EMC: Annual Campaign Report
In 2005, the theme for our Annual Campaign was “Growing in Faith, Growing in Community”. It was intended to capture both our present and future as part of the wonderful, dynamic community we have here at St. Patrick’s. At the heart of the 2005 Annual Campaign was a request to each of you to make a commitment to the future of St. Patrick’s--a commitment to expand our faith and to grow our community both near and far.
Instead of approaching our stewardship to St. Patrick’s as an appeal to include the church as another family financial obligation, our clergy and our committee tried to ask the parish to consider stewardship as an expression of gratitude to God for our many blessings. From October to December, part of each worship service at St. Patrick’s included prayers to enhance our faith and to approach stewardship in the spirit of thanksgiving.
As co-chairs of the 2005 Campaign, Sandy Chamblee and I are very pleased to report that we have had a wonderful response from the parish and by all measures the Annual Campaign has been a success. As of this writing, we are within reach of our very ambitious financial goal of $550,000. We currently have 168 pledges which total nearly $526,000. This represents the largest annual pledge commitment in our parish history! Although we are about 96% of the way to our goal, we are confident that we can still achieve it. There are still a few families that pledged in 2004 that haven’t pledged this year. Further, we expect to have several new members who will wish to be counted on our rolls as pledging members of our community.
As we reflect on this year’s Annual Campaign, we are thankful primarily to all of you have joined in the mission of St. Patrick’s by giving generously. As an indicator of your faith in the future of St. Patrick’s, we received 81 pledge increases this year! We also have 20 new pledges. At St. Patrick’s, our Stewardship Committee consists of the Vestry and the Annual Campaign co-chairs. As leaders of our community, the 2005 Vestry demonstrated their confidence and excitement in the future of our community by collectively increasing their pledges by more than 10% over 2004. We thank them for their leadership, their generosity, and their willingness at all times to be helpful in achieving the success of our Annual campaign, especially including their participation in the unenviable task of the phonathon!
Eric Gustafson deserves a great deal of credit, too. He is in charge of keeping daily records of the pledges and compiling all the data which helps tell us where we are and where we’ve been. To get a sense of what he does, you’ll find below a snapshot of what we accomplished this year compared to recent years.
Our faith teaches us that just as we give, we are also blessed abundantly. Thank you all for your faith in the mission of St. Patrick’s and for your generosity!
MIKE TONGOUR AND SANDY CHAMBLEE
ANNUAL CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRS
