What is Simply Giving?

Simply Giving® is an automated giving program designed to help you conveniently and consistently contribute to a Lutheran congregation or institution or to pay tuition at a Lutheran school. Through Simply Giving®, your gifts or tuition payments are made through a pre-authorized withdrawal from your bank account or credit card. You determine the frequency of your automatic gift—weekly, semi-monthly or monthly—the option is yours. Your gift or payment is deposited into the recipient's bank account on the same day it is withdrawn from your account—at no cost to you or the recipient.

Simply Giving® benefits to you and to ...

Your congregation
Simply Giving® is a reliable, safe way to move your stewardship plan into action. It allows you to share your gifts through planned giving and activates your generosity into ongoing stewardship. Because your gift is given consistently, you won't need to play "catch-up" at year-end or worry about forgotten checkbooks or missed Sunday offerings.

But you're not the only one that benefits. Your congregation benefits from steady, more predictable revenues throughout the year, more efficient bookkeeping and greater confidence in meeting its financial commitments.

For me I’ve also found it’s something more, commitment. St. James has had this program for a number of years but I’ve always managed to avoid enrolling. I would use a number of reasons why, I like to write the check and put in the offering plate. In these economic times I can’t be sure how much money I will have to give. It’s just as convenient for me to write the check on Sunday. The truth is I was afraid, afraid of giving up the control. You see for some reason I thought my wife and I controlled the money in our house. What was made and how it was spent. What I failed to realize is our income was a gift from God. We decided to put it in his hands. I realize this program might not be for everybody but for us it’s been a blessing. We have made a commitment to God and St. James and have had no regrets. Life is not perfect, we still worry and feel guilty but not about forgetting our offering or how we’re going to catch up.

In January 2010 a new Simply Giving program endorsed by Thrivent Financial Bank will be introduced. What will be different? The only difference that you will notice is a new price structure. Currently all our fees are paid by Thrivent. Starting in January 2010 we will be responsible for paying our own transaction cost. These fees will be $0.20 per transaction. For our current enrollment our invoice total for the month of August would be $5.40 or approximately $65.00 per year. From an operational standpoint, nothing will be different. Vanco Services will continue to administer the program to ensure that your transition will be seamless. Individual donors already enrolled in the current Simply Giving program will not need to re-enroll.

Please consider Simply Giving as a giving option for you and your family. To participate, download and complete the following form and return it to the church office. Simply Giving® Individual Enrollment Form (PDF, 128K)

Jeff

What's New?

We've had a busy summer at St. James and are excited about all the things that God is going to be doing in, with, and through us this fall! This Sunday is our church Rally Day, where we'll celebrate the start of a new Sunday School year. St. James will hold classes every Sunday morning at 9:15AM for nursery and preschool children; rotation-model Sunday School for kids in grades K5-4th; a middle school class for grades 5th-6th; a youth class for grades 7th-12th; a Young Adult Breakfast and Bible Study for college students and young adults; and 3 other adult Sunday School classes as well. Also this weekend, we are kicking off our new combined Youth Group and Confirmation Class with two other local ELCA congregations: Nazareth Lutheran Church and Providence Lutheran Church, as we gather together at a Youth Group Adventure at Camp Kinard. Come and join in all the fun, as we learn about God together at St. James!

God's Work. Our Hands.

This week, our ELCA Churchwide Assembly is being held at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In attendance are 1,045 voting members from 65 synods serving on behalf of the 4,709,203 baptized members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. They are gathered for worship, Bible study, discussion, and action on a number of proposals regarding our church.

This year's theme is: God's Work. Our Hands. In celebration of all the ways that churches in the ELCA are seeing God's work change the world through their own hands, a video contest was held. The following are just a few of the many inspirational videos that you can check out on the ELCA website to see the many ways that God is working through the people of the ELCA.

God's Work. Our Hands: First Trinity Lutheran Church in Washington D.C.

God's Work. Our Hands: St. John Lutheran Church in Janesville, WI.

God's Work. Our Hands: St. Matthew Lutheran Church in North Hollywood, CA.

Back to School Blessing

Our church kids are looking forward to the start of another school year! This week, the God Rockz group met together for a Back to School Bash. They each brought some new or gently used school supplies that will be handed out to the families who come to our mobile food pantry. They also wrote a note to go along with these school supplies to remind the recipients that God loves them. This Sunday during worship, these bookbags will be brought to the altar to be blessed along with the bags of all of the students, teachers, and school workers in our church. May Christ's light shine through us this year into our schools, our neighborhoods, and our workplaces.

Youth Gathering, 2009

On July 22nd-26th, 4 of our high school youth from St. James joined 37,000 other ELCA youth and adults for the 2009 ELCA Youth Gathering in New Orleans. What a faith growing and expanding experience! Based on Philippians 2:1-8, this year's ELCA Youth Gathering was a servant school. At the center of the program was a deepening awareness of God’s call to servanthood and a deepening of basic Christian practices by which we live out our baptismal calling to servanthood in day to day life. Our youth went out in Jesus' name to serve the people of New Orleans and had an awesome time together! We look forward to hearing their stories of servanthood in Christ's name in the upcoming weeks and can't wait to see how they will go out as Christ's servants this year in Lexington, SC.

Reaching Out

The people at St. James have been busy this summer helping others who are less fortunate. During the month of July, we took a Saturday morning to pay for people at the local laundromats to have their clothes washed and dried. We also collected snacks, games, soap, and other needed items to ship to soldiers overseas. Then, this past Sunday, the kids at our church put together birthday kits with cake mixes, icing, and goodies for members of the community who come to receive food at our Harvest Hope Mobile Food Pantry once a month. What a great time we're having as we shine Christ's light into the world around us!

Set Hike!

Click here to catch a news clip of St. James' own flag football team having fun as they played against some students from Gilbert High School last weekend: http://www.wltx.com/video/default.aspx?maven_playerId=articleplayer&maven_referralPlaylistId=playlist&maven_referralObject=1179965718