Celebrate Your Church!

This year the Pledge Drive will be short and fun. By the end of the day on Pledge Day we will need to have all pledges in so we can plan our 2015-2016 budget. This shaves two weeks off our usual Pledge Drive. It can work if we all step up and make our pledge by the end of Pledge Day. This is our responsibility.

After Sunday service, be sure to pick up your pledge packet! Volunteers will be handing them out at the tables outside of the sanctuary immediately following the service.

Pledge Day is on Wednesday, March 11th
From 7 am – 9 pm

This is a day to reflect, pledge and celebrate your church. Breakfast, lunch and dinner will be served complements of fellow congregants. Planned giving team is sponsoring the breakfast, Barbara Melom and friends is sponsoring lunch and Geoff Lenox is leading the Choir in sponsoring the dinner. We are planning family friendly activities throughout the day. Look for a schedule of events here.

We are here because of the generosity of those around you now and those that came before you. We have four main goals for this 2015-2016 Pledge Drive.

1. Increase pledging to account for the elimination of RE Fees
2. Increase pledging to support the racial justice work within our walls and activism in our community. (Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, trainings and events.)
3. Increase the number of members that pledge.
4. Increase the number of members that sign up for automatic payment.

We have so much to be grateful for and are well on our way to meeting these goals. Most of your fellow congregants on the Pledge Team and on the Board have committed to pledging 5% of their incomes to First Universalist Church. Not all of us could afford this level but we are all aspiring to reach it.

Our church has grown in strength and influence and has become a force for change in the greater community. We are strong because of our beliefs and our mission. If we are to exercise our strength and live our mission we must all share the financial cost of our work. Use our Generosity Calculator in the Pledge section our website to help you discern how your beliefs and stewardship align. Think about the abundance you have and pledge.

With gratitude,
Richard Jaeger
Pledge Team Chair

If you’ve logged in and created a profile on the new “My First U” section of our database, you may have noticed that you also have access to an online church calendar there. To view it, click on “Events.” This will bring you to our space use calendar, which means it shows everything happening in all the spaces in the church. You can always login and check here if you are wondering where a meeting or event is being held.

You can also use this section to request a reservation! First, check the date and location to see if the space you’d like to reserve is available. Then, follow these steps:

• Click the “Add Event” button in the upper right corner
• Select “Reservation Request.”
• Enter the information about your event date and time
• Click “Add Location” and select your location from the dropdown menus
• Enter details about your event, such set up and equipment required.
• Click “Save”
• You will see your event listed on the calendar as “Pending”
• Wait for a confirmation from one of our reservations team members. The space is not reserved until you have received confirmation.

If you have any questions, please contact me at 612-825-1701 or bree@firstuniv.org.

This is part one of a three-part series exploring our new online ACS membership database. Part one will be “Setting Up Your Profile”, part two will be “Accessing the Online Calendar”, and part 3 will be “Setting Up Electronic Giving.” 

We are excited to announce that the “My First U” section of ACS, our new database, is now live!

Through access of “My First U”, you can see and change your own contact and family information, upload a picture, and access your past giving information. To sign in for the first time and set up your profile, follow the steps below:

1) Visit My First U on our website by clicking here. Follow the prompts to to access your online profile/membership directory.

2) You are now in the ACS sign-in window. Click on “Need a Login?”

3) Fill in your email address, first name and last name and click “Find Me.”

4) Check your email for a message with further instructions to finish setting up your account. This will direct you to set up a password.

5) Use your email address and this password to log in.

Once you have done this, take a moment to check over the information listed in your profile and change anything that is incorrect.

When you make a change, you will notice that you “have a change request pending.” The change will go through when our staff updates the system.

Once you’ve logged in, take some time to explore. You’ll find the membership directory, space use calendar, and places to make donations or pledges. Some sections are still under construction, so stay tuned to the Weekly Liberal and this Blog for updates as new features become available.

If you have any questions, please contact our Administrative Assistant, Chelsea Bertsch, at 612-825-1701 ext. 107 or chelsea@firstuniv.org.

February 1 at 12:45 PM in the Sanctuary

Everyone is invited! At this meeting, the Board of Trustees and Staff of the Church will share updates on their respective goals for the year. This meeting will be a time to celebrate shared accomplishments, and to outline emerging opportunities and next steps in various ministry areas. We’ll have a current year budget update and we’ll outline the budget and programming for the year to come.

We have so much to be proud of as a faith community, and big goals still in front of us. Join us, on February 1!

In faith, Rev. Justin Schroeder

Last Summer, one of our youth, Nathaniel Larson, built a Little Free Library and bookshelf for the church as an Eagle Scout project. You may have noticed it near the sidewalk on 34th Street. After it was built, we asked for book donations to stock it, and we got plenty! The bookshelf that Nathaniel built is in the social hall, full of books that are ready to stock the Little Free Library outside. Now all we need are volunteers to help make sure it is regularly stocked and organized! You can sign up to help out for just one month or for several months–whatever you have the time and interest to do. If you’d like to volunteer, you can add your name to the sign-up sheet on the side of t