The original letter in pdf format is available to download.
Three questions for a new year
It may only just be July, but already we’re thinking about a new year! Not 2019 (yet), but the September restart. Even for households without direct school connections, the sense of beginning again after a long (hot?) summer is often a significant moment to regroup. In church life, September sees the return to our normal Sunday pattern of afternoon as well as morning services, a new set of volunteer team rotas and the start of budget setting for 2019. Here’s a question for each of those three I’d encourage every member of All Souls to consider:
1. What will I give?
I wrote last month to regular members of the church, laying out the financial situation for All Souls – and we’ve been encouraged by the fifty-or-so responses so far. Closing the gap in our income is absolutely achievable when each household for whom All Souls is “home” considers increasing their gift (even by just a few pounds a month) or starting monthly giving. It’s very easy to respond (online or simply by contacting me) and every single positive response makes a different to our future here together. Please don’t leave it another week to say Count Me In! to take part in supporting your church community this way.
2. How will I serve?
One of the most significant aspects of All Souls’ vitality has always been the sheer number of volunteers involved in making possible the mission and ministry of the church. From Sunday Children’s Groups, hospitality and the worship band to midweek Ivybridge Projects, Little Souls or Tuesday Youth Track: none of these vital parts of church life would be possible without the 100+ people involved.
How could you be making a difference in September? Are you willing and able to commit for another term to the group you currently help in? Are you in a position to try something for the first time? Would you like to chat about how you might be involved?
Many of our teams involve only a monthly commitment (and swapping dates to account for family commitments or holidays is always possible), none of them require previous experience and all are great ways of making a really significant contribution to church life at the same time as meeting new people and having a lot of fun!
We’ll be contacting people over the next couple of weeks to plan for the autumn, but don’t wait to be asked… drop me a line and find out how you could be involved!
3. Where will I go?
Sunday patterns change over time and some find that 10am starts to become harder to make regularly, especially if yours is a household with children growing up and exploring weekend sport, or if your work starts to impinge on that time. In September we relaunch our afternoon (4.30pm) service and are inviting anyone who’s interested in trying it out to “give us a month”, coming along for a few weeks’ to see if it makes a sustainable Sunday pattern more achievable for you and your family. I’ll be writing more about the afternoon service in more detail later this month, but get in touch if you’d like to know more.
Happy New Year! 😉