Support the Work

Here at Christ Church St Ives, we want you to Finish 2023 Well and Start 2024 Well. We together are God’s temple, the place God dwells and we want to honour him in what we do here and make sure we are loving and encouraging each other.  We want you to become more and more the visible picture of the Gospel that God desires us to be — we are praying you will be an engaged and committed contributor to all that happens here rather than a casual consumer.

The first thing we want you to think about is generosity, finances and giving.

Three principles, three pieces of information, three action items. So here we go:

Three principles

Principle 1 - We give generously not because of obligation or demand, but because of the incarnation - because Christ gave himself for us. Christians are called to give, no matter how little or how much we earn, because we are all thankful for Christ’s work in us. (2 Corinthians 8:8-9)

Principle 2 - We give generously as a crucial expression of discipleship and worship. And Christian people give to the work of their church first. (Galatians 6:6)

Principle 3 - We give generously as a forethought not as an afterthought. When giving is mentioned in the NT, it is planned, sacrificial and generous. People always want specific guidance on this and my guidance is - start with 10% of every pay packet and see how you go from there.   

Three pieces of information 

1. We are on target for congregational giving to meet budget for 2023 but this is only because of some generous large one-off gifts. We are very thankful for those gifts but it is the regular giving that enables us to budget well and plan the future work as good stewards. 

2. We no longer believe in end-of-year panic appeals but instead with good information, we want to encourage all of us towards greater and greater discipline and generosity as an expression of our wholehearted discipleship. 

3. The ministry of the church is paid for by the people of the church. There is no centralised mega-fund that gives us any money at all. We rely on the generosity of the saints here including me to give to the work here for the glory of God.   

Three action items 

1. Please know the enormous thankfulness that I and the entire staff have for your generosity in supporting the work. We do not take your gifts lightly or for granted. We are very thankful for your generosity and want to urge you to excel in the grace of giving. 

2. If you are not yet giving, please consider how you might be able to take action now to join the work and help us finish the year well. 

3. If you are already giving, please review your giving in preparation for 2024. For some your giving could go up. For some your giving may need to go down as your work situation has changed. Together we are praying we can increase regular giving in 2024. 

Let me again say, thank you. Thanks for your generous giving. Let’s finish well and start well in 2024. 

Take action and find out more about giving at Christ Church St Ives at: christchurch.com.au/give
Learn more about Finishing 2023 Well and Starting 2024 Well at: christchurch.com.au/2024