Capital Campaign: A Different Way To Give
This Sunday, we kick off our capital campaign, “Rooted in Faith, Growing to Serve.” I hope you will come to the Adult Forum at 10:00 a.m. in the parish hall and learn about the campaign. We will describe the vision behind this effort, what we hope to accomplish, why it matters, and how you can be involved. We will invite you to sign up to attend a small-group gathering in a parishioner’s home where you can learn more and ask more detailed questions. I am excited about this campaign and look forward to sharing the details with you.
In this article, I want to describe the difference between our annual giving stewardship efforts and the capital campaign with the goal of helping you think about the different ways you give to our church and how your gifts can be most effective.
Churches like ours depend upon your financial gifts in three different ways: annual giving, special giving, and planned giving. Because we are Anglicans and have a particular affection for three-legged stools, we might think of these three components as the foundation upon which a healthy church’s finances are built. But, not unlike Richard Hooker’s use of the tripartite theological warrants of scripture, tradition, and reason, the three legs of our stool are not evenly balanced.
In his work, Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, Hooker defends Anglicanism and the Church of England against the criticism of the Reformed Christians associated with Puritanism. They believed that the English church, with its bishops and eucharistic rituals, had not gone far enough in embracing the tenets of the Protestant Reformation and its call for sola scriptura. Hooker countered with a detailed analysis of the ways in which the universal church depends not only upon the Bible but also upon the traditions passed down from the apostles and the intellect of contemporary Christians. Nevertheless, Hooker knew that, while scripture cannot be the only law that governs human life, the guidance contained with God’s Word, as God’s principal revelation to humanity, including in the incarnate Word, Jesus Christ, must be primary.
In effect, Hooker’s three-legged stool is more like a tricycle—with a large, leading wheel that controls and guides the other two, which, although necessary, remain subordinate to the first. The same is true in church finances. A healthy church is supported by planned giving and special giving, but the driving force behind a church’s finances—and the spiritual life of its congregation—is the annual giving of stewardship.
Although St. Paul’s is supported by our endowment and restricted gifts, 76% of our operating budget comes from your annual giving. In addition, 11% comes from rental income and 3% is from miscellaneous sources. Only 10% comes from the endowment. When you put a check or cash in the offering plate, give online, or make a stock transfer, your gifts make ministry at St. Paul’s possible. Your participation in our annual giving campaign is essential for the financial health of our church. Even more importantly, it is the primary way that each of us practices the spiritual discipline of financial stewardship, which helps us grow in faith by aligning our priorities with those of God’s reign.
Stewardship is about sacrificial, proportional, first-fruits giving. Whether you give to St. Paul’s or to another organization that carries out God’s work in the world, when you decide to give a portion of your income that shapes the rest of your budget in response to that gift, you offer yourself to God more fully. By participating in our annual giving campaign, you invite God to be the first priority of your financial life. That is essential for our spiritual growth, and it should be your first goal. Both as a parish and as individuals, annual giving is the front wheel of our financial tricycle.
We recently completed the “Tell Out My Soul” annual giving campaign. If you have not yet turned in an estimate of giving card for 2026, please do so. The vestry is working on a budget for next year, and we need to hear from you before we can make that budget. If you plan to share some of your bounty with St. Paul’s in the coming year, please let us know an estimate of your giving now: https://tinyurl.com/stpaulsfay-2026giving. Only after you have made a commitment to annual giving should you consider making a gift to the capital campaign or to the endowment.
Planned giving is the second wheel of our financial tricycle, and planned gifts are usually made through an estate. I hope that you have a will and that, if you have already been able to take care of your family’s financial needs, you will remember St. Paul’s and other charitable institutions in your estate planning. In addition to giving to the church through your will, you can make St. Paul’s the beneficiary of your retirement savings account or life insurance policy. You can set up a charitable remainder trust or other estate giving plan. If you want to know more about vehicles for planned gifts, please let me know.
Through planned gifts, you can give to our endowment and ensure that your generosity will help St. Paul’s for generations to come. We have several endowed funds that make up our endowment and that allow individuals to contribute to specific areas of ministry like music, outreach, and the care of our historic properties. Our church’s endowment has grown in recent years, but income from our investments still only makes up 10% of our annual operating expenses. I encourage you to consider endowing your annual gift by making a planned gift of twenty times your yearly pledge to ensure that St. Paul’s does not experience a shortfall when you are no longer able to make your annual contribution.
The final wheel of our church’s financial tricycle is special giving, which includes the capital campaign. In churches like ours, almost all of our expenses are met through annual giving, but sometimes there are financial needs that fall outside the budget. In smaller churches, the breakdown of an HVAC unit could require a special giving campaign—either by calling a few wealthy parishioners or holding a targeted capital campaign. Because of your generosity, we are able to handle even expensive maintenance items through our yearly budget, yet there are still needs that go beyond what we can afford through our annual giving.
As you will hear about on Sunday, several years ago, our vestry decided to purchase some property that is contiguous to St. Paul’s because we knew that it would be an important asset for the growth of our church. In addition, the roofs on our parish hall and church have surpassed their expected lives, and they need to be replaced. Our kitchen appliances, including the dishwasher, walk-in cooler, and walk-in freezer, need to be replaced. Our buildings and grounds need to be improved so that they can be accessible to everyone, and we need a new church van or bus that can help people get to church. All of those are important and urgent needs, and we need special giving through a capital campaign to respond to them.
St. Paul’s is an incredibly generous church. Our people continue to open their hearts and their wallets to make God’s work possible in their lives and in our congregation. Our church is recognized in our community as an organization that cares about its neighbors and that seeks to share its bounty with those in need. Thank you for all that you give to our church through your annual gifts, planned gifts, and special gifts. I look forward to what this capital campaign will make possible at St. Paul’s, and I look forward to seeing how our deep and generous roots will help us grow and serve for years to come.
Yours faithfully,
Evan D. Garner
