Thank you for your faithful support of St. Philip the Deacon. Your generosity makes our mission and ministry possible.

As the year concludes, please follow these guidelines for your final 2025 contributions:

For a gift to be considered a 2025 contribution, there are five ways to deliver your gifts. All of these methods must be completed before midnight on Dec. 31, 2025. Offerings received after Dec. 31 will be recorded as 2026 offerings, regardless of which year’s envelope is used. 

You may:

1. Place your gift into the offering plates in the Narthex before/after worship services.
2. Deliver to the church office (Office hours M–F,
   9 a.m. to 4 p.m.)
3. Place in the black mail drop-box outside of Door B (upper west office door)
4. Give electronically at spdlc.org/giving
5. Send via U.S. Mail—must be postmarked on or before Dec. 31.

A few things to note about gifts of stock, IRA distributions and prepayment for 2026 giving:

1. All stock and IRA distributions/charitable gifts also follow the above guidelines.
2. If you wish to transfer stock to the church’s Schwab account, please let us know about your gift, as donor names are not disclosed by Schwab. Contact Moe Hagestuen for transfer instructions.
3. When transferring assets to the SPD Schwab account from firms other than Schwab, processing times typically vary from two to six weeks. Assets must be transferred and deposited into our Schwab account by Dec. 31, 2025.
4. If you wish to prepay your 2026 contributions, please make a notation on the envelope, and write in the check memo, “Prepayment for 2026.” To receive credit on your 2025 year-end statement, 2026 prepayments must also be received by Dec. 31, 2025. If an electronic gift is desired to be recorded as a 2026 prepay, the gift must be initiated on or before Dec. 31, 2025. A call or email to the finance office is extremely helpful if an electronic 2026 prepayment gift has been initiated.

We are grateful to you for your part in helping us continue to Reach Out, Proclaim and Inspire. Remember: Your gifts make a difference!

(Ephesians 1:15-19)

Questions? Contact Moe Hagestuen, Finance Administrator, finance@spdlc.org or 763-475-7124.

You can pick up a copy of our Fall Events 2025 flyer at church, or download a PDF copy here.

There are many ways you can engage with the SPD faith community this fall. Our Fall flyer highlights a number of fellowship and learning opportunities that you can attend. Take a look!

More events and groups can be found on the SPD Hub.

Right Here, Right Now, by Amanda Berger

We are delighted to announce our first offering from SPD’s own Scroll & Chariot Press: Right Here, Right Now, by Amanda Berger. This collection of prayer, poems and spiritual practices invites you to spend time in the presence of God. Especially written for those who are young in their faith, it is a companion to the journey of learning to walk in the way of Jesus and live out our faith in the world. There is so much here for anyone of any age. Filled with original prayers and poems, Berger translates traditional spiritual disciplines into easily accessible practices for young people based on her experience as both a youth minister and spiritual director.

 You can pick up a copy at the hospitality desk for $20, or order a copy online for $25 and have shipped to your home. Visit spdlc.org/right-here.

Scroll & Chariot Press is the new publishing imprint of St. Philip the Deacon Lutheran Church.

Christmas Poinsettia Pick-up
Tuesday through Friday, 3 p.m.!
(Except New Year’s Day)

Our Christmas poinsettias are waiting for you to pick them up!

Please stop by the church (come to Door A) now through Friday at 3 p.m. (except New Year’s Day) and help yourself to some of these beautiful seasonal plants. You are welcome to take a plant whether you sponsored one or not. We always have extra!

Church Hours:

Tuesday—9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Wednesday—NEW YEAR’S DAY we will be closed.
Thursday—9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Friday—9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

For more than 30 years now, St. Philip the Deacon has conducted Capital Appeals every three years. As you would expect the headlines and priorities for these appeals have varied. In some cases, the emphasis has been on supporting mission partners around the world or in our own neighborhood. We have, for example, provided clean water in Malawi; raised funds for Christian micro-loans in Colombia; built dormitories for a school in India and medical clinics in Tanzania; and supported our friends at Interfaith Outreach and developers of affordable housing in Minneapolis.

In other appeals, the emphasis has been on expanding or improving our physical plant so we can better serve our members and the community. The following spaces are all the result of these past efforts: our Sanctuary; the Center for Faith & Life; the Learning Center; the Music rehearsal room; and improvements to our Middle Level, the Fellowship Hall, the Atrium, the lower-level entrance, and the office suite. All these spaces continue to bless our mission and ministry today.

Faithfully managing our mortgage has also been a part of all these appeals—important in that this allows us to be fiscally responsible and have enough margin for effective ministry.

For the upcoming three-year cycle, all of these will be a part of what we’re doing—we’ll continue to partner with Mental Health Connect and Rise Early Learning Center; we’ll make some modest repairs and improvements to our physical plant; and we’ll continue to faithfully manage our mortgage, and even pay downsome principal.

The headline for this appeal, however, is really about making what is already a healthy and vital and vibrant church even more effective at spreading God’s love in a hurting world.

As New York Times columnist David Brooks writes, “We live in a time that is weirdly dehumanizing. We’re in the middle of a social crisis.” In his recent book, How to Know a Person, he outlines statistic after statistic that confirms this. To take just two of these, one recent survey finds that 54 percent of Americans report that no one knows them well. Another finds that 36 percent of Americans report that they felt lonely frequently or almost all of the time, including 61 percent of young adults and 51 percent of young mothers.

Here’s the thing: In this time of disorientation and crisis, the church can actually do something. And, more specifically, a healthy church like St. Philip the Deacon can make an outsized impact.

And so, in this appeal—in which we ask God to help us become the salt that flavors the world, and the light that can shine God’s love and hope into a hurting world—we are investing in ways to build community, to teach and engage our young people, to expand our educational

and spiritual growth opportunities, to help people connect through service and engagement, and to engage more people through our digital outreach.

Friends, the need is great, and—as we say all the time—it turns out that your gifts really can make a difference. I invite you to join your brothers and sisters at St. Philip the Deacon in this important work and to help us become salt and light for God’s world.

We welcome you to St. Philip the Deacon and are delighted that you have found our faith community. Generally, the process for joining St. Philip the Deacon is to attend a New Member Orientation and complete our membership form: spdlc.org/im-new. We frequently offer New Member Orientation sessions. You can register for these at spdlc.org/register. Any questions can be directed to Cindy Carlson at ccarlson@spdlc.org or Pastor Tim Westermeyer at twestermeyer@spdlc.org.