2026 Stewardship: Worship

We have passed the halfway mark on our 2025 stewardship campaign, Mission: Possible. As we work our way around the pie chart showing how the church allocates its funds, we have reached the largest single slice: Worship. Worship represents 43% of what our gifts go towards annually in the SUM budget.

The fact that worship represents such a large proportion of the budget is really no surprise, because it is such a large part of what we, as a congregation, do in our work as the church. Because again, the bible never referred to the church as a thing, only as the people of the congregation.

Among our three distinct services, hundreds of people sometimes pass through the sanctuary each Sunday to worship at SUM. Each person participates at the level they are most comfortable with, and everyone in the room meets each other where they are in life to bring the church together.

Many parts of the SUM community come together for worship. Our music, hospitality, education, exhorters, clergy, laity, ushers, and so very many others. The whole campus is engaged in worship, from the offices in the barn to the church school in the annex and services in the sanctuary. On any Sunday morning, the whole of SUM comes to life as our congregation joins together to hear the good news, to refresh ourselves to carry Christ’s good works into the world, and to support all the other areas of the church budget we’ve discussed over the past several weeks.

Budgeting for worship ensures that we can continue to offer meaningful, inclusive, and transformative experiences that inspire faith and deepen commitment. Whether it's maintaining sacred spaces, supporting worship leaders, or providing tools for hybrid participation, our financial support of worship reflects our shared belief that encountering God together is central to who we are and what we do as the church.

As we shared at all three services this past Sunday, while we have had great success in our campaign so far, we aren’t yet to our goal. We ask that you prayerfully consider pledging to support our many life-changing and world-impacting ministries at SUM. Pledges can be made online here (www.sumct.org), using the pledge cards that were mailed out, or by picking up an extra pledge card at the church.

Greg Freidline, Stewardship Chair