Finance
2023 Stewardship Campaign – Did You Know?
We have an exciting church wide study for this year’s Stewardship Campaign entitled "Did You Know".
Each week, a Stewardship Committee representative will inform our congregation in basic terms and relatable to their personal experiences where their contributions are used and why it is important to pledge. Our campaign is called Did You Know? Our goal is to communicate to you where and how your contributions are used here at FUMC and why it is important to pledge. We will look at four of the largest pieces of our budget over the next four weeks:
o September 24/25 - Did you know that in the United Methodist Church we pay for all the housing costs for the pastor? We are guessing you have noticed how prices for maintaining your home have increased recently. This also applies to the parsonage. In the United Methodist Church, the congregation provides the housing and associated costs for the pastor regardless of if the pastor is fresh out of seminary or if the pastor is nearing retirement. But did you know that our parsonage is paid off? This is wonderful news. The costs associated with maintaining this home is approximately $15000/ year for things like taxes, utilities, and repairs. It doesn’t even include the insurance since that is bundled with the church building! Yes, over $1000/month. This congregation has been faithful towards our pastors with the support and maintenance of this home. In 2023 we expect these costs to continue to rise. We ask your support in completing the pledge cards and consider increasing what you are currently giving by 10%. So, if you are currently giving $30/week, would you be able to give $33/week for 2023? Prayerfully consider the ways you can continue to support this congregation and complete your pledge card by Oct 16. Thank you.
Luke 12: 34 – for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
o October 1/2 - This is week two of our Stewardship Campaign. This week the Stewardship Committee will be highlighting the largest piece of our budget - staff expenses. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics published in May of this year that consumer prices were up 8.6 percent over the previous year. This shows what we have all been seeing at the grocery store and gas pumps. Irwin First United Methodist Church has a paid staff of eleven people. These individuals work long hard hours most of which go unnoticed by this congregation, but these eleven people keep our church running in every way - from worship, to fellowship, to outreach, they are supporting everything that we do. Forty plus ministries, the mission of our church, would fail if not for these eleven dedicated individuals. In 2022 our budget for staff salaries and wages was $186,701.23. In 2023, this number will increase. While some may look at this number of 186.7 thousand dollars as a huge sum, please consider that this is spread among eleven people and if these people were bringing their talents and skills along with their experience into any other industry, but a church, they would earn two to three times what we pay them. These people view their work as a ministry. We pay them sometimes barely enough to cover the cost of gas to get here. When looking at your pledge cards, please consider our staff. Please talk about your pledge in your family. Please pray over your pledge as a family and please return your pledge on or before Consecration Sunday in two weeks. Thank you.
Romans 4:4 “Now to one who works, wages are not reckoned as a gift but as something due.”
o October 8/9 – This is week three of our Stewardship Campaign. Today we will be highlighting our church building. Did you know that to properly maintain a building that you should be spending 1-4% of its value per year? Our church is over 75 years old and so is our infrastructure, electric, heat, and water. Did you know that our church was once a designated bomb shelter? Our walls and floors are 12-18 inches thick so any repairs or improvements need to go through these structures. Did you know that we recently replaced a flat roof that was leaking badly and damaged the room under it? Did you know that when this sanctuary was built there were members that mortgaged their homes to have it completed? Did you know that our forefathers had a clear vision as to the financial needs and developed an endowment fund from which we receive quarterly interest payments to help defer the costs of repairs? This is definite help, but is insufficient to cover major repairs. When prayerfully considering your pledge cards, please remember our beautiful building and the forty plus ministries it houses
o October 15/16 - Consecration Sunday - Our first United Methodist church family is very similar to your family at home when it comes to needing to take care of many things. The first is simply providing shelter. Providing a home for our pastor, along with maintaining it, heating it in the winter, cooling it in the summer, and keeping the lights on year -round. The church family must also provide shelter for our services every week, as such it is also more comfortable during service when it is warm during winter months and cool in the summer, not to mention that it’s easier to see when the lights are on as well. Now maintaining a building like this magnificent church requires a whole staff and a good bit of funds to keep it clean and make repairs as needed. On top of that what is a church without a pastor? To have our pastor here at FUMC we have to pay him a salary, pay into the UMC pension fund and pay for health care. At home I suppose you like to eat from time to time and the church in a similar fashion feeds the community on a frequent basis, not just spiritually. Unfortunately, as you could imagine a family of hundreds can be quite expensive and the facilities to house such a family are extensive and expensive when it comes to maintenance. Every good family member plays a role in the home. Whether it is providing money so that you can keep a roof over your head, or labors and chores so that you can live in a clean and comfortable home. In the same way we all need to be good family members of the church. The stewardship committee is asking you to reflect if you are contributing to your church family at the level, they need you to both with your labor and your funds.
