A Season of Giving

Hello Church –

This season is a rich one of walking into fall beauty, preparing for Thanksgiving and spaces of gratitude, and also marking holy rhythms together such as All Saints Day. Autumn always gives us space to look back, watch our gardens and trees go into hibernation, and celebrate together. I was moved as we participated together on Sunday in remembering many who we’ve lost this past year during our All Saints Day candle lighting and litany; pausing to remember, grieve, and give thanks for the legacy of those who have gone before us, and sitting with our questions and frustrations, is holy work.

This past Sunday, we also launched our annual Stewardship Season at LaSalle (aka our pledge season), a time of sharing our vision of what God is inviting us to and asking the whole church to prayerfully consider making a Giving Commitment for 2024. We are all called to give in some way throughout this month and December, and we will be sharing some voices from our Body throughout these next weeks as well, naming what of our common identity they are excited about and what they feel called to give in this season. Today, we are linking two videos from members Tom Krajecki and Treasurer Susan Shaefer for you to be encouraged by.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9QSgKvZbeM?wmode=opaque][youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIyT5YSwT6c?wmode=opaque]

This fall we’ve been focusing on our identity – a people who practice Expansive Faith, Generous Community, and are Invested in God’s Justice – and this is based on our history and the legacy of all those who came before us. We know that part of those seeds that were sown by the faithful in our past were for each new generation to be able to continue walking into the new thing that God is doing among us. To run the “particular race that has been set before us,” as we reimagine how to be the church for this time - with a new Senior Pastor, a changing neighborhood, a new Body regathering post-COVID, with new ways people are attending church, and a new season that the Holy Spirit is moving in. It’s a new day – a new, old way, to be the church perhaps, right? Because we’re not trying to reinvent ourselves, but more go deep into who God has already called us to be. To see how God is already at work among us, giving us more than enough for this season. I wonder - what will our kids and our grandkids say about us, about what the Body came together and did in 2023, in 2030 – what will they remember in 20 years time? How will those who come after us, those we don’t even know yet, feel the ripples of meaning from our faithfulness, from small everyday ways that we show up, give of our finances, time, prayer, and encouragement?

To live into our mission and to run our particular race at LaSalle – there are a few specific areas that we will be investing in for 2024. When we ask you to consider giving in this season, we’re asking that you give toward this:

• Kids, youth and families

• Outreach and Advocacy

• Spirit-led Worship

• Multiethnic Identity and Justice

• Belonging & Healing

• Connection & Spiritual Formation

These six areas help us root our vision and identity into lived realities; these are the areas that we’ve already been realigning our staff around, planning programming for, and that we’ve asked the whole church to pray over in 2024. (These focus areas came out of a combination of our consultant’s findings this past year, our Elder Board, and prayer and discernment; click here for more on these focus areas.)

So practically, here are our giving goals for 2024. I want to ask each of us to think about giving to LaSalle in 2 ways this year – both financially, and also more broadly through your presence, expertise, prayer and encouragement. We need all of us to become who God is leading us to be – and we need all of us giving as we are able toward a common vision that is larger than ourselves.

Financially: 10 by 10

After conversation with our Treasurer, we want to invite everyone to consider a specific ask for 2024 – 10 by 10. First - we are praying and asking for 10 new pledges – that 10 people/households make a giving commitment that have not pledged before. The amount that you pledge to give is not what is important – we trust that everyone gives based on their means and sense of prayerful discipleship. We are also praying and asking for 10 people/households to increase their pledges. If you already pledge to give, THANK YOU; and if you’re familiar with the pledge process, we’re praying that 10 folks increase the amount of giving by whatever among you fell called this year. Again, we are not suggesting an amount or percent to increase, but rather ask that you pray and listen to what God may share with you about discipleship in this coming year? 10 new pledges, and 10 increased pledges. (I also want to invite you to consider this message from our Treasurer about giving shame.)

More Broadly: Give Us a Year

We’re also asking you to consider giving of yourself in this season. I want to ask you to prayerfully consider, would you give LaSalle a year of your life in some way – some of your time to volunteer, or your commitment to pray for our leaders every week, or maybe it’s to show up every Serve Sunday with your teenager and to bring their friend, or to drive your neighbors to church, or to risk hosting church people in your place for brunch – whatever it is, take a moment to pray and consider, what could you commit to giving this body this coming year? Your trust and enthusiasm, your gifts and your discernment, your faith and your authentic openness to the Holy Spirit at work – these gifts, your presence – it’s so VALUABLE. Giving matters, both financially and more broadly - not just for an amount, but because it shapes our posture of discipleship as stewards, and knits us together even more as a community.

Practically – HOW TO GIVE

There are Giving Commitment Forms here online, and also printed out in the Sanctuary. Please take this invitation to fill one out; more info is online about all of this, including guidelines for how to give, how to set up a recurring financial gift, and a space for you to indicate how you will give of your time and broader gifts as well. We ask that you turn in your commitment forms/pledges by the end of the year, Dec 31, 2023. And keep watching for more information, more ideas, and more chances to see God at work, reminding us of who we are and where we are headed!

We need all of you, to become all of US. It’s a new day, a new season to let God invite us afresh into the old, sacred story of faith that we always do with one another. Wherever you find yourself today, I hope you feel encouraged to be part of this identity, to know that we have saved a seat for you at the table. I pray that you will share what you can give in this season, not out of guilt but out of freedom and possibility, as we stay rooted in Jesus. And knowing that we’ll be stronger, better, more diverse and more whole, with each of us in this together.

With thanks for the One who is able to do immeasurably, exceedingly more than we could ever ask or imagine

- RevDocLiz