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Church Finances
Stewardship Campaign

Thank you for a successful Stewardship Campaign!

Not long ago, with the full support of the Stewardship Committee, we worried about how we could present the hard financial facts that face St John’s Church. We were right to worry as the situation was serious and was set to become yet more serious.


The task presented was challenging but your response has been outstanding. In our presentation we said that the funding of our church comes from YOU, the community of St John’s, and from nowhere else and that the solution was in your hands. You responded to that challenge with great generosity.


To offer our thanks seems inadequate and not really ours to give; we should all as a Church community give thanks to each other and for the God given gifts for which we are all stewards. By faith and commitment that community has been moved to respond according to our means and conscience.


You may recall that to eliminate a deficit by the end of 2013, whilst continuing to meet our missions commitments, we needed to raise £20,000 in ‘one off’ donations. We have actually received £32,000 a true reflection of what our church and faith means to each of us.


We also stated that to continue on an even keel (on a week by week basis) we needed to increase the all important ‘planned giving’ by £210/week. Once again the response has been good with an increase of £160/week.  Sadly, this leaves us £50/week short of our target but we are hopeful that more people will continue to respond to the campaign in the coming weeks to allow us to meet our weekly target.


It is worth pointing out that it is the regular planned giving that is vital to our funding of our day to day expenses and to prevent us slipping back into deficit over the next few years. If anybody has not yet responded to our appeal your contributions are always welcome, it is never too late for you to submit instructions to your bank to make regular payments to St John’s. You may think back to what John Edwards said in his inspiring sermon on money and how we should prioritise it in our lives.


It is possible that you are new to St. John’s or for some inexplicable reason were not included in our mailing, perhaps, because you are not yet on the Electoral Roll. Please ask any of the Stewardship Committee or the Church Wardens for the necessary documents.


St John’s Church is truly grateful for the generosity, faith and commitment of everybody.   With the confidence that comes with a little financial security we can now give thanks to God and continue to do his work in Crowthorne and beyond with a renewed vigour.

The Stewardship Committee
 
Day of prayer and fasting

Day of Prayer and Fasting for our Stewardship Campaign

 

Quiet Day, Saturday 16th March 10am- 4pm at St John’s

 

“So we fasted and besought God for this, and he listened to our entreaty.” Ezra 8:23.

 

Fasting is defined a voluntarily going without food in order to focus on prayer and fellowship with God. Prayer and fasting often go hand in hand, but this is not always the case. You can pray without fasting, and fast without prayer. It is when these two activities are combined and dedicated to God's glory that they reach their full effectiveness. Having a dedicated time of prayer and fasting is not a way of manipulating God into doing what you desire. Rather, it is simply forcing yourself to focus and rely on God for the strength, provision, and wisdom you need.

 

The particular focus for this Quiet Day is that we need to increase our church income in order to resource our ongoing ministry and mission.

                                   

The day is flexible - you can stay the whole day or come and go as suits.

 

There will be a short Opening Liturgy @ 10am and a Closing Liturgy @ 3.45 pm.

 

In between these fixed points you can spend time moving individually around the prayer stations in the church and hall, which will inform about different aspects of church life and the missions that we currently support.

 

A help sheet with some general tips on prayer and fasting will be available at the back of church.

Don’t forget the parish prayer diary, attached to SJN, as another invaluable resource.

 

There will be a gift day on the Sunday but there is the option of making your gift on the Quiet Day instead. A “holy bucket” will placed in front of the altar for this purpose.

 

Please do make the effort to come along if you can. The season of Lent is a time for prioritising the religious disciplines of prayer, fasting, bible study, charitable acts and recommitment to God’s causes. 

 

 
 
The challenge for St John’s to maintain its finances

At the September Parochial Church Council meeting initial consideration was given to the deteriorating financial position that St John’s faces.  Our forecast income for the year to December is a little over £128,000 (£128k), some £7k less than last year.  That fall reflects

 

  • the absence of £3½k rebate we enjoyed in 2011from the Deanery (the Parish Share itself, paid to the Diocese, has only had slight rise for 2012 but will rise by almost £2k in 2013!)
  • There has been a cut in the value of the Gift Aid tax rebate
  • Hall letting income has fallen by about  £1k
  • The surplus on the May Fair was £3k less than last year.
  •  

Excluding mission giving the rise in our running costs has been contained to only £1½k.  However if we continued to give 12½% of our planned giving to our selected missions then 2012 would show a deficit of about £10k (in 2011 we broadly broke even).  Our reserves are not great, the PCC policy is to hold reserves of 3 months of expenditure; on that basis there is little headroom for running a deficit.

 

The PCC will return to this subject at its 17th October meeting and has not yet taken any decisions.  However the PCC cannot just ignore this position.  It doesn’t want to discontinue the mission giving but may have to consider cutting back (the current indication is that breakeven would only allow £1k to be given to missions rather than the £10+k we would usually hope to give).  At present many of our special collections (e.g. Christmas) are donated to worthy others which could be an extravagance if we can’t break even.  We have tried through our stewardship campaigns to request the Parish to give more but we have to recognise that there is a ‘giving fatigue’ and in the current economic climate there has to be a realistic limit to what we can expect.

 

The PCC have taken no decisions and would like the views of the Parish generally as to how it might best seek to ‘balance the books’.  Please pass your views to the Vicar, Churchwardens or PCC members.

 

There is brighter news for the Repair and Renovation fund.  There are sufficient funds to pay for the new heating system (our thanks to all those who have made vigorous efforts to raise or contribute funds).  However after paying for the heating system there would only be less than £4k for future projects (the audio visual system, carpets etc).  The need for fundraising continues though thought may have to be given to the balance between raising our normal funds and appealing for extra ones.

 

Sale of gold jewellery:  £474 was raised from the sale of gold for the R&R fund.

 

Jumble Sale:  On September 24th there was a very successful Jumble Sale held for the R&R fund; over £200 was raised.  Our thanks to Slyvie Pedersen and Anne Mohan for organising and to all those who helped or donated jumble.