Visitor,

Five by Five -
A Means to Support and Develop our Ministry

One of the greatest gifts we have as Christians is the opportunity to minister the Gospel. One of the greatest responsibilities we have is to faithfully devote our skills and gifts to that task.

Together, as the people of Zion, we enjoy that gift and commit ourselves to that task. Each year we draw up a blueprint for ministry and budget the resources we will need to engage in those activities – items ranging from pastoral ministry to outreach to education and youth activities to property development and beyond. Typically we afford most of this ministry through our regular weekly offering. Not all of our ministries, however, are being adequately supported through our current giving.

To address this matter our church leadership is developing three new ways to support the work of our church: 1) Five by Five giving, 2) Sponsorship opportunities, and 3) Activities to repay our debt. You will be hearing more of each as the year progresses.

But here’s how our first program, Five by Five, works.

Five specific means of supporting our ministry, in addition to our regular weekly giving, have been identified. You are invited to participate in as many of these opportunities as you wish. By sharing in them you will greatly enhance our ability to enact the Gospel of Christ.

These five means are as follows.

• Increase your monthly giving to Zion by a multiple of 5. This could be a dollar amount - $5, id="mce_marker"0, etc. It could also be a percentage of your offering – 5% for example.
• 5th Sunday Giving. On the 5th Sunday of the month, provide a special offering to our church. This year we will have five 5th Sunday months:
  
  

  January 29	September 30
  April 29	December 30
  July 29

Special envelopes will be available for your use on those Sundays.

• Sacrificial Giving. Commit to five weeks of sacrificial giving – relinquishing a specific habit (exs. – purchasing soda or coffee, buying ice cream, going to the movies, etc.) and contributing the savings you make, by not engaging in that habit, to the work of our church. While we normally undertake sacrificial giving during Lent, please consider engaging in this practice any time during the year. You may wish to do five weeks consecutively or you may space them out over the course of the year. Special envelopes will be available for your use.
• Invite 5 people to church. Welcome your guests to worship, to one of our activities, or to a Bible study. They could be family members, friends, work associates, schoolmates, or neighbors. Of course, plan to be with them when they attend and make sure to introduce them to your church friends.
• Gratitude Gifts. Provide a thank offering to God sometime during the year. It might be in celebration of a birthday or anniversary. It might be in honor of a loved one or a special event. Once again, special envelopes will be provided for your use.

Through your faithful support of Zion we are blessed to minister the Good News of Christ. Please consider these five ways of supporting our church, above and beyond your regular weekly offering, and participate in as many of them as you can. Through your stewardship of God’s good gifts you will be helping to maintain our current ministries and to provide a platform for growth.

With our thanks and appreciation,
Pastor Wayne and Members of the Stewardship Committee and Church Council

P.S. – The special envelopes referred to above will actually be a single envelope inscribed with three headings:

When contributing to any of these categories, please check the appropriate line and use the envelope to return your gift to our church. Thank you!