God is very generous to us. We have a life now and through Jesus' Resurrection, life forever. In response, we have come together as a church to spread this Good News. In Agassiz about 120 years ago, people responded to God's love and formed All Saints. They built the church and later the hall. They have given us a gift and called upon us to share the message of God's generosity into the future. People freely gave of their time, talent and treasure to establish the parish. It is our heritage.
We are proceeding in this ministry. To ensure a good strong parish, the people decided in February to establish the Vicar's ministry at a one half-time ministry to insure that a suitable replacement can be found going forward. I as vicar expect to retire around the year 2020.
Today, I shared the "Sermon on the Amount" to lay out a target for our free will offering of time, talent and treasure, which is the foundation of our giving. People freely give of all three elements and often ask how much money should I give? It is suggested that following line 150 of our income tax return, we give $1.00 per week for each $1000.00 that is recorded on the line. In other words, a $60,000.00 income would be a donation of $60.00 per week. This is approximately 5% of our income, which freely we can share in whatever way we want, leaving 95% of our income for our own use. I make it a practice to give the parish 2 hours per each 10 hours of professional time per week of volunteer time and give an equal amount to the community at large. We are gifted in many ways by God and are called to return thanks through a ministry of service.
Giving freely of our time, talent and treasure are all equally important as we journey forward in ministry.
