What Does My Pledge Support?
St. Columba's church depends on the pledges from parishioners to support roughly 80% of the church budget, including the salaries of staff who guide the worship, music, adult formation, children and youth ministries, outreach ministries, and the maintenance of the building, utilities, and more. Each and every pledge matters. We are grateful for your support.
See a more detailed description below of what your pledge to St. Columba's supports.
Your pledge supports the Ministries of St. Columba's
Ministries of St. Columba's
Your pledge supports St. Columba’s Strategic Plan.
The priorities of our strategic plan to Live God’s Love include:
Strengthen Community
Hospitality, fellowship & pastoral
- Events such as Sundae Sunday, the Summer Concert Series, the Happiest Hour, Trunk or Treat, Columba Day and Columba Circles
- Offer a range of fellowship & support groups, e.g., Father’s Group, Caregivers Support, Mother’s Group, available as hybrid meetings.
- We continue to offer fellowship opportunities throughout the year for youth, children and their families
- Wednesday Night Community Suppers launch this fall. All are welcome Wednesday nights between 5-7pm. Tickets can be purchased for individuals, households, or in our “Pay it Forward” program, which will subsidize those who are unable to pay. We will be inviting the larger community, including Friendship Terrace Residents and Water Ministry guests.
Communication & Technology
- Invest in staff with time dedicated to video editing, production & distribution to enable online worship, courtyard worship and nave worship for increased accessibility and flexibility.
- Develop and maintain our social media website with robust content to support our mission and ministries, and reach beyond our community.
Practice Faith
Worship
- Offer 4 services each Sunday in-person, with a livestream service and podcast for Sunday sermons.
- Offer contemplative worship opportunities, including our Labyrinth ministry
- Offer baptisms and other formal ceremonies and rites
Music
- Continue a vibrant music ministry
- Train & equip singers to rehearse in hybrid format, performing live.
- Offer five choirs that are all active including virtual offerings
- Primary choir (youngest)
- Children’s choir (3rd – 6th grades)
- Gallery choir (teens)
- Adult choir
- Handbell Choir
Formation & discipleship
- Continue to innovate and develop new curriculum and format for children and youth – Columba Crew & Quest45 for children & redesign youth programs
- Expand opportunities for adult bible study
- Offer Columba Circles for ways to connect through prayer and bible study.
- Offer Sunday forums, available both in-person and online.
Embrace our World
- Initiatives to end family homelessness
- Create a partnership with the organization Housing Up, Washington Interfaith Network (WIN)
- Create a new advocacy council to support initiatives that align with our strategic priorities.
- Continued our Refugee Response Ministry, now supporting 3 Afghan Families.
- Commit to becoming an antiracist church
- Develop a digital strategy for evangelism, hospitality, and engagement
Build Capacity
Property
- Set up room 212 with teleconference capabilities to allow for dual-format meetings
- Install new audio visual equipment and lights in Nave for live streaming
- Completed church nave renovation
- Complete front terrace renovation with labyrinth
- Develop Property Master Plan to be good stewards of our property and use it to fully live our mission and ministry
Finances
- Continue regular audits to support strong financial stewardship and responsibility
Learn more about the spiritual underpinnings of pledging, financial information about the church, and the nuts and bolts of pledging here.
Your pledge at work
Each department - music and worship, formation (adult, youth and children), outreach, hospitality, communications, as well as the church plant and administration (office and governance), has a budget, as shown below. The largest section goes to personnel - the staff of St. Columba's who design and support the programming at St. Columba’s.
The chart above shows the annual church revenue, about 75% of which is supported through pledges.
We are fortunate to have a generous parish that supports the church. Here are some quick facts about pledges and members at St. C's:
Average number of new members each year: 50
Average gift amount of all members: $477
Number of States parishioners live in: 8
