FIRST CHURCH IN CAMBRIDGE STEWARDSHIP 2018 2020 THE WAY FORWARD YEAR ONE Understanding Our Needs
Let love be genuine, hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor. Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the Saints; extend hospitality to strangers.... From Romans 12 THE WAY FORWARD Dear Friends This fall our Stewardship Committee begins a three-year appeal to set First Church on a more solid and sustainable financial foundation. Following our incredibly successful capital campaign, our theme for this appeal is The Way Forward. Early Christians were called the people of The Way, as in the way of Jesus the way of radical love, compassion, and hospitality. These values infuse everything we do at First Church. They ensure that we will continue to move from strength to strength as a congregation, following the way of Jesus and finding the way forward from our for such a time as this capital campaign into the annual, ongoing generosity needed for our shared ministries to flourish and our spiritual lives to thrive. Given our passion for ministry, we need your support more than ever. Indeed, our financial life is in need of some urgent care and attention. Our current spending patterns are not sustainable; we are spending our endowment funds at a rapid rate. The good news is that we can see a way forward! Our three-year journey together will be set along the following path: 2018 THE WAY FORWARD Understanding Our Needs 2019 THE WAY FORWARD Deepening Our Commitment 2020 THE WAY FORWARD Sustaining Our Future Starting this fall, we are reaching out to every person in our community for conversations about what First Church means to us and how we can better share the journey of life and faith together in annual pledges. We will also be laying groundwork for a Planned Giving campaign, so that people of every age can think about including First Church in their wills and estate planning.
brings mewhat to First Church: worship and programming that involve both my head and my heart, and inspire me to use my feet to get out into the world. Beth Spaulding We know there are many, many organizations that ask for such gifts, annually and beyond. Most of those organizations have enormous databases to draw from. We have each other. Please know that every gift of time, talent, and treasure matters, and matters greatly. Our ministries to one another, our community, and our world depend on your generosity. As we begin our three-year appeal, we focus especially on the last line of our passage from Romans 12. Together, let s understand the needs of the saints of our First Church ministry (i.e., all of you) and how we can extend God s welcome to each other and the world ever more widely, every more joyfully! The Stewardship Committee Palm Sunday, April 2017 3
THE WAY FORWARD Understanding Our Needs Over time First Church has answered my needs and my family s health concerns, bereavement, Bible study, friendships we ve grown together. Hui-Hui Hu First Church s outreach ministries to Cambridge and beyond are important to us and our faith journey. Charles La Shure What the world needs from First Church First, the world needs First Church! Why? Because the world needs values, beauty, healing, justice, connection... and space to gather for all of the above! In a world where values are constantly contested, the way and message of compassion, mercy, healing and justice is needed now more than ever. In a world where headlines are getting uglier by the day we create arts with our children and glorious sound through heartfelt hymns and anthems. When our world is scarred by local or national tragedy, we offer healing gatherings solace services and candlelit vigils of silence, when words aren t enough. In a world of human suffering, we offer shelter to homeless men, feed hungry bellies through the Friday Café, offer sanctuary to immigrants, and organize rallies and protests to speak the truth to power. In an increasingly fragile democracy, we help people learn how to be public citizens and how to make our voices heard together. One voice crying out alone will rarely be heard. First Church continues to be a place that connects voices, a bridge that joins communities of faith and secular organizations around common cause. And to people of all walks of life, within our church community and well beyond, we offer much needed space... for soaring musical performances, for 12-step and addiction recovery groups, and for non-profits working on climate change and peace building. For many in Cambridge and Greater Boston, we are considered to be a center of community, a center for the arts, a center for healing! The world needs First Church! 50th Anniversary of Duke Ellington s Service of Sacred Music, March 2017
What we need from First Church What s more, we need First Church! For members and friends, First Church provides a spiritual home, enabling us to deepen our faith, to be engaged and connected in an active way to complex social and political issues of our time. For some, our community has been an oasis in life s storms. But it is also a place of joyous celebration. We come to FCC for quiet and reflection in a busy week; we come for the music and worship opportunities; we come to enjoy the riches a multi-generational community affords; and we come for shared ministries with like-minded people. We need spiritual formation to keep us grounded whether through worship, sermons, small groups, or 10 am hours. We need community whether through choir, committee work, family night, or pastoral care exchanges that help us feel a little less alone. We need our staff to create music that uplifts our souls, poetry that speaks to our hearts, vibrant programs for kids, ministries that serve the world, care that calls on us in our darkest hours, their voices of public leadership that can speak on our behalf! And we need to gather around the table with Jesus and break bread together in Sunday worship, at church luncheons, at family nights, at men s breakfasts, and at covenant dinners. Our covenant with each other weaves us together in community and helps us reach beyond ourselves with the power to transform. We need First Church! I find in First Church uplifting services and opportunities to be of service. Margaret Gooch
What does First Church need from us? I come to First Church (even though I no longer live in Cambridge) because of the opportunities to sing beautiful music with the choir and to engage in social justice work and conversations and to be a part of a vibrant community of faith. Kelsey Peterson Finally, First Church needs us! It needs our whole-hearted support, both spiritual and financial. In addition to Sundays, our church is open seven days a week, from 7 am to 11 pm! In addition to our strong lay leadership, our staff works hard, from early morning to late at night to offer amazing programs for our community and to serve the wider world. First Church needs our funds to keep the lights on, to compensate the ministers, musicians, Director of Creative Worship & Arts, administrators, and sextons. First Church needs our funds to heat the building and repair the historical structure. It needs our funds to support our relief efforts across the planet and our social action closer to home. Besides our time and talent, First Church needs our unstinting financial support. For more than 375 years, First Church has welcomed seekers who share the same goals on the journey of faith. It has been through times of robustness and times of relative weakness. From the late 1960s to the 1990s, First Church experienced smaller membership and shrinking finances. Over the past fifteen years, we have witnessed a renaissance of faith formation, fellowship, and social action. Our membership is steadily growing. Our new vision and active outreach, however, have seriously stretched our financial resources.
