions Committee is proposing to address it in the following ways.

First, there are the four Special Denominational Offerings we participate in each year. They are: America For Christ; One Great Our of Sharing; The World Mission Offering; and The Retired Ministers and Missionaries Offering. One month out of each year is dedicated to each of these four offerings. These Designated Offerings have always been separate from our Budget. What we collect, we send to the ABC-USA for those Missions. Also, the Communion Offering Envelopes (which normally go to the Deacon's Fund) for months where we collect a Special Denominational Offering, goes towards that special offering as well. This will be the same as it has always been. Our church has always supported these offerings faithfully and generously and we will continue to do so. On the months we have these offerings, the special envelope will be sent out in the Tower Topics Newsletter and also be made available at Sunday Worship.

Along with this continued practice for the Special Denominational Offerings, we will also now collect a special offering on specific months for some of the Designated Missions we use to support as part of our budget (as described above). As with the Special Denominational Offerings, an envelope will be sent out with the Tower and be available at worship. For example, this month we are collecting a Special Missions Offering for Camp Vick. Since we no longer make a contribution to the Camp as a matter of course out of our Budget, we will send what we collect from this offering to the Camp. Your Gift to the Youth ministry of Camp Vick is a gift beyond your regular offering.

Along with these Special Designated Offerings for some months, there will also be months where the additional Missions Offering Envelopes will be for Undesignated Missions. The offering collected in these months will be sent to the ABC United Missions Fund. In future newsletters we will give more details about some of the work that United Missions supports.

It is important to realize that there is a need here for commitment to Missions. We expect that, at first, there will be a drop in the amount that we contribute towards Missions. As the process refines and we all become use to it, it is very likely we could see an increase! This change provides us with a wonderful opportunity to become intentional about our support for Missions. When we give to the work of the Gospel in the community and wider world, it will be a deliberate act. It will be a way to show clearly our commitment to be partners in the compassionate work of Christ, and actively helping to spread the Good News of Salvation to the ends of the earth.

If you have questions about this new Missions Giving Process, or ideas to help make it work better, please let us know.

Your Mission Committee:

Gladys Lewis Hazel Baxter Marg Bozigar

Carol Buchalski, Pastor Mark

Camp Vick is a special place where youth from our church have gone in the past and will go to in the future. The funds we give towards the camp help keep it operating, but more importantly, provide financial assistance that enables campers to attend the camp. The ABC of New York State (ABC-NYS) sends hundreds of kids to camp each year. What you may not know, is that if a youth wants to go to camp, they can even if their family can not afford it. The ABC-NYS simply does not turn away an interested youth! In the past, we have benefited from this funding process. The State does not do it because they are rolling in money-- it is actually quite the opposite. This Christian camping experience has made such a difference in the lives of Youth from all over NY, that the ABC-NYS is committed to this Ministry. The Special Additional Offering you give towards this Mission will touch lives and turn young hearts to Christ.

(Please remember to write your name on the offering envelope so we can provide you with an accurate year-end giving statement for you taxes!)

Pastor Mark