For years I've loved to loath the New England Patriots. How many times was Tom Brady down by two or more touchdowns with less than two minutes to play only to lead his team to victory? There was something about giving Brady the ball in the waning moments of a game which surely caused opposing coaches to think, "I don't know how we're going to lose this one, but..." On the other hand, if you were a Patriots fan, it must have been exciting and wonderful. Though you didn't know how it would happen, you had a really good feeling about how it would come out in the end.
I am enthralled by our church's giving at the end of the year. We give a little more than 1 in 6 of the dollars we give all year long in the last 10 days of the year. It makes for an adventure in the office and on the Finance Committee. And here we are again. In the next 9 days we need to give $453,127 to give what we spent in 2020. We need to give more than that to really be on the strongest footing to begin 2021.
Three weeks ago our giving through the first 49 weeks of the year was almost exactly what it had been through the same period in 2019, but in the past 2 weeks, we've fallen behind our usual trend line. (In 2019, we gave $602,370 during the same 2 weeks, but in 2020 we've given $279,291.) As of right now, we are $323,000 behind the trend line and therefore need $453,127 to accomplish what we've set out to do. So with that, here's the good news: in the last week of 2019 we gave more than what we need this year - we gave $473,588 during the last week last year!
Will we do it again this year? We certainly have the capacity. History is on our side. But this has been such a strange year. Maybe this is the year for which we built an operating reserve in the first place.
Maybe this is the year we surprise everyone and give more in the final 9 days than anyone imagined we could.
That thought, that possibility, brings me great joy. If it does you too, let's give now.
grace and truth,
Steve Wells
Pastor
