STEWARDSHIP 2026
For the 2026 stewardship season, we are leaning into the theme of Belonging Together. It comes from more than one conversation with people who have asked: Do I have to be a member to keep coming to church and What do I have to do to be a member?
These are good and natural questions to ask, especially since we have varying views on membership. Technically, I am a member of the local gym. I pay $50 a month and have access to all the gym’s amenities, although I have never set foot into the gym in over three years.
But at its heart, membership in the life of a church isn’t about having our name in a book or keeping certain appearances; it’s about belonging. Belonging to God. Belonging to one another. Belonging to a community where we pray for each other, share good news with others, participate in God’s mission, and give so that others might also find a place to belong, just as we have.
That is the power of Belonging Together.
This October, we are inviting everyone (member or friend) who feels like they belong to First Presbyterian Church to consider what it means to belong through prayer, sharing, participation, and generosity. Each week, we will consider what commitments we will make to one another around prayer, sharing, and participation with the use of commitment cards for each of those purposes.
Then on October 20th, our congregation’s leaders will make their financial commitments known during worship, and on October 27th, the entire community will be invited to do the same.
Commitment Cards can be returned on those days, mailed to the church office, or completed with the form below.
Because when we belong together, we are reminded that it is not my church or your church, his church or her church, but our church.
And together, it becomes a community in which all can hear those words You belong.
Grace + Peace,
Rev. J. Michael East
These are good and natural questions to ask, especially since we have varying views on membership. Technically, I am a member of the local gym. I pay $50 a month and have access to all the gym’s amenities, although I have never set foot into the gym in over three years.
But at its heart, membership in the life of a church isn’t about having our name in a book or keeping certain appearances; it’s about belonging. Belonging to God. Belonging to one another. Belonging to a community where we pray for each other, share good news with others, participate in God’s mission, and give so that others might also find a place to belong, just as we have.
That is the power of Belonging Together.
This October, we are inviting everyone (member or friend) who feels like they belong to First Presbyterian Church to consider what it means to belong through prayer, sharing, participation, and generosity. Each week, we will consider what commitments we will make to one another around prayer, sharing, and participation with the use of commitment cards for each of those purposes.
Then on October 20th, our congregation’s leaders will make their financial commitments known during worship, and on October 27th, the entire community will be invited to do the same.
Commitment Cards can be returned on those days, mailed to the church office, or completed with the form below.
Because when we belong together, we are reminded that it is not my church or your church, his church or her church, but our church.
And together, it becomes a community in which all can hear those words You belong.
Grace + Peace,
Rev. J. Michael East