Topic “Stewardship at Bethlehem”
There But For the Grace of God Go I
By Ted Contag, Stewardship Ministry Team
On a cold snowy Friday in early February my business partner and I closed our offices and took our team to St. Paul to serve meals to homeless people through a program called JESUS Delivers. Modeled after the home grocer, Simon Delivers, the ministry serves about 250 lunches 4 to 5 times per week to the St. Paul homeless community using a mobile kitchen and lay ministry volunteers.
After a quick tour of the mobile kitchen, we went to work preparing the food.
Bethlehem Responds Generously to Haiti
The January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti devastated their country and has affected more than three million citizens. Bethlehem members responded immediately and generously, donating over $60,000 in the span of 3 weeks. Thank you for your outpouring of support! Our gifts will go to the ELCA Disaster Response of which 100% will be sent directly to Haiti. If you'd like to see more about ways in which your dollars are at work take a look at the Haiti Earthquake Relief page on the ELCA website.
2 Corinthians 4:7
By Judy Thompson, Stewardship Ministry Team
When we build on God's generosity to us, a seed is planted and we begin to grow to a place more in line with God's orientation.
A story is told about John D. Rockefeller's younger years. The tycoon was always on-the-go and rarely able to rest. He went from meeting to meeting facing the chance of success or failure each time. Soon it became clear that Rockefeller was putting his very health at stake.
Generosity Abounds
by Gary Nelson, Stewardship Ministry Team
Just as I was getting ready to recap a fabulous year of generosity at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, I came across a news article that ranked the Minneapolis-St.Paul metro area as the sixth most generous in the U.S. Shortly after that, I saw another article that ranked Minneapolis-St. Paul as the #1 metro area in the country for volunteerism-for the third year in a row!
Then there's the story of generosity at Bethlehem. The story started generations ago, and continues today.
Share the Spirit Final Report
The Share the Spirit Capital Campaign which officially started in March of 2006 closed its books as of December 31, 2009. $2,560,733 was received from 712 contributors. This represents about 93% of our goal of $2,744,304. Add to that interest and contributions from the Bethlehem Foundation and BLCW and the total received was $2,612,531.
Year-End Giving
It's that time again! As we count our blessings here are some giving options you may want to consider:
- Stock - A gift of stock can be deducted from your income tax at fair market value and will allow you to avoid capital gains tax.
- Simply Giving - This may be a good time to consider electronic giving through Simply Giving. This is a convenient way to give because there's no need to write checks or bring cash to church, and Bethlehem receives your contribution even if you are unable to attend.
