The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

STEWARDSHIP APPEAL

BY JONATHAN DAVEY

OCTOBER 2024

As a member of the Parochial Church Council I’ve been asked to say a few words about the Stewardship Campaign. I think my role in standing before you this morning has two dimensions to it. It involves expressing concern about the current state of our church’s finances but also real optimism and hope about the future. And that’s easy for me to do because I genuinely feel both of those things. We’re in a financially difficult situation. There is no point pretending otherwise. But there is also a positive and achievable way forward if we grasp it.

What I would like to do—specifically—is give you three things to think about, which I hope will hold with you as you leave church today:

  • First – a number; a sum of money.
  • Secondly – A question to which the number gives rise.
  • Thirdly – A choice as to how to answer that question.

The Number:

The number is 962 – £962. On the basis of the numbers in the Stewardship Brochure which state a forecasted deficit for the year of nearly £50,000, it’s the amount by which our outgoings exceed our income every week: £962. Or if you prefer, £137 a day; or £5.70 an hour.

It reflects the fact that it costs £350,000 per year to keep the show on the road, and at the moment our income is only £300,000. The mathematicians amongst you will spot a difference between those two figures. A key reason for that difference, that deficit, which has not always been there, is that cherished and generous members of the congregation have sadly passed away, or moved away, or changed their pattern of giving. Recent Stewardship campaigns have not borne the fruit hoped for.

By the time I’ve finished speaking, the deficit will have increased by 50p. You might consider me bad value for money! No institution—religious, charitable, commercial—no matter how historic, or apparently loved, can function for very long at all on that sort of footing.

The Question: How is that number going to be reduced?

I’m formulating the question in that way deliberately. I do say the question is “How”, not “If”. The reason I say that is the one I’ve just given. It is simply not possible to continue carrying that deficit for anything but the shortest period of time. That number is going to come down because there is no alternative; it has to come down – and dramatically and quickly.

The Choice: Cut back or raise more?

That brings me to the choice that I alluded to. Like the question itself, the choice is very simple to articulate. To reduce that number (£962), there are two options:

  • Option 1: Cut back on what we do.
  • Option 2: Increase the income that we raise.

Of course, one might do both, but there really are only 2 levers: Cut Back or Raise More.

Option 1:

Now let’s think about Option 1 just for a moment. Putting it simply, do we really want to cut back on what we do? I would suggest that the reason we are here today, in this space, is because we cherish dearly what we do, and have, and undertake together: For some, that might in particular be about this physical space:

  • It’s beauty visually;
  • The extraordinary music that we hear and benefit from when we worship;
  • The fact that we sit in the pews, warm, rather than shivering;
  • The fact that if it rains, the water does not come in.
  • Or it might be about our work with children and young people.
  • Or the fact that we offer warm shelter to the homeless through the winter.
  • Or our outreach with the elderly and needy in the community.
  • Or our charitable giving.
  • Or the numerous events we put on.

If we go down the Option 1 route of cutting back, the question is: which of those things that I have just listed do you want the church to stop doing? Or do less of?

You might, in fact, be of the view that it would be a very good thing if we could do more, rather than less. Surely that is what we would wish to strive for?

Option 2:

What about Option 2? We increase our income. It is of course recognised that different people are in different financial positions. Some people will be in a position to give. Or give more. Some people may not be in a position to give at all. But I would just say this. The deficit need not, in fact, be as daunting as it might at first sight appear. Think about this:

  • There are 228 people on the church electoral role.
  • If each of those 228 people were to give an extra £2 per week then we would instantly half the deficit.
  • £4 a week and the deficit would be all but gone.

Much beyond that and it would be champagne at the communion rail every Sunday.

This is a challenge that we can meet. In truth, at present, it is only a fraction of those on the electoral role who regularly donate to the church. And the Stewardship Brochure sets out various worked examples of what it would take to clear the deficit based on different numbers of people coming forward. Please take the time to read the Christian Giving Brochure and reflect.

So remember:

a number; £962 (the amount by which our outgoings exceed our income every week).

a question; how is that number going to be reduced?

a choice; our choice – is: cut back or raise more.

Please think carefully and prayerfully about this important issue; and do please read the Stewardship Brochure.

Thank you.