This morning we had the “Big Announcement,” where we announced the Moved by the Spirit Campaign—and we revealed the Hughes Family matching gift challenge. Please take a few moments to watch the video below.
There’s also a PDF with details on the campaign below, as is the full text of Fr Rick’s and Martha Heiner’s remarks from this morning.
Fr Rick’s Remarks
As a parishioner and as warden, Chip Hughes oversaw the re-paving of the parking lot, the total refurbishment of our worship space, the new heating and air-conditioning systems, and the exterior painting of the entire building. He and Claudia brought Alpha to St Mark’s to refurbish more than our facilities, but our faith.
Chip was convinced that the future stability of St Mark’s is dependent on unshackling our parish from the debt of our mortgage.
As Chip’s health grew worse, when quite frankly he could have been thinking of a lot of other things, he talked with Claudia about St Mark’s—and our financial stability.
Which, is, frankly just a testament to his faithfulness, his courage and bravery in the face of illness, and his love for this place, and for all of you.
And, so today, we announce Moved by the Spirit—a campaign to solidify our financial future, to put on a new roof for a new generation, and to get our struggling organ in pitch perfect shape.
These are the three needs that our Finance Committee and Vestry unanimously see as our top three financial issues.
We’re calling it Moved by the Spirit, because Chip Hughes would say to me constantly—in fact, I can still hear him say it: we need to invoke the Holy Spirit more. He wanted us to talk about the works of the Spirit in church, at Alpha, and throughout our parish life.
His desire for St Mark’s was that we would truly be Moved by the Spirit, as he was.
And, with Claudia and Joe Hughes here, I am incredibly humbled to share that the Hughes family is giving a $100,000 matching gift to kick off this campaign.
It was important to Chip—and it’s important to Claudia—that every single person feel invited to contribute and participate, at whatever amount is possible, knowing that the first 100,000 of OUR contributions will be matched by THEIRS.
Right now we’ll hear from Martha Heiner, our Junior Warden, about the full scale of the campaign, and were we to match the Hughes Family gift and match their prayerful consideration, thoughtfulness, and dedication to St Mark’s, it will put us well on the way towards being Moved by the Spirit and making our parish financially stable for the future.
Chip was convinced that the future stability of St Mark’s is dependent on unshackling our parish from the debt of our mortgage.
As Chip’s health grew worse, when quite frankly he could have been thinking of a lot of other things, he talked with Claudia about St Mark’s—and our financial stability.
Which, is, frankly just a testament to his faithfulness, his courage and bravery in the face of illness, and his love for this place, and for all of you.
And, so today, we announce Moved by the Spirit—a campaign to solidify our financial future, to put on a new roof for a new generation, and to get our struggling organ in pitch perfect shape.
These are the three needs that our Finance Committee and Vestry unanimously see as our top three financial issues.
We’re calling it Moved by the Spirit, because Chip Hughes would say to me constantly—in fact, I can still hear him say it: we need to invoke the Holy Spirit more. He wanted us to talk about the works of the Spirit in church, at Alpha, and throughout our parish life.
His desire for St Mark’s was that we would truly be Moved by the Spirit, as he was.
And, with Claudia and Joe Hughes here, I am incredibly humbled to share that the Hughes family is giving a $100,000 matching gift to kick off this campaign.
It was important to Chip—and it’s important to Claudia—that every single person feel invited to contribute and participate, at whatever amount is possible, knowing that the first 100,000 of OUR contributions will be matched by THEIRS.
Right now we’ll hear from Martha Heiner, our Junior Warden, about the full scale of the campaign, and were we to match the Hughes Family gift and match their prayerful consideration, thoughtfulness, and dedication to St Mark’s, it will put us well on the way towards being Moved by the Spirit and making our parish financially stable for the future.
Martha Heiner’s Remarks
If you recall, at the March 27 service we took a moment to show a video of the three main objectives the Vestry has been identifying. I’d like to start with a brief recap and update -
The first objective is to upgrade the organ console. At an estimated cost of $36,000, we have actually begun the process of ordering components as we already have received $18,000 in generous gifts from a few different parishioners.
The second objective is to complete reroofing of the entire facility, and John Lyga has developed a plan to complete it in 4 sections. The first phase, the one with actively leaking spots, has begun and is slated to be completed in July. The next phases have been timed according to the age of those roofs.
The third, but not the least, objective is to pay down the mortgage we have carried since the addition was built. Our annual budget has a line for mortgage payments which equal $34,000, and of that, $17,000 last year was in interest to the bank. Our Finance Committee has found ways to make the allowable extra payments over the last few years, but the reduction is slow. Chip Hughes, along with the last three people who have held the position of Finance chair, had come to the same conclusion that we must find a way to pay this down, and those monies could then be used in more important ministry and mission areas. It is getting more and more difficult to balance budgets with this albatross around the neck.
With these three objectives in mind, we have estimated that we need to raise $480,000 to achieve everything. The beauty of this campaign is that we can do so much with whatever dollar amount we can raise. We have sort of staged the priorities into the following:
Goal #1 – We raise $100,000 which will then be matched by the Hughes family gift of $100,000, providing us with a total of $200,000. This would allow us to pay down enough of the mortgage that there will be room to allow for the rest in the future.
Goal #2 - $380,000 would allow us to complete the organ console and pay down mortgage entirely. We would then have room in the budget to save for the roofing needs down the road.
Goal #3 - $480,000 achieves all three objectives.So how do we do this? Here’s some quick math –
$480,000 minus Hughes family gift of $100,000 = $380,000 needed.
$380,000 represents about 1.37 times our annual pledge donations. So If each family could consider a campaign pledge of 1.37 times your individual pledge amount.
Then spread that out over 2022,2023, and 2024 if you like.
For an example, a family pledging $1000 per year could consider a campaign pledge of $1370 or $457 per year over the next 3 years. This is of course in addition to your regular pledge, which is absolutely needed first.
So over the next 6 weeks, we will be reaching out to everyone to hear from you, and to answer any questions you might have about these objectives. We’ll be offering group outdoor gatherings, like summertime “tea and cookies on the Rectory patio”, group discussions at church in the Parish Hall, and even individual phone calls. You can even request to be contacted the way you feel most comfortable. Please look for an email going out today with a summary of this campaign and it’s timing.
I want to personally thank the Hughes family for this gift, which reflects Chip’s desire to set the church on firm footing, and makes the whole goal come into the realm of possibility. I treasure the time I got to spend on finance matters with Chip, and his thoughtful consideration of the future. And I am grateful to all of you in advance for considering this donation. I also sincerely invite you to talk with me if this is not something that you can take on right now. I have ideas brewing which will need some volunteer time but may create a valuable contribution to the goal. I truly hope to involve everyone in the ways that we can dream up together. This is a very special place. I look forward to seeing you all.