Mike LumpkinOur St. Paul’s family has a rich commitment to generosity beyond our campus. There are numerous local, national and international ministries and organizations that we support seeking to ‘Impact the World in the name of Jesus Christ.’  Fishes and Loaves 1^st Sundays and Fifth Sunday Outreach are two of the very visible means we use to raise attention and enable hands on support for diverse ministries.

In the past we have invited and encouraged individuals who had a call or a passion for Outreach to raise their money by making requests to the parish family. You’ve seen all of them over a year’s span. Fifth Sunday special collections, Thanksgiving Basket Project, shoes for Honduras children, backpacks for Haiti children, God’s Gift Shop at Christmas time, Compassion International Sunday, Reading Camp fund-raisers, the Tea Room and Gift Shop, a spaghetti dinner here or an oyster roast there fund raiser, and so on and so forth.

All of it for good purposes and led by disciple volunteers to secure funds for one worthy ministry or mission. The only downside has been the increase in the number of requests we make for you to support this or that ministry until you may feel as if hardly a Sunday goes by when you are not hearing an appeal to give.

We want to approach our support of these ministries with a different strategy in 2012. 

• First, we will significantly reduce the number of specific appeals for giving.
• Second, we have increased the amount of dollars available in the St. Paul’s Outreach Account. We will invite persons to make a request to the Outreach Team for a contribution for funding of specific ministries or missions near or far.
• Third, while Fifth Sunday will still give attention to a specific Outreach Ministry that we support, we will use Fifth Sunday to educate and to announce the amount being given to the ministry from St. Paul’s rather than make this another appeal to you to give.
• Fourth, we will carefully select a few key fundraising opportunities like the Honduras Oyster Roast/Chili Cook-off or the Hands on Haiti Fall Project that can provide income for some of our largest Outreach ministries.
• Fifth, the Tea Room and Gift Shop will remain our flagship fundraiser for Outreach where 100% of our ‘profit’ is given away.

With this new strategy, we expect the impact of our Outreach to be as good as or better than past successes. Also, individuals can enjoy learning how their gifts to St. Paul’s are benefiting this ministry or that ministry. Monies can be offered and available without all the extra effort of creating a mechanism for each fund-raiser. And, we hope everyone will enjoy less focus Sunday to Sunday on giving for this, that or another.

Last year St. Paul’s gave away over $100,000 to Outreach!!  Wonderful! Monies for this came from the Operating Account, the Tea Room and Gift Shop and numerous others fundraisers. May 2012 be equally abundant using our new strategy to the benefit of all.