Annual Generosity Campaign:
Making Room for Abundance
Dear Friend,
Our Generosity Theme for the year ahead is “Making Room for Abundance” and includes an image of hands holding up fresh, green growth. Nestled among that growth is our own MCC logo. In this season, we embrace the call for MCC to share God’s abundant love with our neighbors by making room in our community, in our church, and in our hearts.
What does Making Room look like in the year ahead?
Making Room for…
We’re making room for our new associate pastor, Rev. Rachel Kirk, who joins the MCC team on Sunday, October 6, 2024. We’re making room in the building, but also in worship, meetings, and “the way we’ve always done things” for a second pastor to find welcome and be empowered to use her gifts.
We’re making our Children and Youth ministry a priority. In August we offered all day extended care for families at Vacation Bible School. This fall, our Children’s Coordinator, Amy Miller, is working behind the scenes to help teachers create a fun, engaging, and affirming Sunday School experience week after week. The Middle School Youth Group welcomed a record 18 participants last month, while the High School Youth Group started planning their first summer service trip in over ten years.
Making room for you
At MCC, connection is the goal. By supporting our existing groups like Thursday night Mindfulness or Wednesday morning Coffee and Conversation, we’re building on relationships that have been vital to our community; and we’re looking at new ways to connect people through small groups, seasonal programs, and organizing volunteers.
Ultimately, we’re making room in our hearts for God’s vision at MCC: a growing community of abundant love and inclusive belonging for our neighbors, and a more just and generous world for all God’s people.
The goal
We’ve set an annual goal of raising $446,000 for our General Operating Budget through planned contributions, a 5% increase from the previous year. To help meet our goal, we’re also making room in our financial planning for a new generation of givers. Beginning in 2025 you are invited to contribute to our ongoing operational budget in one of two ways:
Submit an Annual Pledge for 2025
This is a MCC tradition that has served us well for decades whereby pledges make up the operating budget for the year ahead. If you’d like to make a 2025 pledge, simply fill out the form that lets us know what you intend to contribute.
Become a Sustaining Giver
By choosing one of our two electronic giving options and declaring that you would like to become a Sustaining Giver, MCC will assume your automatic contributions will continue until told otherwise.
The first electronic option is to use our online giving platform at middletonucc.org/give. While there is a fee to use, advantages of using our online giving platform include being able to set up a username and password to establish, manage, and track ongoing contributions.
The second electronic option is to set up a fee-free, recurring ACH contribution initiated by MCC. This option requires completing a form and submitting a voided check to the church office. Managing and tracking is performed by MCC’s Financial Secretary.
Why become a Sustaining Giver?
What’s good for you is good for us. Sustained giving adds stability to our church budget that has historically fluctuated throughout the year based on worship attendance and holidays. The invitation to become a Sustaining Giver will be available year round, making room for new givers, and allows for gradual changes to giving, as compared to the exclusive annual stewardship campaign. By setting up your ongoing gift today, you are making an immediate difference in the life of our community.
By making an annual pledge, or becoming a sustaining giver, you join over 100 households who fund the day-to-day operations of Middleton Community UCC. We’re faithfully creating places of love and belonging for our neighbors through passionate worship, meaningful relationships, and an invitation to generously serve others. We do all of this because we believe that when God’s beloved community is strengthened a more just and generous world is possible.
Here are two tools to reference as you discern how you are being called to join us in this work: a Proportional Giving Table based on income, and a Step Chart showing the levels of giving across our congregation. By filling out the below Generosity Campaign form, as soon as you are able, you empower MCC to become a place of Love and Belonging for our neighbors in the year ahead. To submit your pledge, please click below:
In worship on Sunday, November 17, 2024, we will take the opportunity to celebrate Generosity Sunday and offer prayers of blessing and thanksgiving for the many ways MCC acts with increasingly generous hearts. We hope you will make room in your own plans to join us in funding the year ahead.
In Gratitude,
Your MCC 2025 Generosity Committee:
Brook DesRivieres, Nicholas Cupery, Liz Fritz, Brian Koenig, Bill Love, Sue Perry, Alin Pop-Vicas, and Pastor Zayna Thomley
Helpful Links
2025 Stewardship Pledge Form (online) [PDF]
Download a paper copy of the form [PDF]. Contact the church office if you need a paper copy mailed to you.
EFT/ACH Authorization Form [PDF]
Proportional Giving Table [PDF]
Grow One Step Graphic [PDF]