above and beyond, building towards the future.
A Letter from our pastors
As we enter into a new season, it’s evident that the Holy Spirit is moving, restoring, renewing, and showing glimpses of revival across our Sanctus sites. Journeying through the book of Acts, we’re encouraged to see congregants challenged, inspired, and empowered to use their God-given gifts for the vision and mission He has called us to as a church.
The 2023/24 Vision Fund focuses on investing in what God is doing at Sanctus by creating financial margin for ministry. We’re all aware that costs have increased due to inflation, but we’re also experiencing an increase in demand for ministry due to the natural growth of the church across our sites. We’re functioning financially week to week without financial margin. As a result, we invite you to partner by engaging in mission through your generous giving to help us create a financial margin for ministry and long-term sustainable giving by having new recurring financial partners to fulfill our vision. We also want to use some of the Vision Fund to bless our local and global partners.
Will you prayerfully ask God how you can financially invest to help us reach new people and new territory for Jesus?
Sanctus, thank you for your generosity. We couldn’t do this without you.
Jon Thompson and Samuel Mills,
Sanctus Church Senior Pastors
look what God is doing
Even just this fall, we’re seeing God’s moves in ministries across our whole church:
- Growth in our family ministry at all sites
- Public declaration of faith in Christ through 19 baptisms churchwide in September
- 79 Alpha participants seeking Him this fall
- 350 people from our serve teams deepening their discipleship at Serve Conference
- 600+ people using their gifts and talents to help build God’s Kingdom by serving in a ministry area at Sanctus.
We’ve seen Him move in unprecedented ways over the last few years, and we can’t wait to see what He’ll do next
And yet...
It’s not surprising that across Canada, the charitable sector is experiencing drastically reduced giving, despite seeing a significant increase in demand. 40.3% of charities — including Sanctus — have experienced a lasting increase in demand since 2020. In addition, 57% of charities can not meet the current levels of demand; Sanctus is in need and the staff and ministry leaders are stretched thin.
While we’ve been mindful to reduce spending — in fact, our giving has gone up over the past few years — our church, like everyone else, hasn’t been able to escape inflation unscathed.
But we’re holding fast to what we believe God has promised us.
In this time of uncertainty, we believe that the most responsible course of action is to ask for your support in investing in our sustainability for the future.
*Source: The 2023 Giving Report, CanadaHelps
Our Goals
BUILD FINANCIAL MARGIN & BLESS OUR PARTNERS
GOAL: $200,000 in above-and-beyond giving
TO OUR CURRENT GIVERS:
Firstly, thank you. Tithing and generosity is a critical step in your spiritual formation; it also helps us to plan and deliver Sanctus’ ministry on an ongoing basis. Your faithfulness has been instrumental in keeping ministry at Sanctus running.
Our request to our current givers is this: prayerfully make an above-and-beyond gift that will help us to:
- Bless our local and global partners above and beyond the monthly donations we’ve always sent their way.
- Build financial margin and sustainability in these hard economic times.
NOT YET GIVING REGULARLY?
If you haven’t yet committed to giving regularly, please prayerfully consider doing so. Regular, committed giving provides us with a financial foundation that helps us to effectively plan ministry for the future.
build FUTURE financial SUSTAINABILITY
GOAL: 150 new committed givers
If you’re not yet giving regularly:
As Christians, we believe that generosity is a critical component of discipleship: just as God is generous with us by giving us Jesus for our salvation, and giving us everything that we have, He calls us to give back a portion to Him.
Developing the discipline of generosity is quite possibly one of the most foundational of the spiritual disciplines. In fact, it’s a critical component of our Engage in Mission
discipleship dimension.
If you’re not yet giving regularly, please prayerfully consider committing to regular giving to Sanctus. This helps to reliably fund ministry, which in turn helps to build future sustainability, moving us closer to the initiatives in Plan 2.
how to Participate
Pray
Prayerfully consider how God is inviting you to participate in the Vision Fund.
Plan
We believe in equal sacrifice, not equal giving. Whether you commit to a one-time gift or challenge yourself to set up recurring payments, choose when and how you want to give to the Vision Fund.
Give
Make your one-time gift or recurring giving this calendar year.
Not yet giving regularly?
If you’re already giving:
Set up a one-time or recurring above-and-beyond gift online:
OTHER WAYS TO GIVE
E-Transfer:
visionfund@sanctuschurch.com
Please specify your full name and email address in the comment section.
Text:
Text ‘SANCTUS’ to 77977 and follow the prompts.
In-Person Giving Stations:
Please clearly write your full name, email address, and VISION FUND on your giving envelope.
By Mail to our Main Office:
599 Bayly St East, Ajax, ON L1Z 2E5
Kindly make cheques payable to Sanctus Church