Dear Members and Friends of St. John’s, Joyful, joyful, we adore thee, God of glory, Lord of love;
hearts unfold like flowers before thee, praising thee, their sun above. Joyful, joyful, we adore thee... So starts a beloved hymn set to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”. This is also the theme of our stewardship for the coming year. Throughout that time, we will be addressing this theme of joyful adoration as it relates to our stewardship of all our lives. We would like to invite you to see your giving as an act of adoration and praise. Scripture tells us that God loves a cheerful (Joyful) giver. There is certainly plenty of evidence that God himself delights in giving, and in giving generously! All thy works with joy surround thee, earth and heaven reflect thy rays, stars and angels sing around thee, center of unbroken praise. God himself is the reason and focus of our giving. We give in gratitude as a response to, and as acknowledgement of, God’s grace, generosity, and love for us. We love because he first loved us. This past year, your giving has allowed us to hold weekly services at St. John’s and at Cranmer Chapel. As a congregation, we have been faithful in giving to our Diocese and the Northwest Region. We, along with the rest of Grand County, have been faithful in our giving to our local community in our support of Outbreak of Kindness, Mountain Family Center, Cranmer Dinners and internationally to Locally Haiti. There are many miracles for which to be grateful. We budgeted a $20,000 shortfall for 2021. Through the generosity of a matching gift (and several others who gave beyond their pledge) we will come very close to finishing the year with a balanced budget. Thou art giving and forgiving, ever blessing, ever blest,
wellspring of the joy of living, ocean depth of happy rest!
In the last several years we have operated under a deficit budget and are anticipating doing so again this year. With the help of some generous donors, we have not had to go into our reserves while at the same time making steady progress in our giving towards a balanced budget. We realize that many of you have increased your pledge and we are most appreciative. Thank you! As we have received, we have continued to give back. This is a basic step of stewardship. What we give, we give to God out of gratitude for all that he has given and done on our behalf. We seek to be generous in our giving and trust in God for all our needs. We want to assure you that the vestry and finance committee here at St. John’s will strive to be good stewards of all the resources that God puts at our disposal. The links below are for a pledge card for the year 2022. We invite you to prayerfully consider your gift for the building up of God’s kingdom. In Christ’s love, Betsy Pettit Matthew Frey+ | 
