Dear Riverside Church Family,

Throughout this Epiphany season we have been searching for light in a challenging world. I see that light shining brighter and brighter around here as we engage our third year of the Grateful campaign, the ongoing invitation to give and serve led by our pastors, staff, and lay leaders in Stewardship and Development. To fuel us with inspiration for this year’s campaign, I am excited to tell you how we’ve been busy giving and serving in 2018.

As a community, our practices of giving are beautifully diverse. In 2018 you gave nearly 8,700 gifts between $1 and $100. Nine people offered gifts of $10,000 or more. Eight people created legacy gifts, sending ahead their blessing for the future. We gave toward general support and directly to ministries we love. We gave recurring online gifts, weekly checks in the offering plate, on Giving Tuesday and at the Grateful Gift Market. Gifts came from members, non-members, and community partners. All of our gifts came together for us to raise $2,195,035 in 2018, exceeding our goal of $2 million! I am so proud that together we made such a beautiful expression of our gratitude for God’s blessings and for this community.

Every dollar given at Riverside is transformed into a ministry that touches lives. Last year, we provided 60,000 meals to our neighbors from our food pantry. We educated 50 children at Freedom School during its third summer. We sheltered more than 90 farmworkers and their allies for five days during their Freedom Fast and Time’s Up Wendy’s March. We had more than 30,000 people in attendance at worship led by 100 lay leaders, 150 musicians, and 12,000 organ pipes. We welcomed 69 new members, 40 of whom were young adults. More than 300 of us volunteered in ministries, in lay leadership positions, and at our Grateful Days of Service. By giving and serving, each in our own way, we shine the light of the gospel – love of God and neighbor – as a source of hope for the future.

I keep thinking: if we did all that last year, what will God inspire Riverside to do in 2019? How can we deepen our spiritual practices of giving and serving? Perhaps you will engage with Stewardship and Development to learn more about what it means to practice Christian stewardship. Maybe you’ll volunteer for a ministry you’ve heard about but have never experienced first-hand. Is now the time to consider creating a legacy gift or commit to a recurring gift? In whatever way we grow in our practice of giving and serving, we become the grateful and generous people God created us to be.

During Sunday Worship at 11:00am on March 24, we will celebrate the abundant gifts of our life together before our first Grateful Gathering of the year. I look forward to seeing you there!

With God’s Peace,

Pastor Amy