“How far have we come?”

How often have we heard the phrase “stop and smell the roses” or thought to ourselves that we need to take more time to appreciate what we have already accomplished and achieved. Take some time; slow down; reflect?

In today's Link article, we would like to stop, remember, and review what we have communicated in our on-going dialogue regarding Christ's Lutheran's Memorial and Endowment funds.

We discussed in our initial article how, for many decades, members and friends of Christ's Lutheran Church have followed the practice of contributing monetary gifts to the church in memory and honor of loved ones, relatives, and friends. Memorial fund gifts have been used for the stain glass windows, the elevator, heating/air conditioning, and to support various programs (you will notice that recently memorial funds have been used towards the new hymnals); Likewise, income generated from Endowment fund gifts have also helped with the chapel heating, the sound system, the video projector, the elevator and many other important projects and missions.

We reviewed how an endowment fund is an important part of the financial structure for organizations like ours, a principal financial cornerstone that will benefit existing members as well as members of tomorrow's Christ's Lutheran Church.

 
Of course, it is natural for us as Christians to give of our time, our self, and our resources and how each one of us has our own specific, special reason for why we make or would make a contribution to the CLC Endowment fund. It's a personal and important decision and we heard testimonials regarding how import endowment funds and “gifts” (like a family piano) can be very special and meaningful to a congregation like ours and how income from an endowment could afford us the opportunity to do even more within our Church, within our community, and possibly for other missions throughout the world.

We discussed the value of living and traditional wills and how gifts made in any form should be aligned with individuals' giving goals, and should be discussed with family members and/or financial advisors when appropriate. We realized that there are many other ways of giving, such as gifts in the form of Charitable Remainder Trusts, Charitable Gift Annuities, bequests in wills of stocks, bonds, personal property and life insurance when we reviewed Planned Giving.

In addition to traditional forms of philanthropic giving we also discussed a new trend in giving known as “giving while living” and how this offers benefits of immediately experiencing the joy of the good deed and witnessing the impact of the gift and the effectiveness of its use.
How far have we come? Well, in our initial communication back in March of 2006, we had a Principal balance of $97,086 in the Christ's Lutheran Church Endowment fund and as of December 31, 2007, the principal in the Endowment Fund had increased to $123,586.73 as a result of the generosity of the many contributions.  Christ's Lutheran certainly has been blessed by these gifts and we have come a long way over the many years of the Endowment and Memorial funds existence.  Maybe the next question we should explore is “How far can we go?”

    Jim Brenneman    Marda Craig    Tom Durchsprung    Chris Johnson    Jack Mudge