Please prayerfully complete thie Financial Commitment card and return to the ushers, or the offering box, or to the church office no later than October 16, Thank you for your prayers and support!
FINANCIAL COMMITMENT CARD – 2023
Galatians 6:7 – “A man reaps what he sows.”
I covenant with God to financially support my church and its ministries through the giving of my first fruits to:
_____ Commit to $ ______ per (circle one) weekly/ monthly/ annually for the ministries and missions and administrative (general budget code 200)
_____Commit to $ ______ per (circle one) weekly/ monthly/ annually for the $2 Buck campaign (connectional apportionments)
_____Commit to $______ per (circle one) weekly/ monthly/ annually for designated offering (insert code from reverse side) ____________
TOTAL Commit to $ ______ per (circle one) weekly/ monthly/ annually
I/We will provide this either through the worship offering, a mailed envelope to the church, or through Tithely.com online giving
Sign Name ____________________________________________ Envelope # ___________
Please turn over for the Codes to designated offerings
Contribution Key Codes for Designated Offerings - Write In
200 General Fund
514 $2 Fund
701 Utilities
500 Connectional Apportionment
80 Memorial
215 Love Offering
361 Food Bank
45 PDF
226 Communion
232 Thanksgiving
324 Brown Bag/CommDinner
217 Easter
211 Palm Sunday
212 Maunday Thursday
213 Good Friday
216 Lent
87 Wendells Vision
40 Youth
13 VBS
Cafe
Boiler Repair
Existing Ministries at FUMC
Presently, 47 Ministries exist within the body of FUMC. Prayerfully consider where you fit in. If you are not familiar with these ministries, reach out to the contact person to learn more about the ministry. If a ministry you are interested in is not listed here, reach out to our Pastors to help you establish a ministry to use your times and talents in the way God is calling you to do.
Administrative committees such as finance, trustees, staff parish, council
Altar Flowers
Blessing Box
Brown Bag meals
Adult Chancel Choir
Adult Cathedral Bells
Adult Sunday School classes
Bulletin Ministry
Camp coordinating
Caring Closet
Children’s ministry
Community Dinner
Communication through Facebook, the outside sign, the Newsletter, our website.
Communion Stewards
Dance Ministry
Decorating the sanctuary
Drama Ministry
Emergency Food boxes for those in need
Food Bank
Funeral dinners
Good Grief
Greeters
Hospitality sending greeting cards or emails to those in hospital or recovering/dealing with grief
Irwin Senior Center
Living Last Supper
Media/Technology Team
Nurture Outreach Witness
Prayer Shawl
Prayer team
Quilting Ministry
Red Cross Blood Bank
Salvation Army
Scrapbooking
Sonshiners Choir – elementary age
Sunday School
Temple Bells - Youth
Temple Chimes – Elementary age
Teens All for Christ Choirs
UM Men
UM Women
Ushers
Visitation Team
Wendell’s Vision – construction team
Worship – Contemporary on Saturday evening with dinner and Traditional on Sunday morning
Youth Ministry – Boy Scouts/Girl Scouts/Sunday School
Youth Sunday School classes
Vacation Bible School
Finance Committee Ways Of Giving
GIVING TO OUR CHURCH THROUGH UNITED WAY! Many of you are already contributing to United Way from your paycheck. You can give that portion to First UM of Irwin! The campaigns for United Way are usually held in September at your place of employment. Please tell them that you would like your portion of giving to go to your church! You will need our church code to do this donation online.
If you work in Westmoreland County the church code is: 416719.
If you work in Allegheny County the church code is: 11850302.
Thank you for your ongoing support!
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DO YOU LIKE TO PAY YOUR BILLS ONLINE? If so, you can designate First United Methodist Church as a bill payee. The address is 310 Oak Street, Irwin, PA. 15642. You can elect the amount you would like the church to receive and the number of times to “pay” the church. Use your envelope number as the requested account number. The bank will then send a check to the church. The office will process the check the same as we do for Sunday envelopes.
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The General Council on Finance and Administration is proud to be in partnership with Tribute to present UMCmarket.org -- the online portal designed for United Methodists to shop online at a variety of retailers who will donate to your local church or other United Methodist entity, to help you raise funds for ministry.
Visit umcmarket.org, establish your free, online account and support our FUMC ministry by creating donations.
1. Enter your email address
2. Type a nickname for you account
3. Create a password
4. Select a state (PA) and a city (Irwin.) A list of the UM churches and related organizations in the Irwin area will appear.
5. Select “Irwin First United Methodist Church”
6. Click “Signup”
7. At this point you may click on any of the available categories that may interest you or simply click “Skip” to continue.
