Consider 3 giving campaigns this season

The church has a few campaigns coming up this fall and into 2026.

#1 is the stewardship campaign.

Churches traditionally ask you in the fall to consider how much you might tithe next year, so leaders can plan for salaries and missions as well as any necessary maintenance on the buildings.

This is also a time to celebrate the non-monetary contributions that you give to the church and to think about how we can run programs, help each other, and reach out to our neighbors in the coming year.

Because of COVID and other disruptions, we’ve not been able to do much of this type of planning over the past few years. That’s forced us to dig deep into our savings, and we really need to replenish those funds so that we can meet our financial obligations in the future.

Over four Sundays in October, we’ll celebrate the Prayers, Presence, Gifts, and Service of the Oconee Street UMC family. We ask you to consider carefully how much you and your household can give in 2026, across all four areas of prayers, presence, gifts, and service.

On All Saints Sunday – Nov. 2 – we’ll write down our commitments and celebrate this gift of intentionality, the ability to plan better as a church than we have since the pandemic disrupted normal life.

That’s the Stewardship campaign.

# 2 is the capital campaign.

In 2019, the church decided to acquire property and build a parking lot. At the time, it was the only reasonable way to continue the Oconee Street UMC ministry to our congregation and community, so we took a leap.

We’ve paid down on that debt considerably, but we still owe about $158,000 that is coming due in February. To pay down – or pay off – that debt, we’ve already soft-launched a capital campaign.

Several people in the congregation already give a tithe, as well as regular donations to help pay off that loan.

And ministry teams are thinking of ways to help. For example, a spaghetti supper and BINGO event raised more than $500 to go toward the debt.

And Parking for God – which splits proceeds between U-lead and the parking lot debt – will bring in about $13,000 to pay down the loan this football season. (And another $13,000 for U-lead scholarships. Woo-hoo!)

Soon, we will place a visual reminder in the narthex – a thermometer, if you will – to keep track of our progress in paying off this loan. It’s ambitious to think about achieving this goal in such a short time, but the benefit is huge. It’s the gift of freedom. It’s the ability to think about how we as a church can spend money on ministry instead of paying off debt.

So, that’s the Capital campaign.

#3 is an infrastructure campaign.

Oconee Street UMC hosts Bible studies, youth and college groups, recovery groups (such as AA), weekly ULead tutoring and planning meetings, Athens Immigrant Rights Coalition gatherings, conflict resolution training, food distribution through our Little Free Pantry and more. In the past, we’d provided space for Our Daily Bread, family counseling, medical screenings, LGBTQ+ support groups and others.

We all appreciate that this church building provides space for ourselves and our ministry partners to learn, to work toward justice, to alleviate suffering, and to empower marginalized people. But we know that we have some big investments coming to keep the buildings on this campus safe and available for all that ministry. And that includes future possibilities for the former parsonage, also known as 717.

As church leaders weigh the different options for how to repair, restore or rebuild our church infrastructure, we will be asking church members and ministry partners to help. We’ll be asking people to invest in infrastructure for the future.

So, you see, there’s a lot going on, but what you should remember is:

1.     October is the stewardship campaign. Think about next year.

2.     Through the end of the year is the capital campaign. Know that you can donate anytime to chisel away at the loan. Just mark your donation for “capital campaign.”

3.     Soon there will be an infrastructure campaign involving the church and others. Pray for accurate cost estimates, diligent contractors and, of course, discernment in how much you can invest in our infrastructure for the future of Oconee Street and our ministries.

Thanks everyone!