Stewardship

2012 Financial Pledge - please click here to pledge your support for St. Luke

2012/2013 10 Question Stewardship Time & Talents Gifts Survey

Dear Fellow Stewards at St. Luke,

Stewardship includes an awareness that God calls and entrusts us to care for the whole
fabric of the household. Our responses result in God’s provision for our neighbors, the
larger community and world. We respond to God’s presence, God’s guidance and God’s
gifts through being good stewards.

In 1913 God’s Spirit guided and led a small group of Lutherans to gather around the
Word and Sacraments. That group developed a unique presence on both the Cornell
campus and within the greater Ithaca community. Their vision and stewardship saw the
start and growth of a ministry at the Cornell campus gate.

Our Centennial Celebration will begin with a Centennial Kick-Off Pot Luck Lunch
on October 21; we encourage you to share in this celebration. The Congregational Life Committee is compiling recipes from our Lutheran heritage for you to make and share. The program will also highlight our past. As we celebrate that past, we look to the future. This is
a call to stewardship of the many and varied resources of this congregation. We will
continue to build our future as faithful stewards.

November 11 will be Stewardship Sunday. We will ask everyone to make a commitment
of time, talent and gifts for 2013, based on each person’s sense of stewardship. This
year the Stewardship Committee is encouraging members of the congregation to make
commitments on St. Luke’s website under “Stewardship.” Not only will the forms for
making a financial commitment and the Time & Talent Survey be available on-line,
but also electronic information is available if you wish to use this option. In addition
these forms will be available as hard copies in the narthex and they may be placed in the
offering plate or mailed to St. Luke Church.

Stewardship in our congregation is not a new task. Nor is it one that members have
shirked. We remember all the planning and financial contribution that went into the
renovation and expansion of our marvelous mission center. Many people have continued
to care for our facility including:
• Sexton Tammy Devlen who keeps our “home” sparkling.
• The Property Committee, with Pete Eliason as Chair, who tends to the plantings
around the building.
• Joan Carlson, Louise McGee and Diane Ricotta who make certain that the
sanctuary paraments are correct for the time of year thereby helping us visually
receive God’s Word in due Season.

As well as maintaining the church facilities, stewardship involves caring for the people of
the congregation, community and world. We are blessed with:
• Pastor Bair who is a strong shepherd for our flock.
• Michelle Gray who keeps our church office running smoothly.
• Susan Hoskins and Doris Mowson who lead our Faith and Care Ministry.
• All of the Faith and Care volunteers who minister to our congregation with such
tasks as ushering, reading, preparing communion and providing for fellowship
after the service.
• Laura Daly, Beth Dewalt, Diana Dimitrova, Bev Dodici, David Furber, Anne
Gossen, Dave Jung, Lauren Mossoti-Kline, Janelle Alvstad-Mattson, Neil
Mattson, Michele Reeves and Kristina Wight who educate our youngest members
in Sunday School.
• Youth members who serve as acolytes.
• Students who proclaim the scripture readings in worship.
• Judy Mehrvari who coordinates the Adopt-a-Student program, enabling the
sharing of college student and parish family lives.
• Kim Morrell, Dusan Drabik, Peter Hoskins, and Nola Booth who are students and
either serve on church council or act as Assisting Ministers.
• Peace by Piece Quilters who have completed and delivered 1423 quilts to
Lutheran World Relief since 2004.
• Joan Carlson who embroiders baptismal napkins for every baptized child with the
child’s name and the date.
• Joe & Emily Metz who coordinate flower deliveries to shut-ins.
• The Quigee family who folds the bulletins every week.
• Erik Kibelsbeck who leads the choir, and church and community instrumentalists
in a wide variety of inspirational selections.
• Lu Poley who leads the Social Ministry Committee in such missions as Ithaca
Kitchen Cupboard, CROP WALK and ELCA World Hunger.
• Jim Mica who coordinates “Welcome” announcements.
• The dozen members who take turns as tellers, staying after service to tabulate the
offering plate.
• Bud Stanton who records each member’s giving.
• Jim Hedlund and Roland Bonawitz who pay our bills in a timely manner and
produce crucial financial statements.

This identification of people who contribute time and talent is not a complete picture,
but it indicates the wide variety of stewardship roles at work in caring for the St. Luke
household.

Thanks be to God for your stewardship.

In His Service,
The Stewardship Committee