Building God’s Kingdom through the Ministries of St. Mark’s

A Message from Pastor Dave
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Dear church, thanks be to God for you! We have much to be thankful for at St. Mark’s and much in the works for 2022. We have a Congregation Meeting coming up on January 30 for conversation about new ministry initiatives like starting a Youth Committee separate from the Faith Formation Committee, and to elect an Endowment Committee, among other things to consider.

With regards to the Endowment Committee, I read recently about Grace Lutheran Church in Hendersonville, N.C. They had received a generous bequest from the estate of Millie Poppendick to establish a Facilities Endowment Fund. Millie’s bequest totaled $500,000 of which $350,000 established the endowment and the council later added $150,000 in undesignated funds to bring the total endowment to $500,000. The earnings from the endowment will help care for their church facilities. This very generous bequest came as a surprise to the congregation, council and staff!
St. Mark’s is always open for those kind of good surprises too. However, to prepare for those good surprises, and also to prepare for not-so-good facilities surprises, St. Mark’s is also establishing an endowment committee with some seed money courtesy of David Milholland and Jeff Shoe.

​This endowment means that the corpus of the endowment will grow and only the earnings will be used. The endowment will hopefully free up more funds for ministry in the congregation. The unique thing about leaving a bequest in your will or making a planned gift is that you retain use of the funds during your lifetime, and then they go to St. Mark’s Lutheran Church at your death. You don’t have to give $500,000 like Millie did, but be assured that whatever you do share for the church endowment, it will be used to build up God’s kingdom through the ministries of St. Mark’s.
-Pastor Dave