"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." Malachi 3:10
WHY DO I GIVE?
A disciple is someone who both follows Jesus and helps other people follow Jesus. We follow Jesus’s example in personal Bible reading, prayer, proclaiming the gospel, and going on mission. We should also follow Jesus’s example in giving. 2 Corinthians 8:9 tells us that though Jesus was rich, yet for our sake he became poor so that we by his poverty might become rich in grace. As we grow in discipleship to Jesus, we follow his example of generosity. By giving of our resources, we help people in our community and in far off places follow Jesus. As a church, we invite you to give as an overflow of your personal obedience to Jesus and for the sake of helping others follow Jesus.
HOW DO I KNOW WHERE TO GIVE?
The short answer is pray and trust the Lord to guide you! We’d encourage you to first allocate your tithe to the Budget. Once you’ve done that, then you can pray about how the Lord might have you support our missions efforts through Make Jesus Known and/or the Building Fund. As the Lord provides in all of these areas, our staff and Finance Committee provide good oversight and expertise to our management of the Lord’s resources at Shades. We trust He will also direct you as to where you feel His leading you to give.
We encourage you to make good stewardship of the Lord’s resources with which He has blessed you a priority in your spiritual life. Our finance office is happy to discuss these and other methods of giving with you. If you have any interest in giving appreciated stocks or making a qualified charitable distribution from your IRA, please reach out to our Finance Department via email or phone.
OPERATING BUDGET FUND: 2022 $9.65 MILLION BUDGET
This fund is where we encourage you to first direct your tithe. It is the general operating budget which supports the day-to-day operation of the church (Facilities, Personnel, Administration, Pastoral, etc.) as well as the vast majority of our ministry efforts (e.g. Discipleship: Children, Students, College, Family, Singles, Senior Adults, Hand in Hand, etc.; Worship Arts: Music, Tech, Video, Web, etc; Missions: SBC Cooperative Program, MIT, GIC, Comm. Engagement, etc.). Note that 10% of all funds given to the Budget Fund are set aside for missions work (we tithe too!).
MAKE JESUS KNOWN (MJK): 2022 $1.5 MILLION BUDGET
This fund is strictly for missions giving and is considered “over and above” the tithe. Giving to this fund supports our Acts 1:8 strategy through which we support various local, state, national, and international missions efforts outside of the 10% of Budget funds given to missions as mentioned above.
You can see a more detailed copy of both of the funds described above (Budget and MJK) by visiting www.shades.org/2022budget
“NEXT | THE TIME IS NOW” INITIATIVE
Praise the Lord for His faithful provision! The NEXT initiative has now been paid in full and all further gifts designated for NEXT will be deposited into the Building Fund.
Building Fund
We’re grateful for the capital assets (roughly 350,000 sq.ft. of buildings and 20 acres of property) the Lord has blessed Shades with for carrying out His mission. It takes a lot to properly steward those assets to insure they support His mission for years to come. While the Operating Budget contains allocations for ongoing maintenance of our entire campus, the Building Fund allows us to build reserves for those less frequent larger capital projects (e.g. renovations; bigger ticket infrastructure replacements like chillers, boilers, pavement, roofing, etc.; and the occasional unplanned surprise!).