Like many of you, I held off until Thanksgiving night to start listening to Christmas music, and I haven't turned off Bing Crosby since. One of the songs in my iTunes account is the Harry Connick Jr. song "When My Heart Finds Christmas." One line in particular causes me to pause: "In my eyes are valentines/And Easter eggs and new year's wine/But when my heart finds Christmas/My eyes will shine like new."During this time of year, where is your heart? Matthew 6:21 notes that "Where your treasure is, your heart will be also."In the past few months, we here at The Lutheran Schools Partnership have had the pleasure of witnessing and participating in some wonderful things. We celebrated with Pastor Doug Punke as he was nominated for a Rolfsen Award from the Foellinger Foundation. We were moved by the passion that Krista Nagy, principal of Lutheran South Unity school, has for her students during their annual Let the Children Come fundraiser. We hosted Robert Enlow of the renowned Friedman Foundation and 120 SGO supporters during the annual SGO celebration. And we celebrated with Concordia Lutheran High School as the school's first efforts with #GivingTuesday well exceeded the goal of $20,000 in one-day fundraising. We wear our hearts on our sleeves; when The Lutheran Schools have success, we share in that success "like a proud grandpa at the school play."How about you? Where is your heart and your treasure? We've been told that members sitting in our pews are evenly divided between those wanting to support operations, those wanting to be a part of projects and campaigns, and those wanting to place their treasure with endowments, allowing their hearts to live on into the future.
The weeks surrounding Christmas and New Year's traditionally are when donors move their treasure to the churches and schools that hold their hearts. Love scholarships? The school funds held at The Lutheran SGO of Indiana started filling up in November, and continue to grow. Capital projects? We see buildings going up at Concordia Lutheran Elementary and plans being developed at Central Lutheran. Endowments? Every Lutheran elementary school in northeast Indiana has a $1-to-$1 match available from The Lutheran Foundation, just waiting for hearts to fill the need and double the treasure.Not sure where the direct your hearts this year-end? Give your principal a call; odds are they have a list and have been checking it twice.
