Giving To The Mission

In buzzing up tomorrow's Clergy Association program on Disaster Chaplaincy (10:00 AM at Synod Hall, Cathedral of St. John's in Providence, lunch provided!), one local cleric complained about the topic. He/she said something along the lines of "does it count as a disaster if our pledges reach an all-time low this year on account of heating and electric costs"? Well, that's not the kind of disaster we're talking about, but let me talk about it now.

We all know wallets will be tighter this fall in Rhode Island, as if that's actually possible. How will this affect your stewardship campaign? What campaign works the best? How can we survive? Forgive me, Dead Horse, but here comes the beatdown: it's about your mission.

I subscribe to an e-newsletter called Leading Ideas, from Church Leadership out of Wesley Seminary in Washington, DC. This week's copy talks about the reasons people give: guilt, involvement, habit, taxes, etc. But what's the number one reason people give? Mission.

From the article:

The best way to raise money for your church is simply to DO YOUR JOB! I get frustrated reading newsletters of church after church that tell me how the men's group is going to have a breakfast on Saturday and the women are going to have a bazaar next Thursday and the youth will have a dance next Friday after the ball game. Then, over in the corner, usually separated by a bold line so that it stands out, I see financial statistics, which usually indicate that a certain amount was needed and a lesser amount was received, with a quote underneath, "God loves a cheerful giver."

When I see that I want to say, "What have I got to be cheerful about?" Did you show me one life story in this newsletter about how the church has been making our world better? Is there one life-changing story in the entire document? Do you really just exist so that men can have breakfast, women a bazaar, and youth can dance? What is it exactly that you want me to support?

Does your church have a mission to make the world a better place? Is that mission rooted in the Gospel of Jesus Christ? How are you carrying out that mission? I think the more we can let that be known, the more the money will take care of itself.