Generosity Letter 2024
October 6, 2024
Dear Eastminster Family,
Recently, we hosted our Praise in the Park worship service in Highland Park. It was a
beautiful event! The weather was gorgeous. The ministry teams were ready. And the
worship was Spirit-filled. But do you know what really stuck out to me? You!
You all were so joyful with each other. Throughout the day I encountered this joy in your
greetings, conversations, and laughter. I experienced it in the testimonies you shared
during worship. I saw it in the way you invited our neighborhood guests to the food line
after the service. I witnessed it in the unbridled energy of our children running around. And
I encountered it in the clean-up crew who took everything back to the church to unload. It
was like you all were really delighted to be around each other! And, as I looked at who we
were on that day – people of diRerent race, class, ethnicity, gender, theological perspective
– I thought to myself, “This is our witness to Christ’s work in us! We can show the world that
it’s possible to be a cross-cultural community of joy!”
You know, so much of what we encounter in our culture, media, and national conversation
would have us believe otherwise. We are urged to believe and live as if we can only
experience safety, security, or joy among those who are just like us in appearance, class, or
thought. But, whenever I look at you – Eastminster – and experience the joy you share with
one another, I am reminded that God can do something radically diRerent in this world.
The Lord can knit us together into a cross-cultural community of joy!
This is what we support whenever we contribute our financial gifts to Eastminster. We
support the nurture, development, and sharing of this cross-cultural community of joy that
comes to us as a gift from the Lord. I believe Eastminster is worth supporting. I trust you
do too! So, will you please consider supporting the ministries of this church by filling out
and turning in the 2025 Generosity Commitment Card?
Your generosity is what enables us to do what we do. It is through you and your gifts that
God stirs this community to be a witness to the love of Christ in this world. Here are just a
few examples of how your financial contributions helped us to carry out the mission of
Eastminster in 2024:
• We have provided a welcoming community of worship for our neighbors!
• We have grown our small-group ministry to help more people grow in God’s word
and deepen their cross-cultural relationships.
• We have reshaped and grown our children’s and youth ministry to form our younger
generation in the faith of Jesus Christ in the context of a loving and supportive
cross-cultural community.
• We have cared for families across the cultures in their times of distress by oRering
financial assistance, counseling, and worship services that make space for them to
grieve and recover.
• We have served alongside our partner ministries, distributed 10% of our annual
budget to support various ministries around the world, and invested in other crosscultural
communities of faith throughout this region.
We would like to build on this ministry and mission in 2025. Therefore, we are setting a
2025 goal of raising $350,000 in congregational pledges to support the ministry and
missional eRorts of this church. It’s a big goal for us . . . and it might be a stretch. But I
believe that if each of us joyfully oRers a financial pledge, we can reach that goal. Notice,
though, that I said “joyfully,” because that’s the witness we carry forth in Eastminster – our
joy in the Lord!
So, friends, please prayerfully consider how you might give to the ministry and mission of
this church in the joy of the Lord. We ask that you join our Elders and Deacons in making a
financial commitment to help us share the joy of this cross-cultural community of faith.
We ask that you stretch yourself in your generosity so that Eastminster might stretch itself
in its witness to the goodness of God in Jesus Christ.
Enclosed you will find a Generosity Card. Please use this to indicate your planned financial
contribution to Eastminster in 2025. You can return it with the enclosed envelope or by
placing it in the sanctuary oRering plate during worship anytime throughout October. If you
would prefer to fill out your Generosity Card online, simply scan this QR Code with your
phone’s camera:
Thank you for sharing your joy in the Lord! Thank you for your generosity! And thank you for
contributing to the ministries and mission of this church where we are Centered in Christ
and Intentionally Cross-Cultural!
In Christ,
Pastor Aaron Teter
Elder Brent Houck
Elder Samuel Duah
Dr. Thomas Akompong (Financial Administrator)