This year, our theme, Devoted, comes from the book of Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, verse 42, where the writer talks about the recent converts and how they “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread, and the prayers.” This theme of Devoted is helping to guide us in what it looks like for our worship community to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ. Already in 2024, we have seen new ways of showing our devotion through teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayers.

Ministries Update

The support each of you has shown for the ministries has blessed the whole community. From your presence to your financial support that helps us reach beyond and into the pews, you have demonstrated how you live into God’s hope for our community to Restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ.

Since the last quarterly update in April, our community has celebrated Pentecost in our usual fashion with The Pentecost Bluegrass Gospel Mass, brisket, sausage, and all the fixings! Thank you to Crystal Campos and her husband, Gabe Montes, for smoking all the meats for the day and the men’s group for helping to serve! A special thank you to Vikki Miranda and her Color Guard team for creating beautiful images of fire and flight around the worship space through the hangings!

From the Feast of Pentecost, we quickly transitioned into our retreat to Mustang Island Family Camp. This retreat, one of the camps of the Diocese of West Texas, is one of the best beach vacations you will take! The Camps and Conference program of the Diocese of West Texas provides opportunities for people in all life’s situations to take time to get away. Our congregation is very involved in the camping program of the diocese. From the mountains of Colorado at Duncan Park to the coastline of Texas at Mustang Island and back into the Hill Country of Texas at Camp Capers, members of Holy Spirit could be found this summer attending camps. The diocese offers scholarships to support these camps and so does Holy Spirit through the 6676 Fund for Outreach and Evangelism. This year, the Holy Spirit community has already supported families and individuals attending camps and conferences with around $4600 in scholarships.

Lunches for Laughs and Dinners for Fun brought us together for fellowship and laughter. Project Hope gave us opportunities to serve our community, and the grounds teams kept this Sacred Space looking beautiful with the pollinator garden, the memorial garden, Mary’s Garden, and all the spaces in between. The Children and Youth Ministries ended the program year with an after-church party in May. Our worship community is powered by the faithful service of volunteers!

Thank you for your participation and presence, which keeps us connected! Thank you also for the time you allow me to pursue a Doctor of Ministry in Ministry Development. If you have a few minutes and would like to read a bit about my three weeks fully immersed in school, please visit my blog, where I write three reflections from my time in school.

One of the more difficult moments in our life together this past quarter has been realizing the need to close Kids of the Kingdom Episcopal School. For several years, the school board worked to find ways to support the school and keep it open, but the financial reality of our school became clear late this past spring. On July 31, 2024, Kids of the Kingdom Episcopal School will close, but thanks to the willingness of Braination, Inc. to think creatively with us, having a school as a part of our life here on Bandera Road is still a reality. We will soon form a relationship team that will support the work of Little Wonder Academy as they work to find ways to provide affordable quality preschool education. I am also excited that we will be able to continue to offer chapel as an opt-in for the students and staff of Little Wonder Academy!

Financial Update

This email includes a summary of our financials through June 30, 2024. As always, thank you for your generosity and resource-sharing of time, talent, and treasure. You will see that pledges and identified contributors have fallen a bit behind what was anticipated for this time of year. Pledges are from those who responded to the Annual Campaign at the end of 2023 for 2024. Identified Contributors are those who faithfully give but have not filled out the Invitation to Give.

This link will connect you with the ability to offer one-time or a recurring gift. We are a self-sufficient congregation and receive no direct funds from the Diocese of West Texas to support the operating budget. This means that we operate solely from your generosity. If you have not yet had a chance to support our worshipping community with your financial gift, now is a great time to begin!

To ensure we follow the best practices in church finances, your vestry and staff follow the guidelines as set out in the Manual of Business Methods in Church Affairs. This includes an annual internal review of all of our business practices those who do not serve on the vestry or staff. When completed, the review is sent to the Diocese of West Texas.

You can find a summary of year-to-date financials here. In 2024, the finance committee and vestry shifted to a new liability insurance company, which saved us around $25,000 in premium payments while maintaining full coverage in all areas. This change in companies allowed the vestry to meet its funding priorities for 2024, such as providing health insurance for our church administrator (Amanda), offering pay raises, accounting for inflation in all areas, and funding numerous ministries for the first time in the history of Holy Spirit.

At any time you are welcome to request the detailed financials from the church and come meet with Amanda LaHue, holyspirit@sentbythhespirit.org, our church administrator, or Jim Peyton, our treasurer, to go over more specific questions. A copy of the most recent, vestry-approved financial statement is also in the church office.

By Friday, July 19, you should receive a statement of financial giving through June 30, 2023. We have had difficulty with this email going into junk mail so please check your junk folder. If you do not receive a statement of financial giving by Monday, please contact Amanda. We look forward to serving with you and listening to where the Lord is calling us to serve and seek to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ!

One helpful way to guarantee a strong future for our church community is through planned giving. To learn more about planned giving (bequests, life insurance donations, houses, gifts of stock, etc.) to sustain the Holy Spirit community well into the future, please contact me at jroberts@sentbythespirit.org or call the church at 210.314.6729 x 101.

In the Family,

Jason

 The Rev. Jason T. Roberts, Rector

A Few Coming Events

• Monday, July 22 - Project Hope
• Sunday, July 28 – Congregational Meeting
• Sunday, August 3 – Lunches for Laughs after morning worship
• Saturday, August 18 – Welcome Brunch for those new to our community 
• Sunday, August 19 – Blessing of the Backpack
• Monday, August 26 - Project Hope
• Sunday, September 8 – Registration for the All Church Retreat to Camp Capers begins
• Sunday, September 24 – Homecoming Sunday!
• October 20-22 – All Church Retreat to Camp Capers!