This issue was supposed to be our annual stewardship issue, the 32 or so pages devoted to the nuts and bolts of asking church folk to support the annual budget, increase their pledge or serve in leadership. Those are all good and important things. The day-to-day ministry that our tithes and time facilitate is critical. However, a few months ago, when I was planning this issue, something happened … again.
The news flashed another story of refugees dying as they made their desperate journey to escape violence and war. This time the reports were of 700 or more drowning. Rescuers described a child of a few months, floating in the sea, dead. The images were haunting, tragic and woefully familiar. All of a sudden an article on themes for the fall stewardship campaign felt hollow.
There was an urgency to facilitate discussion and action about a crisis that is not abating. Hence, in this issue, you are not going to read about planned giving or motivating millennials to support mission. Instead, you will learn about the work our denomination is doing to relieve the suffering of refugees. You are going to read about theological and biblical foundations for welcoming the stranger. You are going to hear from a young woman who came to the U.S. as a refugee at age 14. One congregation will share their experience of choosing welcome. You are, I believe, going to be reading about stewardship.
Generous giving to budgets and benevolences starts with an open attitude, a belief in letting go rather than withholding, a confidence that whatever we give in faith, God will use, and an awareness that everything we have is on loan from the Creator.
When we open our hearts, our resources follow. Truly, where our hearts are, there will our treasure be also.
It is time for us to acknowledge how rich we are. We have material wealth. We have property to spare. Many of us are in positions of power and influence. We are educated and then educated some more. Despite our claims to the contrary we have the time, access and ability to advocate. We can do more than write a check.
I have witnessed time and time again how the Spirit moves when people of faith, in the words of a recent sermon I heard, stand up, speak up and stir things up. Giants are slayed. Laws are changed. Homes are built. Policy is reordered. Mountains are moved. Strangers become friends.
But none of this happens without practicing stewardship in the largest, most radical way possible. None of this happens unless we open our hearts and let compassion compel our feet and free our resources.
So, read this issue of the Outlook as an issue dedicated to stewardship and imagine what such stewardship would look like where you are. How will you choose welcome, openness, compassion, generosity?
I will close with a story of my stewardship mentor. She is a person who lives in the posture of “yes.” For a number of years, she blessedly chaired the outreach committee at a church I served, and no matter the request, from serving a meal to activists coming unexpectedly through town on Ash Wednesday to finding the funds to send kids on a mission trip, she always said, “Yes. We will find a way.”
She said “yes” to many things that I thought it might be wise to say “no” to or at least “maybe” to, but her gentleness, warmth and utter confidence were impossible to resist. So, we said “yes.” We wrote that controversial (to some) letter to city council. We opened the church to homeless families. And here is the amazing thing, God always honored our not-always-thought-through, sometimes foolish “yeses.”
We didn’t necessarily find a way, but inevitably God found a way and it started with my stewardship mentor, my ruling elder friend, saying with a chuckle and a shrug, “Sure. We will find a way.”
Her open heart, her “yes” posture to life and to the Spirit, has transformed lives. What if we collectively said “yes,” too — yes to welcome, yes to sharing, yes to hospitality, yes to stewardship? Just say “yes.” How’s that for a theme?
Grace and peace,
Jill
