Last month we put a real number in front of you for the first time, and you read it. That page was one of the most visited on our website the week it went up, which tells us something: you actually want to know what it takes to run this place.

So here is number two. This one is harder to see than the lights.

How much does it cost to insure Epiphany for one month?

  • A About $2,400
  • B About $4,900
  • C About $6,700
  • D About $9,500
Click to reveal the answer

The answer is B.

Our insurance runs $4,935 a month.

That works out to about $162 every day, or roughly $1,140 every Sunday, or just over $59,000 a year.

Here is what that number actually covers. General liability, which is the policy that answers when somebody gets hurt on our property. Coverage on the buildings themselves, the church and the school both, which matters more than a little in a city that gets its name in the news every few Augusts. And coverage for our staff, including the kind of protection a pastor or a teacher needs simply because of the trust their work requires.

Electricity is easy to appreciate. You walk in, the lights are on, and you can see exactly what your gift bought. Insurance is the opposite. When it is doing its job, absolutely nothing happens. A month where this policy works perfectly looks identical to a month where we spent $4,935 on nothing at all.

Every family who drops their student off each morning is trusting us with something they cannot replace. Insurance is one of the quiet, unglamorous ways we keep that trust.

If you have ever wondered whether a smaller gift makes a difference: $25 keeps Epiphany covered for nearly four hours. $100 covers most of a day.

A number like this one is only ever half the story. We share it so you can see your gifts at work, even in the places where the work is invisible. But the reason we give was never the number.

“Jesus’ message, now echoed by science, reveals that true happiness isn’t found in raising our standard of living but in elevating our standard of giving.” — Zach Zehnder, The Giving Challenge

Thank you for giving cheerfully. Next month, we’ll put another number in front of you.

— The Board of Stewardship