November opens with All Saints' Day and closes with the first Sunday of Advent. There are so many important things happening in the Church in November. But for any local parish, perhaps the most important thing, practically speaking, is the annual parish stewardship drive. It is the engine which drives the parish program and budget for the ensuing year. Without it, plans are almost impossible to make, and difficult decisions must be made about which programs are the most important, and which ones cannot be sustained. On the eve of our annual parish pledge request, I thought it would be a good thing to offer a few thoughts about Christian stewardship.
Stewardship must always be honest. The reality is that ours, like most of the parishes in the Episcopal Church, is greying and shrinking. This is not to say that we do not have some wonderful and active young families, or that our older individuals and families do not come and do good and commendable things in this place. But it is to acknowledge a statistical reality that there are fewer people to pay the bills and to staff the ministries at St. John's than there were a few years ago. It is also to acknowledge that several of our loved ones who were able to support the church very generously now serve Jesus in a different way and in another place (some of them in heaven.) It is incumbent on those of us who worship here now to clarify our vision of what God would have our parish to do, and what he would have us to be, and to fund and staff that holy vocation to the glory of God, to the building up of his people, and to the extension of his kingdom.
Stewardship must always be creative. There are many wonderful traditions in our parish, and we are a traditional denomination. And there are many things which worked very well in the past which are not so effective today. Where resources are limited, it is our responsibility to deploy those resources in ways which honor and maintain continuity with our heritage. It is also our duty to make adaptations where necessity demands that we might be as effective as possible in kingdom work. Our vestry system of government is an effective tool in evaluating and implementing modifications and improvements in ways that meet our goals and preserve our identity as the people of God called Anglicans.
Stewardship must always reach out to others. One of the most important acts of stewardship any of us can accomplish is to invite someone to church, and to introduce them to the grace of God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Think about who you might invite to a church service, or a parish breakfast, or a Christmas or Easter service, or a Lenten or choir presentation. Be sure to sit with them and invite them out for hospitality following the service or event.
Stewardship must always be sacrificial. Jesus gave his life to pay for our sins that we might find new life and purpose and healing and joy (and everlasting life!) All of the Apostles were tortured or killed for refusing to deny the good news that God reconciled us to himself through the sacrifice of Jesus. Sacrifice is a part of the heritage of the Church. We are called to go beyond what we can do, or what is comfortable for us to do, in the service of God and in our attempts to share the Gospel with our town. This sacrifice should push us to offer our time and talents, and should inform our financial decisions about how much we should give to the parish and to other works which proclaim and implement God's plan for all people.
Stewardship must always be motivated by love. The Bible tells us that "God loves a cheerful giver." Our giving is most effective in bringing us closer to God when it is motivated by our love for him, for his kingdom, and for our parish home. To give because we want to is an expression of how we believe and how we feel about our Lord and the people with whom we worship. Even though I may not agree with every decision or everything which takes place, I love this place because so many times I have met God here. I love the people and the building, and the garden, and the music, and even the big tree out front. I wish to share that experience of meeting and knowing him in this particular Anglican Christian way with others- and so I give for the joy of it- for the love of it. I hope you will do the same.
I humbly entreat all of you, my friends, to prayerfully consider how you would support St. John's in 2015. Together, we can continue to make a real difference in this place, and bring glory to God, as is our whole duty as his sons and daughters.
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