Annual Giving 2027
Supporting our Mission and Ministry in 2027
What Does Annual Giving Do?
Your Annual Giving pledge makes possible everything that happens in our community, including ...
Lead with Love
Stewardship 2027 at SPR
“Lead with love” is a Chicago diocese-wide spiritual motto championed by Bishop Paula Clark since 2024, and she continues to exhort us all to lead with love as we find ourselves at crossroads of reflection. For Saint Paul and the Redeemer, this season of discernment without a rector is a crossroads of reflection. We move within liminal space, practicing both looking back and looking forward actively. For this reason, our stewardship theme this year echoes the message of our bishop to the broader diocese.
“Lead with Love” is also the title of a walking song written by vocal activist Melanie DeMore in 2016 that we often enjoy as part of our Sunday morning services. We stand and sing it as an acclamation before the gospel reading. It draws us participatorily into the gospel text; in a very real sense, suddenly we are not only hearers of the word, but doers! That is also the hope behind each year’s stewardship campaign. We want every person who calls SPR home in some way to feel equipped to move their faith and love from an abstract to concrete, embodied action.
You gotta put one foot in front of the other, and lead with love…
Sometimes, the one foot you put in front of the other is prescripted, because there is only one thing needed to solve a problem. Often, this is how we church people think about stewardship, as if the only tool we church people have is money. But especially now, when we as a congregation must come together to meet each others’ needs, the next right thing for each of us to do is not prescripted. We can use our full creativity, passion, compassion, love, skillsets, and other assets to strengthen our SPR community and our Chicago and Hyde Park community around us in unique ways.
One of the great things about being part of a community like SPR is that we are not alone in our desire or our effort to make things better. We can lift each other up as we each figure out what putting one foot in front of the other means for us. We’ve experienced love, care, and hospitality from each other this year, as some of us have been sick, in mourning, learning new ways of living, and held captive. Each one of us can lead with what we know, what we experience as a community of caring.
In 1 Peter 4:10 we read, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” Spend some time thinking about the unique ways God has gifted you with different kinds of TIME, TALENT, and TREASURE. How do your gifts already help you serve others? What more or what else might God be calling you to do? These answers will not be simple, but we can continue to help each other discern what each of us can offer to our collective life in keeping with the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Our Budget at a Glance
Below you will find an approximation of our parish budget. Salaries for musicians are included in Worship & Sacrament; salaries for children and youth ministry leaders are included in Discipleship; salaries for clergy, office staff, and sextons are included in Administration.
