From the Lord of Life 2024–2025 Annual Report
God continues to reveal His plan through the efforts of the Growing Faithfully campaign. You as a congregation have reacted with Zeal! You remember the symbols for our theme? The X, Y, and Zs – Christ, You, and Zeal. When we started out, we were not sure exactly how Zeal would fit, but You all showed us by being inspired and reacting with zeal! Your generous, timely contributions have allowed us to embark on a significant phase of our campaign. What a testament to Christ and dedication to our mission to “seek and welcome all to connect, celebrate, and serve in God’s love.”
After just over one year into a three-year campaign, your prayers and generosity have allowed us to move forward with the renovation of the Education Wing this summer, including the Kids of the Kingdom preschool and 2nd floor classroom areas. We are also making great progress in our rebranding efforts. All this in addition to tithing $40K to various grateful organizations! Read on for more details.
The Strategic Leadership Team (SLT)
The Strategic Leadership Team continues to receive sub-team updates and provide guidance as needed to ensure campaign objectives are being met. We have worked to align campaign initiatives with available funding and provide ongoing budget oversight. Each quarter, we have reviewed and recommended proposed tithe recipients to the Council.
The Branding Team
This team represents a diverse cross-section of the congregation that has been working with brand consultants Kineto Creative since last October to develop a new branding strategy for Lord of Life. Meeting twice monthly since the first of the year, the group is finalizing the development of a new logo and color palette to be used churchwide as an easily recognizable representation of the church’s branding. Key areas of work that are ongoing include an in-depth review and refinement of Lord of Life’s communication strategies and a new and upgraded website architecture. This work serves as a foundation for making recommendations in the fall for the rollout of a new website and communication structure that serves as a branding strategy that enables us to more effectively live out the Lord of Life mission and vision.
The Facilities Team
in July 2024, the roof above the office section of the church was replaced and none too soon. The bucket placement brigade was tiring! Funds for this project along with other Facilities improvement projects were approved by the congregation in January 2023. Last summer the Facilities team reviewed other facilities related projects with staff and end users. A general contractor was contacted to provide budget estimates once the scope was confirmed in August. Estimates enabled the SLT to align needs with anticipated available funding, recognizing certain time constraints (i.e., preschool renovation during summer months). With a plan in place, the facilities team engaged an architectural firm to provide construction drawings for the Education Wing (1st and 2nd Floor). Competitive bids for renovations were solicited in February and a contract with the low bidder was executed in March. Construction will take place over the summer months. The team has been working with staff to minimize the impact to planned programming (VBS, summer camp, etc.) and outside organizations that use our space. A big thank you for all their support!
Tithe Team
The tithe team began meeting regularly last fall to identify potential recipients for tithes from the Growing Faithfully campaign. It was determined that tithes, based on receipts, would be made quarterly for the duration of the three-year campaign. To date $40K has been dispersed. Recipients include: Interfaith of the Woodlands, The King’s Embrace, Kindred Kitchen, Lutheran Disaster Response, and Lutheran World Relief – Keep Girls in School. What a joy to be able to help our neighbors through this campaign as we better equip our church to live out our mission.
Fundraising Team
We could not do all these exciting things without the support and work achieved by this team. The Spirit has been working with us! The team has done a great job delivering a meaningful theme as well as executing a pragmatic, comfortable approach reaching out to our congregation for their support. Over 60% of total funding was raised in the first year. Current pledges represent 86% of our goal. The team will continue to seek pledges so we can keep pace funding future phases of the campaign. It is truly amazing what this congregation has accomplished!
Communication & Logistics Team
This team has done wonderful work keeping the congregation informed on the progress of the campaign. From videos, to posters, to letters sent out to the congregation, all have been timely, informative, and well designed. Most importantly they have manifested the X, Y, and Z theme in their message.
All the Growing Faithfully teams have worked hard again this year, so Lord of Life, led by the Spirit, can experience Christ, turn our hearts to others, and share God’s love as a congregation. I continue to “Grow Faithfully” working with such spiritually led teams.
Peace,
Susan Gallup
Strategic Leadership Chairperson