Serving God in the heart of our community since 1881

St Andrew's Church, Taunton

30 October 2005

St. Andrew's has been serving God in the heart of our community since 1881.  Those of us who attend the church share a vision for continuity and service in the future - we aim to discern God's will for us and faithfully to do his work.

During the next few weeks, culminating on Advent Sunday, we will be focussing on some of the practical implications of this vision and considering how we are being called by God to respond to the challenges, opportunities and aspirations that he has for St. Andrew's Church.

On Sunday 6th November at both the 8am and 10am services our Churchwardens Jean and Stephen will be sharing their thoughts on how sustainable church finances play an important role in turning our vision into reality.  They will outline the challenges that we face in paying for the running of the church day to day, and raising capital to maintain the building. They will explain how the money that we give is used both by St. Andrew's and by the Diocese of Bath and Wells. 

On Sunday 20th November our Vicar, Revd Julian Smith, will be sharing with us what the Bible says about giving, and offering some more ideas about how each of us can respond. We hope that this will act as a catalyst for prayerful consideration about how each of us supports the church financially.  We will all receive a leaflet to take away which will help us to consider how we can respond to these challenges. For those of us who feel called to make an immediate gift, special envelopes will be available to take away. We will also each receive a card on which to make a pledge to review our regular giving to the church, as a part of our overall charitable giving.

On Saturday 26th November the church will be open from 10am to 12 noon for a Thanks and Giving Day, and we warmly invite you to drop in to return the envelope and card, and have a chat with Julian, Jonathan, Stephen and Jean. We'll also be thanking God for all that our church has been, is, and will be in the future.  The "Thanks" part of the day is just as important as the "Giving".

On Advent Sunday, 27 November, our gifts and pledges will be offered to God and we will pray for wisdom to be effective stewards of his church, and for his strength and guidance during our future service to him in our community.

So, is this all about money?  We understand that it can be difficult to talk about money and giving, but we need to talk about it occasionally so that we don't have to worry about it all the time. We will be reminding ourselves throughout these few weeks that money is simply a means to an end. We need to ensure that our church finances are in order so that we can focus clearly on effectively doing God's work in the community.  Placed in this context, we hope that these few weeks of reflection will place us the position to respond with energy and enthusiasm to the challenges, opportunities and aspirations that God has for all of us at St. Andrew's, both as a church and as individuals.

READ "WHO PAYS FOR OUR CHURCH?"

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