Forward into the Future...with Glad and Generous Hearts

Breathe on me, breath of God,
Fill me with life anew,
That I may love what thou dost love,
And do what thou wouldst do.

Our church has been engaged in a planning process for the past two years in order for us to move forward
into the future. From these plans, we have aspirations.

"Forward into the Future" is half of our theme for our Campaign to raise funds to breathe new life and energy
into our programs. For a church of our size, we need better staffing. We aspire to hire a third minister,
one with a focus on children and youth, in order to invest in the future of our congregation and our society.
This will allow our senior staff to devote more time to adult activities and spiritual nurture. We aspire to
renovate office space in the Meetinghouse into functional and creative classroom space. We aspire to upgrade the Minister of Music position to full-time. We must address the safety concerns of the steeple chimes
and electrical system. We aspire to reach out to our larger Christian community by supporting the renovations to Silver Lake Conference Center, our state's UCC summer camp/retreat center. We hope to paint and re-carpet the Sanctuary.

"With Glad and Generous Hearts" is the second part of our Campaign theme. It's officially summer, and our attention turns to family get-togethers and barbeques, vacation, outside recreation, spending time with friends, finding time to relax and read a beach novel, and generally enjoying the longer days of the season. What we do not think about is pledging.

Yet week after week, our church life continues. While many of the programs are on break, our community
still gathers for worship and summer church school. The Family Life Committee has arranged some fun
activities. Our staff is busy planning for the fall. And "Forward to the Future...With Glad and Generous
Hearts", our church's campaign to raise funds to support the staffing, safety and space needs of our
congregation, still needs your pledge or gift. The Campaign Committee has received approximately
$310,000 in pledges and gifts towards our $470,575 goal. A heartfelt "Thank you!" is extended to all of
you who have blessed our congregation with your commitment. However, we still need the support of all
of our families in order to reach our goal and fulfill our aspirations.

We ask you, after prayerful consideration, to allow us to move into the future boldly with your financial pledge if you have not yet done so. If you have been putting it off, please send your pledge in today.

Pledges may be paid over a period of 4 years, beginning in July 2007, and may be made in one of several ways: lump sum, annually, biannually, quarterly, monthly or weekly. Gifts of appreciated stock may be made, or if eligible, through an IRA charitable rollover. Information on Ways to Give may be found in the "Forward Into the Future" packet available in the church office or narthex. Thank you.

During our recent Prayer Campaign, the children in our Church School were asked to compose prayers for
our church. They were quite wonderful. One, written by a 5th Grader, sums up what we are hoping to
achieve:

Thank you God for our church. Our church helps me to understand your love.
Our church helps others by giving donations but also hope.
God is the source of our strength. I have learned that love is stronger than hate and the way to happiness.
Thank you for the people who teach in, support and maintain our church.
We pray that our church stays happy and healthy so we can worship you Week after Week.

With such blessings in our midst, how can we do anything but move joyously Forward into the Future...with Glad and Generous Hearts?