Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,


Do you have any unmet needs in your personal estate planning? For example, do you need to update or create your will, or even establish a trust? 


Have you considered how your giving while living, and giving through your estate in the future could include Redeemer Lutheran Church?


Redeemer’s Board and the Planned Giving Initiative Team held a seminar focused on giving to support the future. The interactive seminar (see video below), was presented by professionals from the LCMS Foundation and the law firm of CowanGates. 


Giving to support your future primarily consists of two key components, planned giving while living and estate planning which includes your wills, trusts and medical directives. Together, they become your “Lifetime Plan for Giving” which provides for those you love and supports the ministries and charities that you care about. The personal benefits of creating and implementing a gift plan are many, including gaining peace of mind, making the most of your gifts, and providing for the future to mention a few. Your “Lifetime Plan for Giving” is a spiritual stewardship journey divided into four stages: 

  • Discovery,
  • Plan Designs, 
  • The Summary, and
  • Implementation. 

During the seminar, the leaders reviewed the plan development using each stage as a guide. The process is designed and presented in a way that benefits those who may already have a giving or estate plan in place, as well as those that are just now beginning or considering creating their personal or family plans. Please note that depending on the complexity of your estate and the details of your personal plan you may require independent legal counsel with associated legal expense.





Testimonials

"The Planned Giving Initiative workshop helped me realize that with intentional foresight, the resources God has given me to steward can be used not only for the benefit of my family, but also in powerful ways to grow His Kingdom. I met with an LCMS Foundation representative to personally hone a plan which would channel my funds at my life's end into ministries which I care about and already support. I appreciated also being encouraged to create a statement of faith to pass along to my children, along with a financial legacy."

Margaret Clikeman

As we become more "mature" in age our thoughts go to what happens to our earthly stuff when we go to our heavenly home. What helped Doris & I was the opportunity we had to attend the Planned Giving Initiative last spring. It helped us a lot to plan for that eventuality. We will plan to go again this year.

Bob & Doris Wigg

I wanted to make sure I commented on PGI and the presentation last year regarding it . The presentation was very informative , the speakers were compelling . It was a wakeup call for Karen and I to get in gear with respect to our need to get our “arrangements “out of discussion and into a tangible form with respect to decisions on our resources and goals at our future end of days . We chose to work with an attorney shortly thereafter to develop our will ,medical instructions and a trust in order to provide efficient and thoughtful instructions to benefit our heirs and other organizations . Redeemer has been and continues to be an important part of our lives and we wanted to make sure that we were able to support God’s work in the future.

Andy & Karen Scherzer