Northminster Presbyterian Church, Evanston, Illinois

2008 Stewardship Campaign

[Click here to visit the Online Pledge Form]

September 30, 2007

Dear Members and Friends,

The Stewardship Committee and Pastor Youngblood want to thank everyone for their financial support of the 2007 Stewardship Campaign! The pledges and contributions from the Shape a New Legacy and Second Appeal campaigns allowed us to have another successful year of mission and fellowship at Northminster Presbyterian Church.

Go Right On Working logoThis past August, Pastor Youngblood gave a sermon entitled “How Does Our Garden Grow?” He preached about how beautiful gardens don’t just happen. Rather, they take a great deal of a gardener’s time and effort to plant, fertilize, water and cultivate in order to yield fruitful results. During the month of September, Stewardship Committee members have been “doing a little gardening” of their own in front of the congregation with weekly encouragement from Pastor Youngblood in the form of the phrase, “Go Right On Working” which forms the acronym, GROW, the 2008 Stewardship Campaign theme.

In many respects, we all “Go Right On Working” with God’s daily activities at Northminster: Ann Rosewall serving as our Interim Associate Pastor; new and returning Sunday school teachers helping our children begin their faith journeys; Jessica Gregory serving as our Jacob Best Seminary Intern; church committee members hosting ToGather dinners on Thursday nights; church members traveling to Kenya to see the results of Northminster’s Ember Kenya Project with Dr. Robert Barasa; Danielle Enriquez-Fowler serving as our new Youth Music Director; Nursery school leaders working in partnership with the church to assist with the “greening” of our facilities; and so on.

The 2008 campaign reinforces this daily work, challenging each and every member to GROW in their faith through increased giving. We have targeted a goal of $750,000 and 100% participation by each of you. As we all know, increases in annual operating expenses are a given. Furthermore, the Search Committee for our new Associate Pastor will need approximately $10,000 to cover certain expenses over the next several months. The Stewardship Committee is hopeful that we can meet our 2008 goal, providing for additional “reserve” funding which would create financial flexibility for expanded mission and ministry.

For those who participated in the Second Appeal campaign last year, we ask that you consider maintaining (or even increasing) your 2008 pledge versus your 2007 pledge. For those of you who were unable to assist with a Second Appeal, we ask that you consider pledging an additional amount “over and above” what you would normally contribute as part of your 2008 pledge.

Please give prayerful consideration to your 2008 pledge commitment and enter it in the form below (or, if you prefer, use the pledge card mailed to all members). If we all GROW, Northminster’s garden will flourish into one which truly reflects our collective faith commitment.

Thank you,

THE NORTHMINSTER STEWARDSHIP COMMITTEE

Ben Buettell (Chair), Jeff Hupe, Fran Kinney, Ned Lott and Bob Loweth

Online Pledge Form

Use this form to send your pledge information directly to the Stewardship Committee chair Ben Buettell and Financial Secretary Mike Jin. This information will be kept confidential. No bank account information should be sent with this form. Please submit your 2008 pledge information by October 28, 2007.

Name(s) Street address City/St/ZIP Email addressPrimary phone
For 2008, my/our total pledge is  $  …which will be paid Weekly Monthly Other If "Other," on what schedule?
Please check as applicable: Please contact me/us about the tax benefits of donating appreciated stock directly to Northminster.   I/we would like to participate in an automatic debit program when this option becomes available (rollout planned for January 1, 2008).   I/we will need offering envelopes.
  I/we will need more time to decide my/our 2008 pledge amount. I/we intend to submit my/our pledge by (date):

The following questions are optional, but will be valuable to the Stewardship Committee in our efforts to make future campaigns as effective, meaningful, and relevant as possible, and to strengthen the financial life of the church. Please respond as thoroughly as time permits. When you are finished with this form, click the "Send Info to NPC" button at the bottom of the page.

Please share any thoughts about how you determined your 2008 pledge amount. Would you consider making contributions to well-defined mission projects that Northminster supports during 2008 in addition to your above pledge amount?
Yes No
Would you like to be contacted to share your thoughts regarding stewardship and what it means to you as a member of Northminster?
Yes No
Please provide any other comments regarding the 2008 Stewardship Campaign, or any past campaigns.

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