{"id":2412,"date":"2014-09-02T15:02:22","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T19:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stjameswatertown.org\/?page_id=2412"},"modified":"2014-09-19T21:23:53","modified_gmt":"2014-09-20T01:23:53","slug":"become-a-steward","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/giving\/become-a-steward\/","title":{"rendered":"Become a Steward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>ANNUAL APPEAL<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Your Annual Appeal pledge will help sustain our parish and contribute toward its growth, thus ensuring that our children, grandchildren and family will always have a place of worship to call their home in the years ahead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>It takes a lot of resources to keep such a large, active parish going.\u00a0 In order to fulfill the ever-changing needs of our parishioners and community, it is vital that we secure the financial health of our church.\u00a0 It is impossible to make true progress and appropriate plans effectively meet the needs of our parishioners in the years to come while operating on unpredictable cash flow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><em><strong>Why should I pledge?<\/strong><\/em> Spiritually, because stewardship concerns our relationship with God, it helps us understand that those things we call possessions are really ours in trust.\u00a0 It allows us the chance to let go of some of our earthly possessions and experience the joy that comes from sharing what we have been given and offering it back to God.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>I\u2019m not sure what to pledge so I just put money in the offering plate each Sunday. Isn\u2019t that good enough?<\/strong><\/em> It\u2019s good, but, it could be better. Our weekly offering is not intended to replace our pledge.\u00a0 The church cannot be as flexible about its expenses. We need to budget and to plan. So, think about what you might normally put in the plate - or what you have normally put in the plate over the years - and write it down in the form of a pledge. It makes it easy, too, when it comes time to vote at Annual Meeting and we can easily show that you are a pledging member of the church.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>How do I make a pledge?<\/em><\/strong><strong>\u00a0 You can make your Annual Appeal pledge online <a title=\"Support Us\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/test\/support-us\/\" target=\"_blank\">here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANNUAL APPEAL Your Annual Appeal pledge will help sustain our parish and contribute toward its growth, thus ensuring that our children, grandchildren and family will always have a place of worship to call their home in the years ahead. It takes a lot of resources to keep such a large, active parish going.\u00a0 In order to fulfill the ever-changing needs&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/giving\/become-a-steward\/\" class=\"read-more\">Continue Reading<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":2408,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2412","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2412"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2663,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2412\/revisions\/2663"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stjameswatertown.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}