Living Stones
2014 Annual Appeal

A letter from Calum MacLeod mailed to the congregation

September 27, 2013

Dear Friends:

The church is not a building; the church is not a steeple.
The church is not a resting place; the church is a people!
. . . We are the church together.

A year ago, as we prepared to lay the cornerstone of the Gratz Center and dedicate our amazing new space, I referenced this catchy children’s song. It’s one that remains particularly relevant as we look ahead to the 100th anniversary of our building (and steeple!) in 2014. But in marking that centennial next year, we will be lifting up so much more than the bricks and mortar that have been the home of this congregation since 1914. We will be celebrating the living stones that have truly made this place “church”: all the people without whom this would not be the welcoming place, serving place, place of worship, learning, fellowship, and care that it is. We are the church together.

A walk through Fourth Presbyterian Church any day of the week reminds us of all that our buildings enable us to do as we live out the ongoing mission and ministry of Fourth Church and Chicago Lights. The buildings are alive with people feeding and clothing and tutoring, people creating community and extending care, people teaching and studying, people making music and joining in worship, people welcoming those in need and journeying together in our pilgrimage of faith, loving and serving all of God’s children.

As the living stones of Fourth Church, we know that is more than our presence and our actions that build the church; it is also our financial gifts to the Annual Appeal that make this all possible. It is these gifts that are essential to creating a solid foundation from which we can be a light in the city, a foundation that enables us to pay the bills that keep the buildings open and support our programs and outreach.

While we’re fortunate to have an endowment and invested funds that generate annual operating revenue, we derive 56 percent of the revenue needed to sustain Fourth Church and Chicago Lights from individual pledges and gifts. There is additional revenue in the form of program fees, foundation grants, and event and leasing revenue, but it’s your gifts that determine—year in and year out—whether we can do the work we’re called to do.

In 2014, that work will require close to $5 million from our members—around $4.1 million for the church and $800,000 for Chicago Lights. That’s a 4 percent increase relative to 2013. Won’t you increase your pledge by that percentage in 2014, and if you’ve never pledged or given, make this the year you start?

As this congregation lives into its second year in the Gratz Center and our second century on Michigan Avenue, your commitment to the work of Fourth Church and Chicago Lights is more important than ever. Enclosed you will find a response card (which you can also complete online) for the 2014 Annual Appeal. It is an invitation to join Missy and me—and all those who have been the living stones of this congregation throughout this first century—in committing to the ongoing mission and ministry in this place. Please join us in pledging to continue shining brightly this light in the city, to making this a vibrant, alive church.

We are the living stones. We are the church together.

Faithfully,

Calum I. MacLeod
Executive Associate Pastor and Head of Staff

P.S. Please make your pledge by Commitment Sunday, October 27, 2013, so that together we might celebrate then all that we are able to do through our joint commitment to be the living stones of Fourth Church!

 “Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.” (1 Peter 2:5)

“We Are the Church” words by Avery and Marsh © 1972 Hope Publishing Co.

2014 Annual Appeal for
Fourth Presbyterian Church and Chicago Lights

 

For more information about the Annual Appeal, contact Andrea Miller,
Associate Director of Development (312.640.2576).