Stewardship 2025 - Something’s Gotta Give

Simsbury United Methodist Church is blessed to be a genuinely active congregation. There are many ways we participate in the church's ministries. We have our music ministries, such as the CAYA band, the choir, or the wonderful handbells we heard last week. We prepare meals for those in need or quilt to bring aid to people across the globe that we’ll never meet, but we know that we’ve comforted them. We also travel to physically rebuild for those in need. Of course, there are also our three both similar and unique services each Sunday morning. Truly, there are so many ways that we can participate in church at SUM!

Similar to the way a well-maintained home requires regular care and attention, the church home also demands diligent upkeep. This involves not only the physical maintenance of the buildings, including tasks like snow removal and cleaning, but also the management of essential utilities such as fuel oil, electricity, water, and sewer. Additionally, there are unseen expenses, such as insurance and conference costs, that are integral to the functioning of the church home and cannot be easily reduced or considered optional. Each of these expenses has to be covered to allow for all the other great ministries of the church. We have to be able to wash hands to prepare meals, have heat and lights to meet, and, as you can imagine, the list goes on.

The brochure that was mailed and is available in the sanctuary reveals that costs have increased significantly over the past several years, just like in all of our households. Expenses rose by 15% from 2016 to 2023, while giving decreased by 2%. As a result, we have had to dip into our savings for multiple years to cover expenses. This situation has led to the theme of this year's stewardship campaign: "Something’s Gotta Give."

This is where pledging becomes so critical to the church. Unpledged giving does represent a large portion of our budget; however, it is hard to plan to pay bills with money that might not be received. We ask that you prayerfully consider increasing your pledge or pledging for the first time. If so, we can continue to support all the great ministries here at SUM that allow us to participate in the church in the wonderful ways that we do today.

Greg Freidline
Stewardship Chair

You can click here to pledge online.