{"id":8340,"date":"2024-10-25T08:45:18","date_gmt":"2024-10-25T13:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=8340"},"modified":"2024-10-30T12:48:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T17:48:46","slug":"stewardship-reflection-from-fredda-sparks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/2024\/10\/25\/stewardship-reflection-from-fredda-sparks\/","title":{"rendered":"Stewardship reflection from Fredda Sparks"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8319\" src=\"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/For-web-2024-STM-Facebook-Alt-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"449\" height=\"236\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/For-web-2024-STM-Facebook-Alt-scaled.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/For-web-2024-STM-Facebook-Alt-300x158.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/For-web-2024-STM-Facebook-Alt-1024x538.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/For-web-2024-STM-Facebook-Alt-768x403.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/For-web-2024-STM-Facebook-Alt-1536x807.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/For-web-2024-STM-Facebook-Alt-2048x1076.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/For-web-2024-STM-Facebook-Alt-580x305.jpg 580w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/For-web-2024-STM-Facebook-Alt-860x452.jpg 860w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/For-web-2024-STM-Facebook-Alt-1160x609.jpg 1160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 449px) 100vw, 449px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Why will I support the church this year?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I could tell you about how much attending worship, serving on various commissions, learning from so many wise folks, and making deep friendships has meant to me over the last twenty-five years.\u00a0 All true.\u00a0 And all good reasons to continue my support.<\/p>\n<p>But what about now?\u00a0\u00a0 What\u2019s different about now?\u00a0 And why do I feel that it is more important than ever to make sure there continues to be a thriving First Church community at Tenth and G?<\/p>\n<p>Because I\u2019m worried.\u00a0 I\u2019m afraid that we are facing what feels like an existential threat to what is good and true in our country. And I have realized that being a part of a fellowship of people who reach for the same future that I do means more to me than I can say.\u00a0 It is something I want to preserve and protect and pass on to those who come after.<\/p>\n<p>We have been through some tough years with problems &#8212; notably Covid &#8212; which have affected our finances negatively.\u00a0 Our response, enhanced by Rev. Amanda\u2019s leadership, has been a vigorous attempt to grow our membership.\u00a0 And it\u2019s working!\u00a0 Just look around the sanctuary and Zoom on Sunday mornings.\u00a0 You can see \u2013 and feel \u2013 a new vitality, a new enthusiasm, a renewed sense of purpose as we look to the future.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s support this renewal.\u00a0 With our prayers.\u00a0 Our presence.\u00a0 Our hard work.\u00a0 And our treasure.<\/p>\n<p>Please join me in pledging \u2013 and increasing your pledge of you can \u2013 this year.\u00a0 Together we can make it happen.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">Submitted by Fredda Sparks<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Why will I support the church this year? I could tell you about how much attending worship, serving on various commissions, learning from so many wise folks, and making deep friendships has meant to me over the last twenty-five years.\u00a0 All true.\u00a0 And all good reasons to continue my support. But what about now?\u00a0\u00a0&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Stewardship reflection from Fredda Sparks - First Congregational United Church of Christ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=8340\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stewardship reflection from Fredda Sparks - First Congregational United Church of Christ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp; Why will I support the church this year? 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