Opening Our Hearts
Expanding Our Reach
Stewardship 2022
Dear Friend,
I hope and pray this letter finds you healthy and well! As we continue to navigate life during a pandemic, please allow me to express how deeply grateful I am for you and your support of St. Luke’s! Throughout everything St. Luke’s has faced, you have helped us respond by opening our hearts and expanding our reach so that more lives can be touched by the transforming love of Jesus!
The following are just some of the ways we opened our hearts and expanded our reach over the past year:
- We continued to invest in technology upgrades including video equipment, software, our website, and better WIFI throughout Church. This investment has made it possible to offer Virtual Liturgies, Fr. Jason’s Pause and Pray Reflections, his not-so-hilarious Friday Funnies, and Zoom Meetings that have allowed us to stay connected and even reach audiences we never would have been able to reach before. Several of the new faces we have been welcoming since returning to in-person worship have connected with us online first, thanks to this investment.
- We invested in Sunday School Curriculum that will help support our dedicated teachers and their work of forming our growing group of young parish members in faith, hope, and love.
- Countless volunteers have stepped up to support our Giving Garden, Buildings and Grounds projects, and internal day-to-day operations of the church.
- We grew our relationship with the Nestling House, our wonderful daycare partner, who are now renting the entire daycare space, providing us with much-needed income and financial stability.
- We added a Saturday evening Eucharist to allow for smaller crowds to be indoors during the pandemic, and took full advantage of our beautiful courtyard to host Coffee and Happy Hours after our Liturgies.
- We continued our partnerships with Malaika Early Learning Center and St. Joseph’s Academy, helping love grow in our neighborhood by supporting some of the most vulnerable children and their educational efforts in Milwaukee.
- We continued to provide compassionate pastoral care as well as formation offerings for people of all ages through virtual Bible Studies, Book Studies, Taize Prayer, and Morning Prayer.
- We continued to exercise faithful financial stewardship; and as a result, find ourselves currently living with a surplus in our budget rather than a projected deficit (and the swing has been around $20,000 to the positive)!
Our financial stewardship is another way we acknowledge that all is gift, meant to be given with open hearts and ever-expanding reach, for the building of God’s Kingdom. Through the grateful response of our pledges to the mission of St. Luke’s in 2022, we have the opportunity to continue to open our hearts and expand our reach so that even more people can encounter the transforming love of Jesus.
I know that times are very uncertain and difficult for many, which is all the more reason why I am so grateful for your hearts and reach! If you are able, please consider pledging to the mission and ministry of St. Luke’s for 2022! Thank you for opening your hearts and expanding your reach by making a courageous pledge!
Click here for a secure, electronic pledge card.
Peace and Abundant Blessings,
Fr. Jason