Stewardship

   It’s Stewardship time again in the church. This is a touchy subject, lot’s of people don’t want to be told what to do with their money. That’s fair, the church isn’t telling you what to do with your money, at least not this congregation. We would, however, love to have you make a pledge so that we can do some forecasting about what kind of giving we might be able to make use of over the next year. If you are familiar with church budgets you know that the budget offered by your Session is based on what our expenses have been over the last couple of years. How does a pledge help, you might ask. Your Finance Committee will tell you that if they can put in one column on their spreadsheet a tally of numbers that they can count on, it helps them plan for any large expenditures that come our way.

When an organization is caring for two buildings and doing missions, that can keep our margin razor thin. We have been blessed over the last few years in that much has been donated through the generosity of our members and friends. While this church helps the community by offering meeting space for free we don’t have much income other than from the “kindness of strangers.” I’m sure that your budget at home is similar to the budget at the church, every once in a while something breaks and needs to be fixed in order to continue. No one was planning for it, but it happens. It is nice to have some money in the bank and your Finance Committee has put some money in a savings account, so to speak, for a rainy day.

‘Pastor it’s about time for you to hit us with the scripture that says we need to give or that we owe everything to God.’ No need, this isn’t your first rodeo. What I am going to do is let you see my example of taking a cut in pay to help with our financial situation. I’m not doing it to prove anything. I’m a firm believer in this church and it’s missions. If we have money pledged, we can dream of what God is calling us to be and do. We can share the love of God with more people if our funds are being used to help those in need. Spend some time in prayer as you consider if you want to pledge a set amount each month or for the year. It will help more than the hungry. It will free up some time for your Finance Committee members so that they can enjoy the holidays with their loved ones too.


Disciples together,

Bruce

2 Corinthians 9:6-7

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