The Stewardship Ministry continues its focus on communicating our church’s financial workings and our fundraising efforts. “Stewardship” is another word for “caretaking,” and we do our best to make sure everyone knows what is needed to keep our church running and how best everyone can help. As you know, due to our Congregational polity, the business of the church – and the funding needed for its operation – are all in the hands of our members. Yes, it’s all up to me and you!
We have a lot of hard workers at Oldtown, but we are always in need of new helpers and new leaders. As new people join our church family, it is important that new people also become involved in our different ministries and fundraising efforts. Your Stewardship Ministry can help you find where your interests and passions coincide with the efforts of the different ministries at Oldtown.
The Oldtown Website–www.oldtownucc.org–continues to be an excellent way to introduce people to Oldtown, as well as keeping up on the calendar of church events and reading worship bulletins online and copies of Pastor Kelly’s sermons. Our online giving program is going well, providing many with the convenience of scheduling their offerings to be deducted from their checking account or credit card regularly, which is an excellent way to make sure to keep up with your pledged giving. This year, we have also added the ability to sign up online to help with our suppers and other fundraising events at www.oldtownucc.org/signup. This allows everyone to see what help we need while showing us how many helpers we have for each event, and know when we need to ask for more help in order to make our events successful. It even sends email reminders to those who have signed up a few days before the event.
In the coming year, we have some new exciting ideas for helping to grow our congregation and increase our income and fundraising. Please let us know if you’d like to join us.
~ Jim Fennell, for the Oldtown Stewardship Ministry