From the Senior Pastor
Generosity Is Our Thing
Our Savior’s Lutheran Church is a generous group of people! People committed to Jesus. People committed to this church. People obedient to God’s command to be generous. People who are organizing their lives around God’s mission, the Kingdom of God.
Generosity is even one of our five core values. Because we are created in the image of God, the giver of all things, we challenge and encourage one another and ourselves as a congregation to be faithful and generous stewards of the time, talent, and financial resources God entrusts to us.
Some people at this church give considerably more than I ever would have imagined.
It’s always eye opening to me. People practicing first-fruits giving to the work of Jesus’ church.
As your senior pastor I am compelled to model generosity. I believe that people who believe in generosity need to practice being generous as a way of modeling it humbly for others. In recent years, Shelly and I have given our first-fruits offering to Our Savior’s; it’s the first line item in our personal budget, it’s just over 9% of our gross income, and we have it set up as an electronic transaction so that we’re never tempted to withhold some or all of it because we think something else in our lives needs it worse. We view our offering as a gift to God given joyfully in support of the ministry of OSL. We want to do whatever we can to make OSL a thriving, more vital community of faith and to support God’s mission in and through it.
The mission of OSL depends on lots of people participating. Of course, the potential for doing ministry in Jesus’ name is always huge; we can always do more for the sake of the gospel. But potential becomes reality when people like you and me step forward and participate in a spirit of joy and passion for what God is up to in the world.
Thank you for your generous participation.
Just this past week, I’ve seen kids of all ages encountering Jesus, the poor being served, staff serving people in crises, homebound folks being cared for and people going deeper in discipleship. Desperate people have shown up at the door and have been helped by this congregation.
Most important, we’ve proclaimed the good news of God in Christ Jesus in both word and deed. I’m fortunate to regularly hear, often behind closed doors, stories of transformation. Generous people usually are people who have encountered God in some transformational way.
I’ve been giving an offering to the church all of my life. Why? Because my participation mattered; when my offering was combined with the offerings of others, it made a difference in someone’s life.
Your gifts are making a difference. Here at OSL, we celebrate and encourage generosity. It is the way of Jesus. Follow Jesus with your whole life.
Thanks for being generous,
Pr. Randy Gehring