We’ve heard good report after good report from Brandon on the progress we are
making toward paying off our mortgage debt, and I am anticipating that we will have one really
good final report for the year. We’ll have more precise numbers to give you in worship this
weekend, but it looks now as though we are well under the figure of $170,000, and may even
be under $160,000, that we still owe to completely pay off our debt. This is compared to the
$865,000 that we began the campaign owing in April 2021. Think of that! We have paid off
roughly $700,000 of debt in two-and-a-half years, with 9 months to go to finish our campaign!
This is such a big reason why I am still in a Thanksgiving mood.
Like every church, of course, we depend on yearend giving, and that is no different for
this year. Usually, and we hope it will be true again this year, our members and friends help us
end in a strong way. Our unified, overall budget (church and daycare combined) has remained
strong and in positive territory throughout the year. And even though it is not always easy to
adequately divide expenses between the two parts of our operations, the income on the church
side has decreased over the past two years, and the church has depended more on the financial
strength of Imagination Station, our daycare and preschool, during 2023.
So, there are a lot of good things to report, financially and otherwise, for Southport
UMC. And if you’re in a position to help us end the year as strongly as possible, whether you
make a yearend gift to the What If? Campaign, to the budget, or to one of the several
benevolence funds that we use to help people in need in our community, we promise to use
the resources you give us as wisely and well as we possibly can.
Thank you. That’s really the key message here – thank you to each one of you for your
generosity, for sharing your human and financial resources, for giving of yourselves, for your
faithful stewardship of all you have and all you are.
Grace and Hope to you. May this Advent and Christmas season be a blessing to you, to
our whole church family and to our community.
Pastor Duane