THE WAY FORWARD Understanding Our Financial Needs We have been running a significant annual budget deficit for a number of years. We survive financially because of the generosity of past members who gave their estates and created endowment funds for First Church. However, we are spending down these funds. Unless we make some changes, within two decades they could be largely gone. Our three-year Stewardship campaign, The Way Forward, aims to put First Church on a sound and sustainable financial basis. After a careful analysis of our current data, the Stewardship committee has set the following ambitious yet realistic goals. In 2017, our pledge income totals $445,000. For 2018, we need to raise $485,000, an increase of 9%. Some of that will come from new pledges, but we are asking the members/friends, on average, to increase their annual pledges by 6% for the year 2018, 7% for 2019, and 8% for 2020. We understand that everyone is in a different situation. Some can give a great deal more, some only modestly, and some are already stretched to their limit. For those who can give considerably more, we are asking you to think about a 10% increase for 2018. I give because my resources will be used for things I believe in. By joining together, each of us multiplies the impact of our gifts and we accomplish more than we can do on our own. First Church supports me, nurtures me, and multiplies my ability to do God s work in the world. Marian Smith
Projection of First Church s annual financial condition under two scenarios First Church has been running a deficit budget for many years. We have a large appetite for ministry and we have also made a commitment to avoid deferring maintenance on our building. The lower curve of the Chart shows the amount of expected annual deficits if there are no changes to our giving patterns. If there are no further contributions to our endowment, the discretionary portion of our endowment will be largely depleted by year 2030. We are initiating a three-year pledge campaign this year along with a planned giving program, intending to balance our budget within several years and put First Church on a financially sustainable position. The upper curve of the Chart shows the pathway. First Church needs your generous financial support. (Amount in thousands of dollars)
Annual financial balance forecast: Three-Year Pledge Campaign and Planned Giving Annual deficit based on current trends First Church provides more than just weekly services for me. It also actively pushes me to be a better and more loving person, a better citizen, and a better Christian (with a definition of Christian that focuses on inclusivity and not exclusivity). From the sermons to the programming to the relationships with other institutions of faith, First Church has exposed me to so many wonderful people from all different walks of life so that now when I walk around in Boston and Cambridge I feel like I am a part of the community no matter where I am. And that feeling helps me feel empowered to cultivate and grow and give to that community. Julie Pridham
THE WAY FORWARD Pledging and Giving at First Church Groundbreaking June 2017 Our custom at First Church each fall is to ask our members and friends to consider the time, talents, and treasure they can share in the coming year by filling out a Stewardship Card. We call this a pledge an intention, your best estimate of how much you can stretch to share your financial resources with our church. We bring our pledge cards forward on Stewardship Sunday, November 19th, prayerfully and joyfully, and hope to have each member s participation in this important covenant of support. Once you ve made a pledge for 2018, how can you make financial gifts to First Church to fulfill your pledge? There are many different ways, depending on what works for you: Set up a recurring, automatic, online contribution from your checking or savings account, or make a one-time online payment on our website, www.firstchurchcambridge.org; click on Give, then 2018 Pledge for instructions. Download the Give+ app for iphone or android By check in the Sunday offering plate By cash in the offering plate Give-by-Text text any amount with the dollar sign to 617-841-8044 With a gift of stock 10
However you give, we will email a statement to you in the spring and again in the fall so that you can review your contributions. Also, all who contribute will receive a full statement in January for income tax return documentation. Thank you, as always, for your generous support of First Church! The Stewardship Committee Bill Hsiao, Chair Moana Bentin Barbara Hume Elizabeth Lovance Rev. Karen McArthur Perry Neubauer Harris Parnell Rev. Dan Smith My spiritual life is centered on First Church. The music, the sermon, the prayers, and the congregational participation are what draw us all into a community. Perry Neubauer 11
I find in First Church inspiration in words and music, fellowship in community, and when you come for a long time, it becomes home. Art Anger First Church in Cambridge Congregational, UCC 11 Garden Street Cambridge, MA 02138 www.firstchurchcambridge.org 617 547 2724 Design & Production: Christine Reynolds Photo credits: Page 4: Francine LaChance, First Church Communications Coordinator; Pages 1, 3, 5 (lower left, center), 6, 10, 11: Christine Reynolds; Pages 2, 5, 7, 12: First Church Archives; FCC logo design: Perry Neubauer