Listen to Pastor Brian's Sermons
When available, Pastor Brian's sermons are posted on our website by Thursday each week. Sermons are available on The Pastor's Page™.
You may also view our 10:30 AM Facebook Live Service each week – click here.
Offering Envelopes
The new offering envelopes are here for 2021. If you would like to get your envelopes, they will be available at the drive-in services, or you can also contact me, Pastor Brian, at 937-469-1383 to arrange a time to pick them up from the church. Also, if that doesn't work, I can mail them to you, just call me and let me know and I will verify that I have the right address for you.
2021 Annual Meeting – January 24 following morning worship
Our 2021 annual congregation meeting will be held on Sunday, January 24th, after worship, at 12:00pm. Because we are not meeting in person, the annual meeting will be held over both Zoom and Facebook Live. You will need to choose one or the other, because we ask that you not connect via both at the same time, as that will cause a delayed feedback issue. The link for Zoom will be sent out over email the day before the meeting, and the Facebook Live stream will be on the church’s Facebook page. One week prior to the meeting we will send out all of the financial reports, the new budget, the annual minutes from last year, and the slate of consistory candidates. If you cannot attend the virtual annual meeting, you will be able to email or call me, Pastor Brian, at 937-469-1383 or email me and place your votes on those items in advance. I know that this is certainly not a preferred method of handling our annual meeting, but for the time being it is the saftest way we can accomplish this. I certainly hope that by 2022 we will be meeting as normal.
Trussing Project Update
Things are continuing as planned and on schedule for the trussing project. The total project cost is currently estimated at $255,000, a slight increase due to some unforeseen needed changes. We have gathered through donations and the insurance settlement enough to cover most of the costs, with the remaining need down to $22,000 as of December 18th. We will likely continue to receive some donations towards the project and hope to take as little from the endowment as we can. Our main building permit has been approved, and we are just waiting on final approval of the trussing drawings from the county, which should hopefully be issued by the time this newsletter is sent out. The electrical permit has been approved as well. Once the trusses are approved, they will begin construction and ship the new trusses to the church. Starting on January 4th they will begin the major demolition and after that they will start replacing the trusses. We are still on schedule for a completion date by the end of March.
Capital Campaign for the Truss Project
Many of you know that we are currently working on a major project to replace damaged trusses above the sanctuary, replacing the roof and ceiling as well in the process. The project will likely cost around $300,000 in total. We have had good news, in that insurance will be paying for part of the project; however; we will likely still have to pay between $100,000 and $200,000 ourselves. This will be paid for by a combination of donations from a capital campaign, draw down of the endowment, and possible loans depending on the total cost to the church. Below are several ways we are asking people to consider donating towards this project.
$50,000 Direct Donation Goal for 2020: We have set a goal of raising $50,000 in donations before the end of 2020. This goal has already been started off by a very generous matching grant of $25,000 put forth by several families in the church. Between now and the end of the year, if we raise $25,000 in donations, then the families behind the grant will match those donations with an additional $25,000 donation for a total of $50,000. The grant has been given in memory of both Sharon Parkison and Anna Mary Sullivan, and in honor of Martha Stevens. Please consider giving towards this goal and having your gift generously doubled.
Multi-year Gifts: There are often cases where people wish to donate towards a project, but wish to do so over several years. Even though we will need funds to pay for the project within the next 6 months, any gifts given later on would also be very helpful. We will need to draw down the endowment or possibly take out a loan to pay for the project and any gifts given over the next several years can help offset this. If you wish to give a gift like this, please tell our treasurer Melissa Baumbarger (email) or Pastor Brian (email) if you prefer. Knowing about such gifts will also help the consistory and the church make decisions about funding.
Legacy Gifts: Several church members over the years have chosen to donate to the church from their estates. This is a generous way to remember the church and ensure that it continues for future generations. For those considering giving such gifts we have an excellent resource in the church, Gloria Hurwitz (ghurwitz@uchinc.org), who can help with questions and planning. Gloria works as the Vice President of Advancement for United Church Homes and has a great deal of experience in setting up legacy gifts of different types.
Tuesday Evening Social Hour via Zoom - Tuesdays - 7:00 PM – 8:00 PM
We will continue to have our weekly virtual social hour every Tuesday from 7:00-8:00pm. We connect via Zoom, a popular app that works on laptops, smartphones, iPads, computers with a camera and microphone, or you can even call in on a regular phone. It is free to download a client and more information can be found at the www.zoom.us website. The information for the meeting will be sent out via the all-church email list every Tuesday. If you are not on the all-church email list, send your email to Pastor Brian and he can add you. We will continue the social hour every Tuesday at 7:00pm until things return to normal circumstances more or less.
Visits From Pastor Brian
Due to an increase in the infection rates of COVID-19 for our area, and an abundance of caution, Pastor Brian will not be doing regular visits to people in their homes. This is a continuation of his current policy on visits. Pastor Brian, will however, do visits in emergency cases such as hospital visits. If that is required please contact Pastor Brian to let him know.
Joys And Concerns
We will be continuing our joys and concerns during our online service at 10:30 AM and our 9:00 AM drive-in service. To be included each week, please email your joys and concerns to Pastor Brian before each Sunday. There is also the ability to make comments during the service and we will use that as well for joys and concerns.
Giving To Beaver Church During The Pandemic
All of us have been impacted in so many ways by the Coronavirus pandemic. Many have been struggling financially, and for those of you who have, please contact Pastor Brian and we can assist you from our benevolence fund. For those that are able to continue to give your offerings to the church and wish to, you can either send checks to the church at “1960 Dayton-Xenia Rd. Beavercreek, OH 45434”, or if you wish, you can go to our website www.beaverucc.org and use the yellow donate button in the upper right hand corner of the webpage to donate online via credit or debit card. We also have a box for your offerings available at the 9:00am drive-in service. If you wish to give in person and cannot make it to the 9:00am drive-in service, please contact Pastor Brian to arrange a time to meet. We are very grateful for continued offerings during this period, as we are still paying staff and taking care of other bills and obligations.
Items For The Kids
Jeannette, our fabulous children’s moment leader, will be putting some things together for the kids which will be sent in the mail for Easter. If you wish to have your children receive something from Jeannette, or any other care package items we send to the kids, please email Pastor Brian with your address and the number of kids who would like to receive things at that address.