
Dear St. John’s Church Family,
Each fall, as we budget and begin planning financially for the following calendar year, we invite you to consider how you will support the mission and ministries of St. John’s United Methodist Church through your financial giving.
The theme for this year’s stewardship campaign is “Our Mission & Money Story.”
This stewardship season, we will ask ourselves what new story God is inviting us to write that weaves together our mission and money into a narrative of hope and joy. In the weeks leading up to Commitment Sunday, we will have opportunities to reflect on the themes of remembering, releasing, and reimagining both in worship and through a weekly devotion.
Week 1 Devotion (October 4)
Week 2 Devotion (October 13)
Week 3 Devotion (October 20)
With the rising costs of printing and mailings, our campaign will primarily be digital this year. Each week of the campaign, we will email a Stewardship Newsletter that we invite you to read as you consider what you will pledge for 2025. We will provide a few printed copies for those who do not have digital access. If you are not receiving emails from the church, please ask Lynn Cooper (office@stjohnsbr.org), our Administrative Assistant, to include you going forward.
When you are ready to complete your 2025 pledge, please visit: stjohnsbr.org/pledge-2025.
We will also have printed pledge cards available in the Narthex and church office.
We will gather for one combined worship service on Commitment Sunday, October 27 at 10:00 a.m. followed by a Potluck luncheon. We hope you will make plans to join us that morning as we offer our commitments as an act of worship followed by a time of fellowship and celebration.
We give deep thanks for the ongoing story of St. John’s UMC and for your continued generosity of spirit, efforts, energy, and gifts. The mission of St. John’s is made possible only through your investment in it. We look forward to this special season in the life of our congregation and for the opportunities we will have to tell and create our story.
With gratitude and expectation,
Rev. Lane Cotton Winn, Lead Pastor, and Maureen Robertson, Finance Committee Chairperson


Budget Breakdown Information
- The 2025 budget is projected to be $687,102. This total is an increase of $48,064 from our 2024 budget of $639,038.
- In 2024, our pledges total $512,832, which is 82% of our anticipated revenue this year. We receive additional income from non-pledged contributions, building usage fees, and unidentified gifts given in the offering plates. To fully fund the increase to our budget, we will need to see an increase in pledges. If all 105 households who pledged this year gave $5 more every week, we could raise an additional $27,300 for the 2025 budget.
- Significant increases are included in the operations portion of the budget to enable us to take care of some deferred maintenance and upgrades on our church campus as well as the parsonage. Additionally, the Board of Trustees has included $24,000 in the 2025 budget to rebuild our reserve funds, which we have depleted over the past several years from unforeseen maintenance expenses.
- This budget does not include Opening Doors or The Shepherd’s Market Food Pantry, which operate under a separate budget, which Opening Doors oversees.