We are a community on a mission. Creating safe spaces to grow with God and one another is not just a slogan, but a way of life. As followers of Jesus, we’re called to thrive and to help our neighbors thrive, creating a beautiful, delightful, abundant life for all.

An abundant life begins with community. For over 200 years, Brecksville United Methodist Church has been a beacon of community in Brecksville, Ohio—a gathering place, a refuge, a house of joy and welcome, and a wellspring of service for neighbors down the street and around the world. At the heart of Brecksville UMC’s community is worship. Each time we gather to pray, listen to God’s good news, sing, and celebrate, we build up the Beloved Community with joy and beauty. 

An abundant life is then filled with compassion—the kind of mutual care evoked by Jesus’ call to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” At Brecksville United Methodist Church, this kind of compassion is at the heart of everything we seek to do. When we work with Trials For Hope to bring supplies, food, and dignity to Cleveland’s unhoused community, that’s compassion in action. When we cook meals for refugees staying at Nehemiah Mission, that’s compassion in action. When we refurbish bikes and give them to people who wouldn’t otherwise have one, that’s compassion in action. 

Finally, an abundant life is bursting with justice and love. As the philosopher and theologian Cornel West has put it, “Justice is what love looks like in public.” Brecksville United Methodist Church has a long history of working on behalf of God’s loving justice. From becoming a Reconciling Congregation over 10 years ago, to providing Sensory Sensitivity Training for volunteers and designated spaces for those with sensory sensitivity, Brecksville UMC has faithfully taken a stand in love. After all, Jesus came that we might have abundant life – and that “we” includes all of God’s children, not just a few.

The Stewardship Team has put together some information to help us see what we’ve been able to do together in 2024.

With your help, we can do even more to provide community, compassion, justice and love—these signs and sources of abundant life—in the future. 

Would you consider making a pledge in 2025? 

Turning in a pledge card (on paper or electronically) helps us plan what we’re able to do in the coming year. It shows us not only what you’re able to financially contribute to Brecksville UMC, but it shows that you are committed to Brecksville UMC next year! 

As each one of us generously gives, we know and trust the God of abundance will make more out of our gifts than we can even imagine. More community. More compassion. More justice. More love.

The pledge card includes a place for you to indicate your pledge to the general operating budget, as well as a place to indicate your giving to the Planned Expense Fund (PEF). 

• The general operating budget pays for things such as staff and pastor salaries, utilities, and many mission & community engagement opportunities. 
• The Planned Expense Fund is specifically used for larger repairs and updates of the physical church building (planned expenses). 

Both are integral to continuing our mission to create safe spaces to grow with God and one another.

Put your pledge card somewhere you’ll see it every day – and whenever you see it, pray the prayer printed on the back. Then, bring it to worship on October 27, 2024 for Commitment Sunday, when we’ll celebrate the ways God’s abundance has shaped our community, as well as the ways we seek to continue sharing that abundance with the world.

If you prefer, you can fill out your pledge card electronically, through our secure website—www.brecksvilleumc.com/giving. 

Thank you in advance for being a part of this important, delightful work with God through Brecksville United Methodist Church!

With joy in abundance,

Pastor Heidi and the Brecksville UMC Stewardship Team: Max Gabor, Eric Louttit, Ryan McHenry, Michelle Orr, Alan Scheufler and John Scott.