Making Decisions about End-of-Year Giving

Throughout December, our mailbox seemed to be stuffed each day with Christmas cards and requests for money. Amanda and I enjoy personal Christmas cards and letters. After reading them, Amanda displays them around the living room with other decorations to remind us of the friendships we share with church family, across the country, and around the globe.

The request letters are a different story.  With each one we have a choice to make. We can discard those letters as junk mail, or we can consider the request, and decide whether that particular organization is going to make the cut in this year’s holiday giving.

Most non-profit organizations, including churches, have struggled to balance their budgets in the past few years.  In this season when we are gradually emerging from a recession, all kinds of non-profits are in a heated competition for charitable dollars.  Therefore, this year you might expect more appeals vying for your holiday or end-of-year giving.

Many businesses and foundations have pre-determined guidelines for selecting the charitable causes to which they will make contributions.  At our house, we are also developing a list of criteria which helps us to filter through the requests and determine which charities, missions, and ministries we will support this year.

Our most important end-of-year gift goes to the mission offering of our church.  Throughout the year, our tithe, a tenth of all we earn, goes to the ministries of our church.  Primarily, this is an act of obedience to what we believe the Bible teaches, but we also believe that the cumulative projects of a local church make the most significant impact advancing the cause of Christ.  In December we give an additional gift to our Christmas Missions Offering that supports missionaries around the globe.

Amanda and I are blessed to be able to contribute to other causes, most of them affiliated with First Baptist Church.  (For more of our criteria, read the article “Generous Discernment” at www.bayhillrev.blogspot.com).

We have also learned not to give directly to persons on the street, at intersections, or interstate ramps.  Our experience is that people are most effectively helped through missional organizations such as Samaritan Hands.  (However, we do offer to help persons on the street to get to the right place for assistance, or we offer to buy them a meal, but we do not give money, simply because of the high rate of manipulation and addiction among full-time panhandlers.)

As we grow and learn more effective stewardship practices, we realize that we are not liable for supporting every worthy cause we encounter.  However, we are accountable to God for the resources placed within our care.  Years ago Elbert Hubbard wrote, “To know when to be generous, and when to be firm --this is wisdom.”  As you designate your end-of-year giving, be generous and be discerning. 

On behalf of our church family, thank you for your strong financial support of the missions and ministries of First Baptist Church during 2010.  Remember that the IRS requires that all contributions for this fiscal year must be received or postmarked by December 31.

Join us this Sunday as we begin a New Year and launch our new series, “Living by the Book.” 

Schedule for this Sunday

9:00    Bible Study

10:30 Worship in the Sanctuary

I’m Dreaming of an Allie Yniestra Christmas

I remember as a child sitting in the living room at my grandparent’s house watching The Bing Crosby Christmas Special on their black and white Philco television.  One of the highlights of the show was when Bing Crosby began crooning “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas.”  For those of us who grew up in the south, most years, we could only dream of a white Christmas.

This year at First Baptist we are dreaming of an Allie Yniestra Christmas.  During the past couple of years as we have focused on ministry and outreach opportunities in our local community, our partnership with Allie Yniestra has been a meaningful and engaging missional project for all ages within our church family.

Allie Yniestra Elementary School serves children and families in an area heavily effected by poverty.  In fact, the Allie Yniestra bus route stops at Loaves and Fishes to pick up children who are temporarily living at the shelter. 

The administration and faculty at Allie Yniestra are well-acquainted with the social and economic challenges of their locale.  Principal Sheree Cagle considers herself a missionary to Allie Yniestra and Hallmark, the two schools that are merging to become one effective downtown elementary school.

Our First Baptist Partnership with Allie Yniestra is making a difference in the school, and as a result, we are making a positive impact on families in the downtown community.

To kick off our partnership, FBC members refurbished the teacher’s lounge, creating a positive and pleasant atmosphere for teachers to re-energize. Throughout the year, FBC members pray for the faculty and students, and FBC volunteers operate The Success Store, a venture to promote academic achievement, life skills, and fiscal responsibility.

Now, we have a goal of providing a Christmas gift for each of the 252 students in the school. We are inviting FBC members to adopt one or more children from Allie Yniestra by taking paws from one of The Allie Yniestra Trees, located in the Atrium and Children’s Ministry Department.  You are asked to purchase a hoodie (hooded sweatshirt) and gloves for each child you adopt, to wrap the gift and bring it to the Children’s Ministries Department by Sunday December 12.  Then on Wednesday evening, December 15, join us in Chipley Hall as we host the Allie Yniestra Choir and their families, and present their gifts to them.

With your help, the dream of an Allie Yniestra Christmas will come true.

Join us this Sunday as we sing the songs of the season, light the Shepherd’s Candle, and hear a word of encouragement to “Bloom Where You Are Planted” from Isaiah 35:1-2.

Setting the Stage for Christmas

In the close-knit rural church of my upbringing, we didn’t observe Advent. Not by that name, anyway.  Our biggest holiday event was the annual Christmas play.  Each year, right after Thanksgiving, we started setting the stage for the Christmas program.  Tryouts were held for the annual play, the stage was set, and decorations, featuring a fresh cut cedar tree wrapped in strands of garland and big colored bulbs, were all put in place as our little sanctuary went through a bit of a seasonal transformation.

We installed two wire cables across the front and rear of the platform, hung huge purple velvet curtains on each, and gathered a variety of costumes, props, and furnishings appropriate for the theme of the play.

On most years, the Christmas play was a mini-drama based on the episodes in the biblical nativity narrative.  Beginning with the appearance of a prophet foretelling the birth of the messiah or perhaps an angel visiting Mary, the play would progress scene by scene until finally, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, and a menagerie of animals surrounded the manger. For a couple of years, the script involved a more contemporary setting with a plot built around a 20^th  century family’s saga in re-discovering the meaning of Christmas, but even then, the play always ended with a living nativity.

Gradually and methodically the stage was set, and finally, after weeks of planning, practice, and preparation, the play would be presented on a Sunday evening to a packed house.

Although, I didn’t know the meaning of Advent then, looking back, I think we were sort of observing Advent all along and just didn’t know it.  Advent is really at time of setting the stage for Christmas, a season of preparation, culminating in that grand night when we celebrate the birth of Christ.

This year in our church, we will set the stage for Christmas by re-visiting the prophets, singing the carols, re-reading the gospels, and lighting the candles that call us to focus on peace, hope, love, and joy. Then we will be better equipped to empathize with the anxiety of Mary and Joseph, to feel the labor pains of God, to celebrate the birth of the world’s most pivotal newborn, and to hear both the singing of angels and the sobs of Rachel weeping.

If we take the time to set the stage, recounting the biblical stories from Advent to Christmas, we may find that we are more than ready to celebrate the birth of the messiah, and to follow Christ from the cradle to the cross and beyond.

Join us this Sunday as we sing the songs of the season, light the Angels’ Candle, hear a word from Malachi 3:1-4, and keep setting the stage for Christmas.