Pastor’s Ponderings
by Pastor Kimberly Chastain
Dear Ones,
Every year about this time, people start asking, “Are we going to have a stewardship campaign this year?” The stewardship season was usually around one month in the fall, when the elders and leaders of the congregation would talk about money: what we have, what we need for our congregation, what we would like for each person to contribute.
There have been different fashions for how the stewardship campaign was conducted: I was confirmed during the Every-Member-Canvas period; I remember my parents getting excited during my college years about a new campaign called the Pony Express. And I think we learned the wrong lesson in those years — because we learned that “Stewardship Season” was the only time we had to think about the relationship between money, church, and God.
But stewardship means much more. A steward, in the bible, was the manager of the estate, the wealth, and the possessions of a sovereign or landowner. The steward was responsible for making sure that it was all cared for, that there were provisions for the lean months or years, and careful accounting during the good years. We are all called to be stewards of what God has given us — to care for ourselves and each other, our families, our possessions, our earth — and our congregation. To make sure that it is all cared for, to see the connections between what we are given and what we do. Stewardship is, in fact, a process of lifelong learning, and careful attention to our patterns of generosity and use of resources is a spiritual discipline.
Instead of a “Stewardship Season,” at UPC we have tried to order our life together so that we pay attention to different needs throughout the year — care for creation and for each other, noticing and responding to a need in the community, tending to the building and the grounds, praying for each other and the world. We’re still not very good at the whole money thing, though. Perhaps the issues that arose around money during the merger were too painful, but although we make periodic efforts to interpret our church finances and spending patterns, we haven’t found good and useful ways to talk to individual members about giving and managing money as something that expresses and shapes our faith.
So we’ve asked for expert help: Rev. Ellie Johns-Kelley, our Ministry Relations Officer from the Presbyterian Foundation. We have invited her to come and spend the day with us on Sunday, September 22, to share the Word in worship and to lead us in a workshop called “Telling the Story and Building a Culture of Generosity.” She told me that we should invite the leadership of the congregation’s ministry and mission programs… I told her that meant just about everyone at United, and that we’d have a potluck luncheon to go with it. (Rev. Johns-Kelley will also be doing a workshop on e-giving after the presbytery assembly meeting on September 21 at Union Presbyterian in Endicott, which you are also welcome to attend.) I hope you will take the time to learn about the ways that we can talk and think about money as a tool for ministry, and our care for financial resources as an expression of gratitude to God.
Every week as we affirm our faith we say, “In life and in death we belong to God.” This is one of the ways in which we will be exploring what it means to belong to God, and ways that we can become more conscious of our role as God’s stewards.
Blessings, Pastor Kimberly
P.S. And pledge cards are available on request. 😉