2 Corinthians 9:6-7 (NRSV) -- The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
As many of you are aware, I love baseball.
Before every game, the teams meet at home plate to exchange lineup cards and go over the ground rules of that stadium. For example, Wrigley Field in Chicago has ivy covering the outfield wall, and a ball “stuck” in the ivy is out of play, and the batter is awarded second base. This is a “ground rule double.”
Let’s go over the ground rules for our coming stewardship campaign.
Handouts, the newsletter, and my blog pieces will be the primary place where we discuss elements of the money story. Money is head talk, and head talk will be primarily something for you to read. For example, on October 1st when we talk with the Trustees about the building, we are not going to talk about utility costs. The handouts will address that.
Handouts will also identify who you might talk to about a particular area. Current people are identified as they know the story, new people will not.
Our ground rule is head talk is reserved for reading, and speaking will focus, we hope, on heart talk.
Our speaking will focus on our hearts with why the church exists – change. The people called Methodists call this change transformation. Change is local, regional, national and international. Change is also personal.
Drawing from the scripture above, we are called to sow in a bountiful, grace-filled manner, so we can have a bountiful, grace-filled harvest. We have all heard, you reap what you sow. That is true both on what commodity comes back in the harvest, and how successful you are. Sow love and grace generously, and we harvest both, generously.
How do we speak to the next topic in love and generosity?
If we look at the seven predominantly white churches in Utah with a full-time pastor, we apparently are sowing sparingly because we are reaping sparingly. If our giving were consistent with the others, our congregational giving would be in the $530,000 range. It is not. Our congregational giving is for 2017 is expected to be about $405,000 (or plus $35,000 over 2016). I will say that there is some good news here: that amount is almost $100,000 higher than at the end of 2012. We are making progress here.
Let me return to the ground rules.
We know there are those who have limited flexibility to step-up here. Our ground rule is we will honor and respect that. We do hope those in this situation will pledge and be faithful, and regular, stewards.
You may pledge for 2018 at anytime in October. You do not have to wait until the last Sunday, and in fact, we hope you will step-up here early rather than later.
We have for many years been compelled to keep asking people into January if they intend to pledge. This is generally focused on those who have pledged in the past. We want to get to a ground rule that says the campaign is finished on Commitment Sunday (this year, October 29th). That knowledge will help us in our budget building. We are people of faith, but we do not approve faith budgets.
We do need more of us to pledge, and those that pledge, to pledge a little more. If everyone who last year’s pledged increased their pledge by $10/week and everyone else who did not pledge increased their unpledged giving by the same amount, we would be right at $500,000 which would allow us to accomplish many, long deferred goals. We will speak those thoughts over the month of October.
Selah, Pastor Dennis
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