“Stewardship means to use the gifts God has generously given to us, to care for the gifts that God has so graciously entrusted to us, so that those who come after us can rejoice in them in their turn.” –Unknown
Today we rejoice in the gifts given by past Home Church members who created bequests and other planned gifts to benefit the life and mission of the church. Thanks to their planning and generosity, Home Church’s many ministries have grown and continue to thrive.
It’s our time to ensure that future generations of Home Church members will be able to rejoice in our stewardship and fulfill Christ’s call to love God, live in community, and serve our neighbors. Through Forever Home, our planned giving stewardship ministry, we are able to faithfully serve God beyond our lifetimes.
For more information about Forever Home, please contact the church office.
To assist you with your planned gift decision, we are pleased to work with the Moravian Ministries Foundation in America (MMFA). The MMFA offers a full suite of resources to help you accomplish your charitable goals; these tools can help you maintain income, claim tax benefits, or support loved ones in addition to supporting Home Church. The service is free, confidential and without obligation. To learn more, please call 725-2589 or visit their website at www.mmfa.info.
Planned gifts have been and will continue to be vital to our congregation. Thank you for your interest in supporting Forever Home.
Two new documents have been created in our Forever Home initiative that highlight different options for ongoing support of our Home Church ministry:
- Grateful for Today, Planning for the Future
- In Giving, You Receive: The Charitable Gift Annuity
The former document applies generally to members 55-69, the latter to members 70 and older. Click either of the images to the right to download the brochure.
A general brochure about Forever Home explains how planned gifts are vital to Home Church’s future and our ability to respond to Christ’s call to love God, live in community, and serve our neighbors. It can also be downloaded on this page.
If you would like to learn more about estate planning and what kind of tools are available to you, please contact the Moravian Ministries Foundation (336-722-7923 or at www.mmfa.info). Their planned giving service is free, confidential, and without obligation.
Thank you for your interest in learning more about Forever Home and in supporting our ministries for generations to come.
—Stewardship Committee
"A viable congregation needs an abundance of resources..."
Since 1771, Home Moravian Church has been fulfilling Christ's call to love God, live in community, and serve our neighbors. Over those years our congregation has been blessed by the many members who recognized that we can faithfully serve God far beyond our lifetimes. Read below, for example, about the gift of Erna McCracken Spach, which created the Spach Study Grant Program. Thanks to these members' planning and generosity, we are continuing to grow and strengthen the many ministries of Home Church.
Now it's our time. It's our home. How can we respond to Christ's call? Imagine how much more ministry our congregation could accomplish if we all dedicate a portion of our estate in a planned gift to Home Moravian. These gifts will support God's work through our church for years to come, ensuring that we are Forever Home.
As a valuable part of our stewardship efforts, Forever Home will enable us to steward God's gifts in perpetuity. Throughout the year 2015 you will be provided with more information about planned giving, how prior gifts are being used, the role the church has played in members’ faith journeys, and how it has inspired them to remember the church in their plans.
To assist you with planned giving decisions, Home Church is delighted to work with the Moravian Ministries Foundation in America. The Foundation is an interprovincial ministry of the Moravian Church and a one-of-a- kind resource for connecting Moravian values to charitable giving. The planned giving services of the Foundation are free, confidential, and without obligation.
We all recognize a simple truth: a viable congregation needs an abundance of resources to thrive. As those who have been abundantly blessed, we are able to share in and support the vital ministries of our faith community forever.
—John Elster
A Love. Live. Serve. moment shared by Bev Moore during worship on May 31, 2015
The Lex B. and Erna M. Spach Study Grant Fund
Forever Home is the planned giving component of our congregational stewardship ministry, which enables us to steward God’s gifts in perpetuity. The Lex B. and Erna M. Spach Study Grant Fund here at Home Church is a perfect example of the impact such a planned gift has on our congregation.
Erna McCracken was born in Greensboro on June 17, 1902. While Erna was still a small child, her parents died. Erna, along with her brother Robert and sister Ismay, went to live at the Methodist Children’s Home in Winston-Salem. She was educated there, and upon graduation from high school, was encouraged by her mentors to study nursing. She trained at Dr. Long’s Hospital in Statesville, and eventually made her way back to Winston-Salem to take charge of the infirmary at the Children’s Home.
Remarkably, while continuing her nursing career, Erna underwrote the cost of higher education for her brother and sister, a contribution for which they were deeply appreciative all their lives. When Erna married Lex Spach in 1940, she moved her membership from Centenary Methodist to Home Moravian, her husband’s church, and remained a member here until her death in 1990.
Erna bequeathed her estate to Home Church, from which the Trustees established Spach Study Grant Fund in recognition of the value Erna placed on higher education. The Fund assists Home Church members and their children to continue their education past the high school years. Since 1991, over 100 students have been awarded grants totaling nearly $310,000.
In Erna’s Memoir, Ken Robinson describes her as “a lady, small of stature, but tall in her resolve, filled with dedication to the service of others.” Erna’s planned gift to Home Church allows her spirit of service to others to live on underwriting the cost of higher education for her many brothers and sisters—in Christ—here at Home Church.
Erna is just one Home Church member who included our church in her estate plan, and we are blessed to be able to assist our members because of her generosity and foresight.
Imagine the ministry our congregation could accomplish if we all dedicate a portion of our estate in a planned gift to Home Church just as Erna did. These gifts will support God’s work through our church for years to come, ensuring that we are Forever Home.
If you’d like to speak to someone about Forever Home, our church’s planned giving effort, John Elster, Elaine Peddycord, Laura Watson, and Rick Sides are all available as resources.
