Did you hear about the 50th Anniversary Campaign? It's incredible really. The stewardship team and the vestry coupled our 50th Anniversary Celebration with a 50th Anniversary Campaign. The goal is to raise $250,000 in order to shore up our infrastructure so St. Michaels is in a position to do great ministry for the next 50 years.  Here is the list of the things we need to get done. We need to fix the second part of the church roof, we need to replace the boiler, we need to pave the parking lot, we need to build an outreach matching grant fund and we need to retire our loan on the kitchen renovation. Oh that's right! We have already paid off the loan. "How did we do that?" Well let me tell you.  

 

            When the 50th Campaign idea was brought to the vestry, the vestry and stewardship team were challenged with making pledges to lead the campaign.  In the fall of 2010, the vestry and stewardship team members and their families pledged over $40,000. I was truly excited by our leadership's response to the campaign. We then began what was called the "quiet phase" of the campaign where we reached out to a small group of present members and past members of St. Michael's Church. The plan was to raise an additional $60,000 before the Annual Meeting in February of 2011. We did it! That's right. We did it! Through the generous lead gifts of some of our present membership and the support of past members we have pledges of nearly $110,000. Now here is the spectacular news. We have already received nearly $50,000 in paid pledges which has allowed us to pay off our loan on the kitchen renovation, which in turn we saved $6000 in loan payments for 2011. The $6000 was redirected into our operations budget and helped us in part to construct a surplus budget for 2011. Wow! Imagine all we have already done and we have not even started the public phase of the campaign. "So when does that begin?" I am glad you asked.

 

            During the 50 days of Easter, which falls between Easter Sunday, April 24th, and the feast of Pentecost, June 12th, we are going to invite lots of folks to join us in supporting our 50th Anniversary Campaign. First we are going to ask the general membership of St. Michaels, that means you, to make a pledge to the 50th Campaign. Now your gift can be a onetime gift or a gift given over one or two years.  The goal is every member of the parish participates at whatever level they feel God is calling them to participate. No gift is too small or insignificant. Each gift moves us towards our goal. But let me reassure you, we don't have to do all the heavy lifting ourselves. Like I said we are going to ask lots of folks to join the effort. "Like who?" Good question.

            I'll answer it with a question. Who else has a vested interest in the success and vitality of St. Michaels? The answer is the Diocese. We are part of a greater and broader community. We are part of the Diocese of Milwaukee and as part of that community we are going to ask our sister churches, the diocese and even the Bishop to give a gift to our campaign. When we raised money for our Sudan Project we invited the Diocese to join in and they did. We are also going to approach past members of St. Michaels who remember their time at St. Michaels and Racine fondly and want to be a part of securing its future.  

 

            So again we are not in this alone. We have already been blessed with past members giving nearly $25,000 toward the campaign. I am sure there are many more who would love to be a part of our 50th Celebration by giving a gift. If you know a past member who you think might want to be a part of this effort, please forward their name, address, phone number and email on to me personally and I will make sure they are contacted.

 

            I can't tell you how excited and pleased I am about where we are on the 50th Campaign.  We are more then 2/5 of the way to our goal and we haven't even started the campaign. We can do it! I want you to start praying about your gift to the 50th campaign. Start praying about now. Ask God what you should give and then ask Him how you will give it. Ask Him to provide for it. And he will. Remember we ask God to bless us so that we might be a blessing to others. We can do it because He will do it through us and for us.