LEGACY GIVING

A Perspective of st. matthew’s greatest calling

The mission of our St. Matthew Church in Rocklin is to worship our Lord because His grace redeems us from our sinful ways. Our struggle to mirror His righteousness is aided by His Biblical word and Spiritual guidance. We aim to nurture our faith by sharing in life's journey with others, by growing trust worthy friendships and by inspiring hope that's been promised us.

Our members support St. Matthew by sharing their time with mission adventures, by contributing their talents that serve others and by simply being generous with their resources. All are equally valuable, and even proportionally unique to each family.

Our tithing intends to support the current obligations of our church, thereby giving us people, activity space and resources to those near-term worshiping necessities and some missions.

Our bequests seek to meet later occurring "necessities" and longer-range missional aims. Such necessities can include accruing for costs on replacing larger items, to repurpose a worship area to recent usage needs or some similar capital need(s). We are directing such gifts into a One Fund account that balances more favorable return prospects than today's savings yet offer us access later with safety considerations along the timeline needs that arise.

Bequests into our Endowment Fund seeks to grow the Kingdom, whether its for an urgent and meaningful need or to aid in "planting" another worship center (in part, so St. Matthew doesn't out grow its fundamental nurturing abilities). Funds here seek perhaps greater gains over an extended time frame, even aiming to "spill" only earnings to our missional aims. In this way donors can seek a legacy of stewardship greater and perhaps longer than one that might be solely to their families.

Any form of stewardship should begin with a self-assessment. The backbone of worship is its volunteers that contribute their time and talents to our paid leaders. One metric of giving is in a "co-operative" style that offers at least 12-months in every 3-years to our Church needs. This might be done every 3-years, twice in 6-month contributions or some other form of time and/or talent to meet our mutual needs. We hope as many as are able will consider such a plan. Of course we understand that the less able by their youth, older age or disability are not expected to be so involved volunteers.

A legacy bequest can be an at-death beneficiary Plan or one over several years period during a lifetime. There's no one-approach, only the better mix of choices that might favor one's spouse, our family and perhaps any combination of a bequest towards St. Matthew's, serving its own and/or as a community outreach purpose, and perhaps also to some favorite national charity.

The next-step in your process could begin by speaking with one of St. Matthew's Pastors. He'll involve a Synod Foundation trained counselor. Their intent is to offer unbiased suggestions based on your aims and abilities. You'll be asked to involve your own advisors and family in any decision. All discussions with us are always held in strict confidentiality.