Making a financial pledge is promising to give a specific dollar amount of your financial resources to FPC Oxford. Pledging and giving are best done after prayerful consideration of what God is calling you to do with your time, talent and treasure.

Pledging is an important spiritual exercise, which allows you to reflect on the gifts God has given you and show your commitment to using those gifts fro the purpose of ministry, mission, faith formation, Christian fellowship, and worship.

It also models the important of our spiritual lives and our commitment to a growing relationship with God and the church, especially to children.

For the church, there is another very practice reason. Each year the various Ministry teams pray for God’s guidance on what the Church should do in the coming year. This year, they also reviewed your input from the Holy Cow Survey. These teams then submitted their plans to the Session which then created a budget.

In an effort to be responsive to all God is calling FPC to do, the Session approved a preliminary budget of $1.05 million. This is approximately 10% more than 2019 and includes more Children’s education, fellowship opportunities, mission work, adult education and continued excellence in music ministry and support for our Senior Pastor search. And while the budget is a financial document, it is a mere reflection of ways that you can join with others in sharing the time, talent and treasure God has provided to grow in our faith and ministry.

Everyone! As James Day’s letter points out, “one or two people do not make our church. Involved and committed members do.” And while we can never out-give God, when you join with other faithful FPC members and prayerfully consider your commitment to FPC, you are affirming that you long to be good stewards of the abundant gifts God has provided.

There are many ways to decide how much to give. The most important thing is that we give in gratitude, attending to that before all else. This is a biblical practice-dedicating the “first fruits” of our labor right off the top, rather than offering what remains after all other expenses are taken care of.

For many, proportionate giving-giving a set percentage of our income back to God for God’s work-can be very helpful.

If you currently do not pledge but contribute by putting money into the Sunday offering place, you might consider pledging a percentage of that amount this year. If you’ve never tried proportionate giving before, why not start at 2% of your income? If you are already pledging, please consider increasing your pledge 10% for 2020.

Over the last year, we have seen an amazing increase in the number of FPC members getting involved in the life and ministry of the church. With this renewed energy and commitment, God has opened our eyes to many more ways in which we can come together to learn, worship, grow and reach others Beyond Sunday Morning. Thanks to the generosity of so many, FPC has no debt, has a reserved fund, and with your commitment of time, talent and treasure, we can be responsive to God’s call on our congregation.

Yes. Pledges are entered by the office administrator and reviewed only by the two elders who serve as the financial secretary and treasurer. Please contact Frances at 234-1757 about any questions you may have.

In order to change a pledge, you simply phone the church office and speak with the office administrator.

You may return the pledge card in the stamped pre-addressed envelope, place it in the offering plate or in the locked boxes in the narthex or church office, or you may enter your pledge on the website link.

Yes, please carefully consider what you are called to do in 2020 and complete a new pledge card so we will have an accurate record.

We would like every member to consider how to use their unique gifts and grow in their faith through meaningful involvement at FPC. The pledge card includes the opportunity for you to share your gifts with the various ministry opportunities.