There’s no doubt we’re a generous bunch at St Francis - just look at the growing pile of loo rolls at the front of church in response to Oliver’s Campaign (see p6)! Whenever there’s a need, the church family respond. So, we need to let you know of another need. This year we’ve budgeted to spend £23 000 more than budgeted income. Sound irresponsible?! Well - I believe that God supplies all our needs. As a Council we’ve agreed a budget that covers the things that we trust that God is calling us to do - nothing big or new or flashy. Now we want to let you know what those things are and to ask if we all might prayerfully review our giving at this time. The church runs entirely on our donations - we’re very thankful for occasional grants from Test Valley to support some of the community oriented aspects of what we do, but otherwise we’re simply funded by ourselves. Why would we give to the church? Well - the main reason is that we give in response to God’s generosity to us - he’s given us everything and in the Bible we see an expectation to make a contribution back to the Church of a percentage of our income. We’ll be looking at this teaching in the month of June and there’s lots more information up in church, as well as an FAQ on the next page!
Read the rest of the newsletter here.
