Congregational Comfort Campaign
Psalm 8: 4-6 (NIV)
What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor. You made them rulers over the works of your hands.
Gen 1:28 (NIV)
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it”
In his Pocket Bible Commentary, William Neil says, “The psalmist speaks of man as the crown of creation (Ps 8), controlling the forces of nature, exploiting its natural resources. The author of this chapter (Gen 1) sees man’s status and function in the same way: privileged to run the world, but responsible and accountable to its Creator.”
What we are talking about is stewardship, being good caretakers of all of God’s creation. The staff and leaders here at SUMC strive to be good stewards of this building, of your tithes and offerings, and of our environment. This building is in use every day and we use lots of electricity. By using more efficient light bulbs and staging our heating and air conditioning we have reduced electrical consumption 24% over the last 3 years. This results in $10,000 annual savings.
One of the guiding principles of this congregation is no more debt. Eliminating our mortgage altogether will allow us to invest more heavily in ministry and missions. To this end the leadership established an emergency fund so we do not need to borrow money when those events occur. When SUMC member Pam Schmoll left money to this congregation in her will, $300,000 was used to reduce our mortgage. This will result in saved interest of $620,000 over the life of the mortgage. Our current mortgage balance is $949,000. If you have completed your mortgage campaign pledge, we thank you. If you did not participate in the last campaign or want to increase your gift, additional contributions can be made on line or by weekly offering. Please use the Capital/Mortgage fund.
The 6 heating and cooling units for the worship and office areas were built in 1998 and projected to last 15-18 years. They are rated as 80% efficient and have required repair over to last two winters. Many of the repair parts are obsolete and the time has come to replace these units. In the early days of this church, the congregation was asked to bring in coal or wood to burn and they just suffered through the heat and humidity of an Indiana summer. We are not asking you to swelter through any sermons nor do we want to install wood burning stoves around the worship area, but we do need your help.
The cost to replace these 6 units is $76,566. Pam’s bequeathal allowed us to set aside $60,000 for anticipated heating needs. How do we raise an additional $17,000 without using emergency funds or adding to our debt? This amazing congregation has been very generous in the past and has taken ownership of special campaigns like this. We ask that each member of SUMC prayerfully consider making a gift to the Congregational Comfort Campaign. This can be done in several ways. If you prefer the on line experience, please use the Church Improvement Fund. Special offering envelopes will be available starting the first of May or you may use the regular weekly offering. Please note Church Improvement Fund on the memo line of any check written. Any funds raised beyond those needed for this project will be kept in the improvement fund for future projects.
The new heating & cooling units will be more efficient than the old ones. This will reduce energy consumption even further.
The leadership team thanks Doug Lewis for his work in analyzing the equipment and securing bids for the work.
As a reminder, a letter about this campaign will be sent to every member of the congregation in early May so be expecting additional information. And remember, please recycle the envelope.
In Christ,
Phil Sell
Leadership Team