Pastor's Blog entry posted February 27, 2011
Our pledge to you is that during the semester, there will be one opportunity each month where you can come and reach out to people in need here on Southside Berkeley, to care for people Jesus loves, in his name.
This next week, the first opportunity of this semester will be an outreach to Elizabeth House, a home for mothers who are preparing for their baby (generally their first) without the help of a marriage partner.
Over the next few months, you can help as we visit Berkeley Pines, a skilled nursing facility, mainly for the elderly; at the Berkeley Food Bank (unloading trucks and stocking the storerooms); and as we have for a long time, providing food for the people living in the park across the street — but doing so in a way that doesn’t work at cross-purposes with the services and desires of the City of Berkeley.
Also this morning, we dedicate our Christmas Offering to the three recipients we announced: Elizabeth House, Berkeley Church Food Bank, and SNEHA (school for children living in the poorest section of Dehra Dun, India.) A total of just over $6,000 was received. Nice work, and thank you for your generosity!
Times change, and many of us don’t use checks (or even cash) very much any more. But the offering Sunday morning is what it has always been – a cash transaction, somewhat modified (a century or so ago) to include checks, too.
We’d like to encourage you to consider giving to the work of New Church by using the same methods you use to pay your bills which probably means on-line. It will actually be safer: two years ago, the morning offering was stolen out of the office. Giving on-line would reduce that risk. But mainly, it would be easier for you, too.
If you decide to do this, make the payment to New Church – Berkeley, and have the bank send it to the church at 2606 Dwight Way, Berkeley 94704. In the meantime, we’ll keep passing the offering bags, symbolizing the importance of giving as part of our worship. But the heart is the thing, not the external details. Thanks for thinking about this, and thanks for your part in making our work possible.
“Let each of you set aside a sum of money in keeping with his/her income, so that when I come, no collections will have to be taken.” I Corinthians 16:3
