2019 End-of-Year Giving Update

Dear Members and Friends,

Halloween has come and gone, Thanksgiving is around the corner, and Advent and Christmas are close behind. With each passing year, we travel familiar territory, yet simultaneously encounter new challenges that stretch and deepen our faith in the Lord Jesus. I’m sure you’ll agree that 2019 has been true to form.

I have recently finished Tod Bolsinger’s important book on leadership and ministry titled Canoeing the Mountains. The narrative arc and dominant metaphor for this work is based upon Lewis and Clark’s famous Corps of Discovery Expedition, which was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson. As you may recall, Lewis and Clark’s entire journey canoeing up the Missouri River was built on the hope of discovering the famed northwest water passageway that they just knew existed — a dream shared by three centuries of American and European explorers. After more than a year of adventuring, you can imagine their anticipation as their corps ascended the continental divide at the famed Lemhi Pass. Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns describe that moment,

With each stride, Lewis was nearing what he expected to be the crowning moment of his expedition and his life. From the vantage point just ahead, all of science and geography had prepared him to see the watershed of the Columbia and beyond it, perhaps a great plain that led down to the Pacific.

Instead there were just more mountains — “immense ranges of high mountains still to the West of us,” he wrote, “with their tops partially covered with snow.”

What a disappointment that must have been! Their long-expected hopes dashed in an instant and replaced by an endless horizon of even more daunting obstacles. It’s this moment that establishes the essential question at the heart of the book: What do you do when your canoes are no longer effective means of transport? You adapt, of course, and learn and keep going.

This metaphor applies in so many ways, including the journey that we each make every year. Within each of us, I think, is a secret longing that we will figure our lives out this year, and it will then be smooth sailing. Yet, as the year passes, we learn that there are still more mountains to climb before we enter into our rest. The learning, adapting and growing must continue.

In my mind, this is, in and of itself, an important lesson for each of us at the close of 2019. To be sure, there have been many substantial ministry achievements in the previous year, including the birth of the Reach South Texas church planting network, significant growth in Redeemer’s women’s ministry, and the maturing of our shepherding groups throughout our congregation. In many ways though, 2019 has been more simply about our continuing to adventure together in Kingdom ministry in San Antonio.

In this light, it’s right for us to recall just how important and special is the community we share and the mission to which we are committed. God is at work among us and through you. Without a doubt, your consistent generosity, sacrificial participation and joyful engagement have been crucial to Redeemer’s success.

An additional encouraging marker of health in this year’s ministry has been the Redeemer budget. Currently, the church has received in tithes and offerings $1,556,924, which is 8.4% ahead of last year’s giving. This is truly something to celebrate!

Even so, a significant gap must be addressed if Redeemer is going to accomplish all its targeted objectives. At this time the Session anticipates needing slightly more than $700,000, which is on pace with last year’s end-of-year contributions.

On behalf of the Session, I want to ask that all of us sacrificially and prayerfully consider what our year-end giving will be to ensure Redeemer fulfills all its ministry goals.

Again, thank you for your faithful participation. There may be more mountains to climb, but the journey has never been more beautiful!

For Christ our Redeemer,

The Rev. Dr. Thomas C. Gibbs

Senior Pastor

• To find our more about Redeemer's 2019 budget and approach to giving, please click here.
• If you would like to make your gift online, click here.