“God supplies seed to the planter. He supplies bread for food. God will also supply and increase the amount of your seed.
He will increase the results of your good works.” — 2 Corinthians 9:10 NIrV
Thank you for being a part of Desert Hills Lutheran Church and our impact in the community and beyond! This letter is intended to help you prepare for our Season of Intention which runs through the month of November. During this season you will be invited to share how you plan to invest in our ministry in 2025.
Over the last several months, Desert Hills embarked on a thoughtful season of listening and discernment called A Time of Discovery. We know that we are a congregation with incredible strengths and a heart for mission. Yet, as we listened, we heard the opportunities and needs expressed by our community:
- Opportunities for more and deeper connectedness in place of loneliness
- Opportunities to grow towards one another, deepen our faith, and navigate life’s challenges through small group gatherings
- Opportunities to engage in service, both inside and outside the church, through strengthened communications and improved processes around volunteering
- Opportunities to create spaces for engagement before and after the regular hours of the working day for those still in the workforce or busy during the day
We know that part of the answer will be staffing for the opportunities and hunger we heard so powerfully expressed in our listening sessions. Last year we recognized the opportunity to engage our Flourishing congregation through greater investment in fellowship and service, especially to the community of Sahuarita.
This year, we are called to Nurture Together, tending to our relationships as a community, driving away loneliness, and increasing opportunities for the deep exploration of faith and life with others.
We are asking for an additional $100,000 or $1,923 per week, in the coming year to support these initiatives.
With this increase we plan to…
Nurture Congregational and Community Connections through the hiring of a staff person who will empower our small group ministries, grow facilitators to lead them – nurturing new community, support our exploration and relationship building, and facilitate opportunities for faith discovery, engagement, and discipleship. To call this person and to fund these ministry opportunities, we need an additional $1,000 each week.
Nurture Our Ministry Excellence through supporting the ministry that is already occurring, undergirding so many other essential dimensions of our community’s faith life. To take care of our phenomenal staff, we need to do an appropriate adjustment to their salaries through a cost-of-living increase. In addition, anticipated increases to energy costs and insurance invite us to rise to meet this challenge and need as well. To meet this need we need an additional $923 each week.
