Welcome to St Paul’s United Methodist Church
Covid Update
St Paul’s Reopening Task Force has lifted the requirement for pews to be blocked off and asks that we all self-police regarding distancing while in church. All other current safety measures will remain in place until the state’s Covid numbers drop to safe levels. That means that all indoor activities at St Paul’s will require the wearing of a mask and the continued practice of safe distancing. Thank you for helping us keep our church safe for all who enter. And keep tuned in for, hopefully, new changes that lift these restrictions.
Sunday Worship 10 am
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Meet Our Pastor
Online Giving
We have activated our online giving system and we hope that you will use the button below to access the Online Giving page. Because we are obligated to provide a record of your donations you will need to register for this online service and set the parameters for your account. We are hoping that you will take advantage of this service especially while we are practicing “social distancing”. You can choose from credit and debit cards, ACH direct withdrawal and text messaging. All of these services require a small fee. Please help us get as much of your donation to St Paul’s as possible by using the ACH method if you can (it has the lowest fees) and/or agreeing to pay the extra fee involved. This will mean so very much to our mission programs. If you need help please contact us at: Online Giving Help
Those of you who attended church recently heard Darla say we needed a little help. She meant it in a couple of different ways. First, in the sense that we have been in survival mode since before Covid came along because of our pastoral situation. Now that we have Cazandra it’s time to move forward, figure out what our mission is in this new Covid world and how to accomplish it.
Darla’s second meaning relates to our financial picture. By God’s grace we were able to keep our bills paid in 2020. In fact we were blessed during that time to escape many of the costs our sister churches had to struggle to keep paid. We only had half a year’s salary and benefits to pay, and very few utilities. But we’ve moved on to 2021, resumed worship and other programs; and now it is time to reassess our financial picture so that we’ll be ready to reset our mission as a church and begin making disciples for the Lord again.
First however, we need to acknowledge the faithful group of givers who never stopped sending their checks and online payments (God Bless you all!) Your love and commitment to St Paul’s has kept us afloat during very rough times. We appreciate your thankfulness to God for blessing St Paul’s.
So, how have we thanked God through our giving?
- We’ve continued to pay our bills
- We’ve funded a renovation of our Fellowship Hall
- We’ve repaired the damage to our Breezeway
- We’ve kept our commitments to fund missions such as Puerto Seguro, Socorro Storehouse, Santa Elena, UMCOR and others.
- We’ve created outreach programs for our church family including the delivery of Advent, Lent and Pentecost resources
- We’ve delivered the Upper Room directly to our church community
- We’ve thanked the larger Socorro community by delivering cookies and thanks to more than 23 public institutions
- We could reach out to more of those in need both in our community and beyond
- We could create new programs for children, youth and adults
- We could continue refurbishing our building so that it would be a better place for worship, programming and more.
- We could add Bible studies, Sunday school and prayer groups
- We could……..
Here are some facts that may help you figure out where you are, or might want to be in upgrading your financial commitment to St Paul’s.
- Our 2021 budget is $73,000.00 and the income received to meet that budget thru 9/19/21 is about $50,000 including Parsonage rent and special offerings.
- we need to raise at least $25,000 more between now and Christmas to reach that goal (a monthly average of $4130) but our monthly average has only been $3760.00.
- We have 28 recorded yearly givers (that ranges from a one -time gift to monthly and weekly givers).
- 15 of those 28 givers donate less than $1000.00 a year and nine of the 15 give $500 or less.
- 17% of our regular givers (our top 5 families) have provided over half of the funds that cover our budget to date.
- In fact our top giving family has provided 22% of needed funds all by themselves.
- And most importantly we are having to dip into our reserve account just to keep the bills paid. We cannot do that forever.