What is Redeemer Gives all about?
Our God is freely generous. He has given us himself as well as every gift and resource that we have. And as his children, he calls and empowers us to follow him in this way. It’s for this reason that one of our core values at Redeemer is to be freely generous. So, through this Generosity Commitment, we're intentionally committing to this very value: taking on our God's generous heart so that we might be a part of welcoming even more people into his family.
Through Redeemer Gives, we want to commit to generosity together in three specific ways: tithing, sacrificially giving, and serving.
The Lord calls his people to be a part of sustaining the day-to-day ministry of his church by tithing. The current national average for tithing in the American church is 2-3%, but we believe the Lord has called us to something greater than this average. We understand a tithe to be 10% of all that the Lord gives or enables us to earn, given to the local church. It’s an honor to be invited into the Lord’s daily work in this way, and we want to commit together to being a part of it!
We recognize that it takes some work figuring tithes (and any offerings we choose to give) into a home budget. If you’re interested in receiving budgeting assistance—which could look like meeting with a financial planner, attending a class on biblical stewardship, having an accountability partner, or a number of other avenues—you can reach out to our treasurer, Andrew Coley!
Tithes and offerings being collected at our sister church in Karangazi, Rwanda!
We believe that God invites us to give even beyond our tithes. As a part of this, we want to challenge our community to give sacrificially to this Generosity Campaign portion of Redeemer Gives, propelling our church toward financial sustainability, needed capital improvements, and growing our many ministries.
We are currently working to raise $1,765,000 by 2025 in order to make the following capital improvements which will better equip us for welcoming more people into our worshipping, missional community! Here are the specific improvements these funds will go towards:
Financial stewardship: $1,300,000
This will allow us to fully retire our mortgage, which would free up $100,000 of our operating budget each year to be used for ministry and mission and save us $3.2 million in interest!
Fencing & landscaping: $150,000
We’ll be adding fencing and professional landscaping to many of the spaces we are already using, making our property more beautiful, functional, and easier to maintain!
This fencing & landscaping between our Greenhouse and the Grove will create a beautiful, more useable space!
Re-work front entrance: $150,000
These updates to our front entrance will include a covered walkway and porte cochère, making our entrance more beautiful as well as accessible both on foot and by wheelchair!
Our re-worked front entrance will be more welcoming and accessible for all who come to New Garden Park!
Farm infrastructure: $75,000
Our Farm at New Garden Park is working towards self-sustainability! This will provide the Farm staff with the capital investment they need in order to jumpstart their 5 year strategic plan for sustainability.
Engineering site survey & architectural drawings: $50,000
Before we’re able to do any further building or expansion on our property, this survey and rendering have to be conducted. This process ensures that we know how we’re legally permitted to use our land, ensuring that any of our plans for growth line up with city requirements!
Grove exterior updates: $20,000
We need to do some painting and staining of the Grove to protect it from the elements as well as install additional lighting to make it more safely accessible!
Miscellaneous: $20,000
We have several smaller projects to accomplish as well which will improve our property and ministry effectiveness overall, like better signage, children’s ministry up-fits, and more!
Goal: $1,765,000
This table provides an example of how we might reach our 3 year goal of $1,765,000, and how we might all be a part of this giving together!
If you have questions about giving, you can reach out to our Executive Director, Jessie Meriwether.
Whenever we think of generosity, it’s easy for our minds to just go towards financial generosity, but another important God-given resource we have is our time! There are so many different ways we can contribute to the work of God’s kingdom here at Redeemer by serving, both on and beyond Sundays! Whether it’s running slides or playing with toddlers in the nursery during the service, or hosting college ministry students or harvesting peppers at the Farm during the week, there are parts for each of us to commit to playing!
We recognize that many of us are already serving in a variety of ways, and we want to continue to commit to these areas we’re already a part of! If you haven’t been serving recently or if you have and would like to continue giving generously of your time in additional ways, you can let us know at the form below and our assistant rector, Fr. Jared Wensyel, will get in touch with you!
Generosity Sermons
Throughout our initial launch month of the campaign, we spent time in a sermon series entitled Freely Generous, in which we looked at the generous heart of our God and the ways in which he calls us to be like him. You can find these sermons, as well as other past sermons on generosity, right here!
Glimpses of Generosity Video Testimonies
We spent some time asking a few Redeemer folks about how they understand generosity and how they’ve experienced it throughout their lives. Check out what they shared with us here in these Glimpses of Generosity!
Frequently Asked Questions
Even though we’ve already laid out a lot of information on this page about Redeemer Gives, we know there are probably a lot of other questions remaining, so we’ve put together this page of FAQs for you! If you have any other questions about this Generosity Commitment, please feel free to reach out to our Executive Director, Jessie Meriwether! We strive to be transparent and would love for you to be well-informed!