...And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. So all the generations of Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.

~ Matthew 1:16-17

What Will We Beget?

The first chapter of Matthew provides us a lineage from Abraham to Jesus. There are a lot of “begats!” There is also a clear message that the legacy of God’s promise to Abraham passed from generation to generation to bring us to Jesus. As chair of our Saint John's Endowment Committee, I think a lot about legacy and passing our faith down from generation to generation. Due to the generosity of past and current generations, we currently have $1.7M in our Endowment Fund. It is an amazing resource we use to support our mission within our church and outside our walls.

Each year, our Endowment Committee challenges our ministry teams to identify opportunities where funding could expand our ministry. We facilitate a grant process, providing money from our Endowment Fund to programs that help us achieve our mission. Eight new grants totaling $62,750 were made in October 2024 to improve our sound system, improve our Grace Garden playground, provide Christian Education for our congregation and staff, and support refugee and food pantry services in our community. This October, our Endowment Committee will again consider 2025 grant applications from our church committees. We plan to grant up to $65,000 this year to drive our mission: creating a community, changing people and changing the world. If you have an idea to improve our church or serve our community, there is still time! Please engage with the appropriate church committee to pursue a grant. 

I am honored to be a part of guiding this process for our church. It is such a gift to participate in distributing funds to our wonderful congregation to drive our mission and ministry! While I am excited about the impact these grants have outside our church, I am just as excited about the opportunities it provides our members to serve and grow together. Most grants are not simply donations. Rather, they create opportunities for our church to come together, to grow in our faith and to engage directly with our community. The Endowment Fund achieves its full potential when it enables us to join together in making a difference.

In addition to procreation, “beget” also means to give rise to, or to bring about. The Endowment Fund is an opportunity for us to bring about our legacy at Saint John's. Giving once is meaningful, but giving to the Endowment Fund creates a lasting asset that can change our church and our world into the future. Many of us participated in an Endowment campaign eight years ago which begat much of the opportunity for our ministry grants today. In recent years we have relied more on market growth than our congregation to grow our Fund. Giving to the Endowment fund shouldn’t replace your tithes and offerings to the church. But if or when you are able, I encourage you to think about our legacy at Saint John's and consider how a gift to Endowment could be part of it!