So WHY? WHY do we want to do something? St Marys Eversley Investing for the future 12/1/14

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1 11.00 St Marys Eversley Investing for the future 12/1/14 Pray Last week I spoke about Gods Vision for his church Today we are going to be thinking about Investing for the future In 1995 here at St Mary s the Hall was opened And now almost 20 years later Searchers and rooted have grown to such an extent that they no longer fit in the hall and last week there were 30 children here I haven t spoken to Graham Fuller about this But I bet God has done more than Graham ever asked him to do or imagined that he could do So I want you to think forward another 20 years In 20 years time - I will be 75 years old How old will you be? And in 20 years time my children will be 44 and 43 How old will your children be? And my Grandchildren as far as I know I don t have any yet But in 20 years time my grandchildren will probably be about 13/14 About 30 years younger than my children So how old will your grandchildren be in 20 years time? So WHY? WHY do we want to do something? Everyone is agreed we cannot continue as we are children take up far more space the adults And in our present hall it is simply too noisy with 30 children So since the summer we have been taking rooted off site And that has enabled searchers to flourish in the hall But it has had other disadvantages So it is no longer possible for rooted to practice music with the choir And it is no longer possible for rooted to come to communion with the rest of us and lots of us don t like this and not just the parents because we think that children are today s church and tomorrows leaders and so we want them to be part of the team and to worship with us we simply cannot stay as we are somehow we have to get the children back on site but there is not enough space for them in the hall so we have been forced to think about building So I will be retired And Matt Spencer will probably be married with a child Today I want to encourage us to be Investing for the future I would like to provide for my children and grandchildren They might not be in Eversley But I guess there will still be at least 210 children at CKS and over the 12 years I have been here Sunday school has grown from 6 36 wouldn t it be great if it could grow again to children

2 so WHAT? WHAT do we want to do? Well way back in December 2011 we started to think about this And in March 2012 we drew up a wish list And now January 2014 just over two years later We have some plans which have Listed building consent they have the approval of the conservation officer and they have planning permission which will probably be very familiar to some and brand new to others so if you have any question please ask a PCC member at the end they have been living with this for the last 2 years and so they can almost certainly answer your questions and here is the plan the plan is to enclose the space between the church and the hall with a glass roof so that it does not affect the light in the church and this will give us a new vicars vestry to the right of the existing link way then the existing vestry will be extended that way and will become choir vestry and crèche the choir will robe there and then come into church any children who become upset in church will be able to use it as a crèche during the service and then hopefully join us for communion so that there is somewhere for the choir to go at the end of the service for their vestry prayer then the existing hall will have a temporary screen installed making it possible for searchers and rooted to both meet in the existing hall a mezzanine will be installed and this will be used on a Sunday morning by a new youth group which will be pathfinders age that is and finally the kitchen will have two serving hatches and be approach from the corridor so that it could be used to serve drinks into two rooms both the main hall and the new choir vestry

3 and then the obvious question is HOW? - HOW are we going to pay for it? Well there are a few things to say here 1 We don t know the final price yet We had an estimate of about 300,000 last year But that was at last years prices and so it is probably a little more now And the plans are also changing a little And no doubt that will change the price too 2 St Marys gets no money from the government or the C of E In fact the money flows the other way round 40 50% of what you put in the collection each week Goes to pay my salary and the salary of clergy in inner cities and already one person has promised 9,000 which is 10% of a legacy he has received and another household has given us a cheque for 4,000 and yet another person has moved their savings to their current account so that they are able to right a cheque today in fact so far we have about 60,000 in our No 2 account and our long term savings which we could allocate to these building works and that is about 1/5 th of the total cost so all we need now is another 240,000 which frankly is a lot of money 3 the congregation is the main source of our income So please turn to your neighbour and say thank you You literally give 80-90% of all of our income And so if you stopped giving the church could not continue It honestly is as simple as that So HOW are we going to pay for it? We are going to ask you to Invest for the future To Invest now so that our children and grandchildren can grow up keen on Christianity to invest now so that the children of Eversley can continue to learn about the faith we are asking you to invest for the future so that in the relay race of faith over the years the baton of faith we pass on to the next generation will be healthier than when it was passed on to us

4 I believe giving should be regular and proportionate 1 Corinthians 16:2 says (2) On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 1 Proportionate means I am not expecting every one to give the same amount If you are only on a state pension of 110 per week Then 10% is 11 and we are not asking you to give any more than that On the other hand apparently the average UK salary is 26,500 a year And 10% of that is 2,650 a year or 220 a month And so my hope and prayer is that the average giving in St Marys will be 220 a month and then some people are paid much more than the average the internet tells me that the average head teachers salary is 54,000 and the average GP s salary is 100,000 a year and we would like them to give 10% too what I suggest is this that we all work out what % of our income to we give to the church and then aim to increase it by 1% per year until we get to 10% that s what Ali and I did 2 Regular It might be that you are able to give us a lump sum Some people have done that already and that really helps When we re- roofed the church where I was a curate in Bolton Many many people went on their main summer holiday But stayed at home for one of their other holidays And gave the money that they saved to the church And we had a huge number of donations at about 600 If that works for you that would be great But I think for most of us our income is monthly And the easiest way to give is monthly And so I want to share with you a suggestion one of the mums in the congregation made Can we save 10 on the supermarket shop each week? And set up a standing order for 40 a month 40 a month over 12 months is 500 And over 2 years that is 1000 And if that is a way that works for you That too would be great What we need is for everyone to give what they can And to give regularly and proportionately I hope this is an encouragement for you Many of you have joined the parish giving scheme And across the diocese the average giving through the PGS is 26 per household a week Or to put it another way since most of us give monthly The average donation in the Winchester diocese is 104 per household a month

5 So to conclude Another suggestion I had sent to me was If someone were to look at your bank statements What would it say about your priorities? Or to ask the same question another way round Would their be enough evidence in your bank statement So convict you of being a Christian? 2Co 9:6-7 (6) Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. (7) Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. I love gardening and in the garden it is a no brainer That what you plant determines what you will grow So if I plant 10 snow drops There is no point ins expecting 100 to come up Alison and I have decided to give 10% of our income to the church Some of that will be spent locally here in St Marys and St Barnabas WHY? because we want our children and grandchildren to grow up Loving God, loving themselves and loving their neighbours We are deliberately investing for the future And we would love to encourage you to do the same