My heart moves for them when they give us notification that the church is struggling to make money and need more donations. I do love paying my donations montly online by anonymous. I have suggested ways to help at the level of local church. I have suggested things like fridge magnets being sold of the church and cups etc and to use the heating less and even suggested my brother once who is a well known Economist if he could look over their books to try and see where money can be saved or made. There are things we can do to raise funds like putting on craft fairs and summer fetes etc.
Believe you me, I will still try and raise money in the local level and intend to write to some supermarkets to try and sponsor some local church’s, why not? I asked a company just recently if they could send some free magnets to them to sell also.
Looking at things at a wider level though I must point this out to you.
Jesus was all about living as humbly as we can. The vestements we use in the church today are no doubt beautiful. However, we could easily scale back on these expenses. Some are very expensive which is paid for by the Church fund. A beautiful stole is more than sufficient under a church gown to use for most services in the week that are not special. Strip these back and use these only at these special times in the calendar. Put on a stole and save money. We need to bring spending down though urgently. Of course this only applies to those church's who wear these type of religious ornaments. These things perish and hold no long lasting spiritual legacy.
I love the vestements, they are beautiful but can be overly expensive and we could close our eyes and do away with some of the usage. We need to look at too at the density and fabrics of other garments and see how these can be reduced in cost in other garments too when used.
May you can wrestle with this well to bring these costs down for the Lord and spend and save money in the most needed areas. We are all in this together, in one body.
As a 17 year old I was given a stole in church that cost about £20 and still have it and will be using it when I get confirmed and received in my church at the end of July. It is good and looks beautiful on my Catholic brothers in Europe who many use these to preach in Catholic services in the ordinary calendar.
It is time to get the scissors out cut out costs and see what you can do.
I am available to meet in person and see how we can bring income to the church and reduce costs.
