Stewardship and Giving
Time, Talent and Treasure
The orderly operation of Saint James' Church, the carrying on of its mission in the community, and the nurturing of our communal faith life necessitates that we ask those who call the Church their spiritual home to give generously of their time, their talent, and yes, their treasure, as they are each able. In addition to monetary donations, we also encourage our members to take part in some way in the various ministries of the Church, perhaps by singing in the Choir, serving in the Altar Guild or Flower Guild, serving on committees, helping plan and host special events, teaching the children in Christian Education, or simply by handling any of the hundreds of small things that pop up.
With our current budget, it costs approximately $1,500.00 every single day of the year to operate our programs, and help our community. The Wardens and Vestry of the Church, in consultation with the Clergy and with the support of our hard-working staff, carefully watch every penny of your donations to ensure that they are spent wisely and frugally.
Giving at Church
When you give to Saint James' Church, your gift is used not only within the Church, but also in our community. It helps fund medicines for the sick, food for the hungry, provides support to the Randy Sams Homeless Shelter, helps those in need to cover their utilities in lean times, helps provide chaplaincy to the St. James Day School, supports the good works of the Diocese and its missions, and all of the countless other ministries, outreach projects, and children of God that the Church and our Clergy support in the greater Texarkana area.
We encourage all of those who are part of our Church family to give—not out of obligation but out of a spirit of worship. Your gifts allow God's work to be done in our midst, in our community, and in the world around us.
Ways to Give
There are many easy ways for you to give, including one-time gifts, online recurring giving and, of course, during our Masses or through the Parish office. Will will gratefully accept your donation in whatever form is most convenient for you.
If you are a regular member, we ask that you please complete an annual Pledge Card so that your tithe may be factored into our budget for planning purposes. Some degree of certainty is needed so we can plan our ministries out months in advance. It also keeps the Rector and Treasurer's blood pressure lower.
We are now offering online giving for the first time through our website. If you choose to give through our online portal, your information is held securely by an SSL encrypted connection. This information will remain private and will never be given away to third parties, other than to process your contributions.
You may make one-time or recurring payments using the online gateway. We can also process pledge payments through the online portal.
Nota Bene: The fees for processing are significantly lower to the Parish if you use the bank account/ACH Transfer option to make your payments.
Securely Give Online
Saint James' Church is now accepting gifts through our website.
Parish Budget
For privacy reasons, we do not publish the full parish budget on the website, as it contains personally-identifiable salary information. Copies of the budget are available for parishioners to view in the Parish Office by request.
Fr. Doug's 2017-2018 Stewardship Comments
October 11, AD 2017
FROM THE RECTOR:
Dear Parishioners & Friends of St James’,
OCTOBER is stewardship month at St James’, and while the preaching on this subject has been truncated somewhat this year, I am being quite deliberate (forthright?) in putting out information about the parish finances.
You will recall from the January Annual Meeting, we are showing a deficit budget (expenses over income) this year of over $40,000. The good news is that because of increased giving by some above and beyond their pledge, and a very conscious effort to reduce expenses, we have not had to invade our very modest reserves to date this fiscal year. As always, thank you for your faithful support of our mission and ministry. The Vestry works hard to be faithful stewards of the resources you provide.
For FY 2018, the treasurer projects that we will need revenues of $540,000 just to hold the course. Part of this increase is due to inflation (always a factor), the ending of funding from the Diocesan Curacy Program mid-way through 2018, and an aspiration, should finances allow, to give a small adjustment in clergy and staff compensation for cost of living (an adjustment that has not happened for several years). I have written at greater length about these needs in the letter that went out with your third quarter statement which I encourage you to read if you have not done so already.
These factors are the basis for my two requests of you this year:
If you are not in the habit of making a pledge, please do so this year. It is the aggregate sum of those pledges that form our budget. We ask you to pledge, so we can plan.
To prayerfully consider raising your pledge this year by 5% or so, realizing of course that many can do more, and some will be able to do less. But if every household in this parish were to do so on average, we would be well on our way to having enough resources to meet our needs for 2018.
Please be thinking and praying about this.