8. Watch the short video clip which demonstrates how to shop using UMC Market.
9. Shop from among thousands of retailers. Each retailer will show what percentage of your donation will be given to our church. When you are finished shopping follow the procedure each store has to “Checkout” your items and make the necessary payment.
UMC Market will automatically receive notification of your sale and will place the funds in their “FUMC” account. When their “FUMC” account reaches $100.00, UMC Market will send a check for that amount to our church.
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AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service. Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice.
Start your shopping by going to smile.amazon.com
1. If you already have an Amazon account you may log into it at this time.
2. If you don’t have an Amazon account, it is easy to create one following the instructions on the screen.
a. Enter the name you want on the account
b. Enter your email address. Re-type your email address
c. Create a password. Re-type your password
d. Click on the “Create an Account” button
3. Select a charitable organization
a. Type First United Methodist Church Irwin, PA
b. When the listing organizations appears on the screen, select “First United Methodist Church” Irwin, PA.
c. Click in the box that reads “I understand that I must always start at smile.amazon.com to support “First United Methodist Church” Irwin, PA.
4. Click on the “Start Shopping” button
5. Shop any of the thousands of stores available on Amazon. When you have completed your shopping click on “Proceed to Checkout.”
6. Follow the instructions for shipping and payment.
7. Place your order. You will notice near your order number is a notation that you are supporting “First United Methodist Church.”
It’s that simple! You have your Amazon shopping done and, you have helped to support our church.
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• using an on-line banking service such as http:/tithe.ly With Tithe.ly you can track your giving, be assured that your giving is secured using SSL with 256-bit encryption, and give using all major credit cards. Just download the app on your phone or PC and you can set up your giving. Look for FUMC Irwin after you download the app and the app will help you to set up one time giving, or you can set it up for automatic giving as I did and have it set to give the 1st and 15th of the month. It is easy and safe and allows you to track your giving.
The General Council on Finance and Administration is proud to be in partnership with Tribute to present UMCmarket.org -- the online portal designed for United Methodists to shop online at a variety of retailers who will donate to your local church or other United Methodist entity, to help you raise funds for ministry.
Visit umcmarket.org, establish your free, online account and support our FUMC ministry by creating donations.
10. Enter your email address
11. Type a nickname for you account
12. Create a password
13. Select a state (PA) and a city (Irwin.) A list of the UM churches and related organizations in the Irwin area will appear.
14. Select “Irwin First United Methodist Church”
15. Click “Signup”
16. At this point you may click on any of the available categories that may interest you or simply click “Skip” to continue.
17. Watch the short video clip which demonstrates how to shop using UMC Market.
18. Shop from among thousands of retailers. Each retailer will show what percentage of your donation will be given to our church. When you are finished shopping follow the procedure each store has to “Checkout” your items and make the necessary payment.
UMC Market will automatically receive notification of your sale and will place the funds in their “FUMC” account. When their “FUMC” account reaches $100.00, UMC Market will send a check for that amount to our church.
Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice.
AmazonSmile is the same Amazon you know. Same products, same prices, same service.
Start your shopping by going to smile.amazon.com
8. If you already have an Amazon account you may log into it at this time.
9. If you don’t have an Amazon account, it is easy to create one following the instructions on the screen.
a. Enter the name you want on the account
b. Enter your email address. Re-type your email address
c. Create a password. Re-type your password
d. Click on the “Create an Account” button
10. Select a charitable organization
a. Type First United Methodist Church Irwin, PA
b. When the listing organizations appears on the screen, select “First United Methodist Church” Irwin, PA.
c. Click in the box that reads “I understand that I must always start at smile.amazon.com to support “First United Methodist Church” Irwin, PA.
11. Click on the “Start Shopping” button
12. Shop any of the thousands of stores available on Amazon. When you have completed your shopping click on “Proceed to Checkout.”
13. Follow the instructions for shipping and payment.
14. Place your order. You will notice near your order number is a notation that you are supporting “First United Methodist Church.”
It’s that simple! You have your Amazon shopping done and, you have helped to support our church.
Finance Committee Responsibilities
The primary task of the Committee on Finance is to propose, raise, manage, and distribute the resources of the congregation to support and strengthen the mission and ministry of the congregation.
Responsibilities
1. To build an annual budget to support the mission and ministry of the congregation and to submit it to the Church Council for approval.
2. To develop and carry out plans to raise enough income to support the budget that has been approved.
3. To carry out instructions about allocations from the Church Council.
4. To guide the work of the Treasurer and the Financial Secretary.
5. To arrange for an annual audit of the records of financial officers and to report to the Charge Conference.
6. To be accountable to the Charge Conference through the Church Council