2025 Giving Campaign

OVERVIEW

2025 is looking to be a banner year for WPLC! Our A Place for All campaign will break ground, our youth and children’s ministry will grow more robust, leadership is expanding, and our commitment to liberation is strong. These are the ways the Holy Spirit and your feedback have helped to direct our community. Yet, this work requires funding to become a reality.

Communicating your expected giving for 2025 ensures that our plans can become a reality. Based on all the goals set for 2025 the Congregation Council will evaluate if we can move forward with our plans or if we need to pause programs or cut staff. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you share your 2025 giving goal, even if it remains the same as 2024.

We know that many of you have made generous gifts to support our A Place for All campaign and that inflation has been a drain, that is why the Council has built a 2025 budget that only focuses on necessities. The 2025 budget is the smallest increase in our congregation’s recent history (9.6% or $34,990).

We invite you to participate in the movement of the Holy Spirit by setting your goal! Explore more information about this campaign, how to best discern your goal, and some details below. You are in our prayers as you discern your meaningful giving goal.

Such a wonderful community of friendly individuals. Everyone has been incredibly welcoming and supportive.
– Frequent visitor

How Will you use my GiftS?

Your Meaningful Giving Goal

“For where your treasure is,
there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:19-24 (NRSV)

The Spiritual Practice of Giving

Each year, we invite you to join us in this spiritual practice of aligning your Christian values with your finances. So, we invite you to review your spending and join in thankfully giving a portion of the abundance God has given you as we work for justice and strengthen our community.

How you use your financial gifts communicates what you value in life. As you consider you gift this year, consider these reflection questions:

What have I received from God (possessions, gifts, feelings, relationships, etc.)?
What have I received from my community?
What positive forces have I noticed at work at WPLC through others’ testimonials and my own experiences?
How do my calendar and bank accounts show my values and priorities?

Goals to consider

Move toward or past a tithe (10% of your income) by a percentage or more – a biblical model for giving (click here to learn more)
An additional $8 weekly; $34 monthly; $413 annually – ministry cost increase between 2024 and 2025 divided by number of families who donated in 2024
$24 weekly; $102 monthly; $1,227 annually – covers 50% of the cost of a single worship service
$41 weekly; $177 monthly; $2,125 annually – 50% of the cost of 2025’s baptisms
$70 weekly; $305 monthly; $3,657 annually – 2025 cost for ministry divided by the number of families who have donated in 2024 (includes non-members and members)
$92 weekly; $398 monthly; $4,770 annually – covers 6 months of streaming our services to share God’s love across the globe
$139 weekly; $602 monthly; $7,228 annually – cost for 50% of fellowship and community-building
$205 weekly; $889 monthly; $10,665 annually – cost for 50% of our children’s ministries, includes nursery, Sunday School, youth group, children’s messages, and PraySpace
$317 weekly; $1,372 monthly; $16,469 annually – covers the cost for half of our music ministries
$478weekly; $2,072 monthly; $24,859 annually – cost of approximately two months of our service to the local community and our work with the global church
$714weekly; $3,093 monthly; $37,116 annually – cost of our ministry of inviting individuals to join our work, includes community event sponsorship, drinks with pastor, advertising, website, and outreach

Ultimately, we are thankful for gifts of any size as we continue to bring love, hope, and transformation to Wicker Park and beyond.

It is so wonderful seeing the church full again after the pandemic. Over the last few months I have really seen the importance of this building within the community. So many people look at it as an important, safe space
– WPLC Member

CommunicatING Your Goal

Your Giving Is Essential!

We cannot do this work alone—we need your support! All our ministries are self-funded, and we do not receive financial support from our denomination. Sharing your goal directly impacts our 2025 budget and ultimately, determines if we can continue, expand, or need to cut our work. We need your help to share our values of inclusivity, justice, liturgy, and diversity!

How are you able to financially partner with us in 2025?

Please complete the form even if your giving goal remains the same from last year.

Why Give to WPLC?

Thanks to our generous donors this last year we’ve seen:

Expanded our children’s ministry with weekly Sunday School and a new Youth Group
Improved our connections by augmenting communications, deepening volunteer engagement, and reworking fellowship
Held an onsite anti-racism training
Kept pastor and staff’s salaries aligned with inflation
Mad significant progress toward our Comprehensive Building Plan
And more (see here)

Looking for More Information?

One of the things that first drew me to WPLC was the hospitality and genuine interest in who I am as an individual. The congregation’s commitment to serving the community in a myriad of ways — and particularly in regard to the building — is also very compelling.
– New Member

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why are you asking me to set a goal?

It has long been a Christian spiritual practice to support the church in its work to facilitate communal worship, education, fellowship, and service to our neighbor (Acts 4). Based on the ministry evaluation in the spring that helped us identify 2025’s congregational goals, the Congregation Council has put forward that we need $398,573 of funding in 2025. Being good stewards of your gifts means that we need to create a balanced 2025 budget for the congregation to consider for approval. Your goal helps us to anticipate a reasonable amount that we can fund for 2025. If we don’t hit the goal, the Congregation Council will make hard choices on what we need to cut. If we exceed it, we can move forward with some of our long-term goals more quickly. The communication of your 2025 goal (even if it’s the same as 2024) is VERY IMPORTANT!

2. What if I set a 2025 goal and something changes so I can’t fulfill it?

We complete understand that no one can predict what will happen in 2025. We encourage you to set a realistic and generous goal–one that takes into account your personal/family financial situation and one that encourages you to lean into God’s abundance. Your best estimate is helpful for the Congregation Council to set a realistic budget. If something unexpected happens we understand that you may not be able to fulfill the goal.

3. What if we don’t reach the total budget amount needed for 2025?

After the end of this campaign, the council will evaluate all of our expenses and income streams to present a balanced budget to the voting members in February. Unfortunately if we do not meet our goal, everything we feel the Holy Spirit is calling us to accomplish in 2025 won’t be possible. Often times, this first means holding off on repairs/upgrades or pausing programs. In extreme cases, it could mean breaking agreements with our contractors, staff, or pastor.

4. What if we exceed the total budget amount needed for 2025?

If we exceed our goal, then we will utilize the gifts given to strengthen our ministry by enacting some of our goals on a more expedient timeline! This could mean increasing our ministry partners and mission support, expanding children/youth programming more quickly, or fully closing the pay gap for our pastor and staff.

[WPLC is a] thoughtfully welcoming, kind community, centered in justice.
– WPLC Member