On the Day of Pentecost Holy Cross Faith Memorial Church, Pawleys Island will celebrate the fruit of a financial campaign – and ongoing progress in its Master Plan for Mission and Ministry.

On Palm Sunday Rector Wil Keith and lay leaders announced that the campaign to pay off the mortgage had gone over goal. Totals of more than $1,225,000 in 139 gifts and pledges have been received toward the initial goal of $650,000. Three dozen volunteer leaders were trained and deployed in the ten-week campaign.

Campaign Co-Chairs Keith Hoile and Doreen McDermott say they are thankful and grateful for:

• The enthusiastic work of the volunteers who made the campaign so fruitful,
• The opportunity to meet people in the parish with whom they had no previous contact,
• The identification of future lay leadership for the parish,
• New and expanded mission and ministries in and from HCFM Church as we pay off the mortgage,
• Getting individuals involved and excited about the church’s future,
•  Seeing how much the congregation cares about the church.

Rector Wil Keith writes, “For me, it is the willingness of those who have chosen to write their own name in the story of Holy Cross Faith Memorial. This is something bigger than individuals, something that started long ago, and folks want in on it. Folks want to belong to it. Folks want to help make it what it is. In a time of polarity and division in the world, we went the other way and sacrificed of ourselves for the common good.”

The campaign is one facet of the Master Plan developed by the congregation last spring and put into action last summer.

Now, leaders are working in the Great Fifty Days of Easter Season to push forward on other components of the Plan for Mission and Ministry that calls members of the congregation to engagement through:

• A more determined reach into the neighborhoods in our community to offer all we have to young adults and families, and to invite them to join us,
•  Invite, Welcome, Connect ministries to embrace individuals and families in that set of demographics, and others,
•  Expanding opportunities in worship, music, and prayer,
•  More robust outreach into the larger community and beyond to serve those in need,
•  Reconciliation ministries including awareness and dialogue in racial issues,
•  Pastoral care of our members, as well as members of the larger community,
•  Education and spiritual formation in new ways,
•  Parish life: creating opportunities for parishioners to come together for the good of all,
• Our Stewardship of the Riches of God’s Grace and the Gospel, including:
  • The time and talent of parishioners and staff; financial resources, buildings and grounds, and more.
  • Fresh initiatives in Annual Giving, Capital Giving and Planned Giving, to eliminate our mortgage and to free up funds in our Annual Mission and Ministry Budget in pursuit of our goals.
  • Communications, including an improved web presence and clear messaging.

Special thanks go to Don Self of CCS Fundraising, Tracy Morgan of North Star Strategies, Parish Administrator Suzy Jayroe, and parishioner Harold Stowe, who hosted guided conversations with parishioners from 30 households last spring and summer as part of the Readiness Assessment for the campaign, and to refine goals in the Master Plan for Mission and Ministry.

The campaign theme of “To Celebrate and Strengthen” will carry over to the Church’s Annual Giving and Planned Giving Ministries, said Holy Cross priest associate and consultant Donald Fishburne, who works with the Planning Team and the Stewardship Committee of the Vestry.

The Mission of Holy Cross Faith Memorial Church is Sharing God’s Love Unconditionally with All.