From the Pastor
My colleague in Cloverdale, Linda Burris, shares these words on stewardship from Charles Lane’s book, Ask, Thank, Tell: “In too many congregations in our land, the goal of asking people to give to the church is to get enough money to pay the church’s bills for the coming year. When people are asked to give to the congregation, they are told of budget crunches, rising costs, and the need to dig deeper.” In his opinion, faithful stewardship to the church, “has been kidnapped and is being held hostage by a sinister villain named, ‘Paying the Bills.’”
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of paying the bills. And it would be quite easy to point to areas of financial need as our church enters 2007. Increased salaries, for example, as we have decided to reaffirm our commitment to children and youth in the hiring of Kristen. We now have three employees working 30 hours or more per week, not to mention the guy who wears that robe every Sunday! I think of our ongoing efforts to add diversity and variety to Sunday morning worship and music, ongoing property needs, opportunities for outreach from the food pantry to Habitat for Humanity to more mission trips for youth and adults. Yes, it is easy to base a stewardship plea on the need to pay bills.
But I would rather not do that. I agree with Charles Lane that the issue of faithful stewardship is far more than desperately pleading for money to pay bills. So I don’t even want to talk about the 2007 church budget. I want to talk about faithfulness, I want to talk about generosity, I want to talk about thankfulness – an appropriate topic in November! This may get me in trouble with the Trustees, but when your pledge card arrives in the mail, don’t give to the church so that we can pay bills. I hope you give from a deeper place than what is in your wallet. I hope you give from that place in your hearts where you are thankful for God’s many blessings, freely given. I hope your give from that place where you are thankful to this church for the ways it has touched your life and the lives of your loved ones, and want to see the blessings of this church shared with others. And I hope you give from that place which hears God’s invitation to generous living, discovering that it is in giving of ourselves that we find our true selves.
Gene
