Dear Parish Family,
Happy Easter! Christ is risen!
Many people have shared with me and other parish leaders how meaningful Easter was for them this year, thanks to everyone who contributes in so many ways to make these celebrations and the life of our parish possible. In addition to the wonderful celebrations, we had the greatest quantity of people celebrating with us in a long while! The great news is that this isn’t something we’ve noticed just during Easter week, but every week, and it’s a sign of something important: our parish is growing. God is sending the people to us; He is on the move, drawing hearts to Himself, and we are entering a season of real opportunity to help many people encounter Jesus and grow as His disciples. Across our community, we anticipate ongoing growth, with more families settling in the area and more people seeking Jesus through the sacraments and joining our parish each year. We are already seeing lives being touched and hearts being drawn closer to Christ. To respond well to this moment, we need to be intentional in planning for the future. These plans include:
- Hiring staff to improve programs, worship, and community opportunities we offer;
- Updating the physical building: our worship space, hall, and offices;
- Investing in leadership development and making disciples.
All of this requires a stable and sustainable financial foundation.
After careful consideration of how to support this growth and these initiatives, we need to aim for an annual budget of $800,000. At present, our annual revenue is about $650,000 per year. While this is an impressive number, it does not meet our current operating budget and will not allow us to meet our needs in the next few years, meet the demands of a growing population of Catholics in our area, and meet the demands of the Gospel that we propose Jesus to others and make disciples of all peoples (Matt 28:19).
So I would like to invite every member of our parish to prayerfully consider how you might respond. I pray that God will inspire and excite many of you to an increased generosity.
We are calling this initiative “Funding the Vision: Become a Mission Partner.”
$800,000 seems like such a large goal, but to help us see the goal as more accessible, we are introducing the idea of breaking that sum into 400 “units” of $2000/year (or about $160/month). Some may be able to commit to one unit or more. Others may begin with half a unit. What matters most is that each of us responds as we are able, with generosity and faith. If you already contribute, this will take the place of your current offerings. If you’re not giving at the moment, we invite you to prayerfully consider how you might help us reach this goal.
We ask one person from each household to fill out a simple, anonymous commitment form to help us understand how much everyone is able to commit and what growth we can accomplish. We are not following up with or pressuring anyone to keep their commitments. The form is anonymous and will help us discern what we can move forward with as a parish at this time.
The commitment form will be open for about a month, giving everyone time to pray and ask God how He may be inviting them to give, remembering that God is never outdone in generosity.
Reaching this goal will allow us to move forward with confidence, investing in our parish, supporting our mission, and using our existing reserves for much-needed improvements to our buildings and spaces in wonderful ways.
If we are not able to reach this goal, we will need to carefully reassess our plans and potentially delay or scale back some of these initiatives. In that sense, as a parish, we’ll be expressing our commitment through how we give, as we discern whether to move forward with this mission in response to the growth God is granting us.
God is blessing our community with growth, and if it is God’s will, He will also provide each of us with the financial means to make a greater impact in the lives of those in our surrounding community, and in the lives of our family members and friends. Let us respond to God’s desire for growth and build together so we can truly be a parish that is explosively alive in the Holy Spirit, strengthened in community, and transforming the world for Jesus.
Please prayerfully consider to what degree you can partner with what God is doing here, and help us build the vision He has for us at Holy Trinity Parish.
May the Easter blessings of this Holy season come upon you and your loved ones in a noticeable and refreshing way!
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Tim Devine CC
Pastor