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Pledging at St. Peter's: An Opportunity for Giving Many parishioners have faithfully made generous pledges for 2008. We need to hear from everyone in the parish! Pledge packets sent to parishioners contain letters from our Interim Rector and our Stewardship Chair, a 2008 pledge card and envelope, a guide to completing the card (which also gives you an opportunity to select programs and activities in which you'd like to participate), suggestions to guide your giving decision, and a reprint of our Bishop's report of his journey in giving (see below), reprinted from the Diocesan newsletter The Voice and excerpted in St. Peter's Keynotes. If you have not yet pledged, we urge you to prayerfully consider your pledge and bring your completed pledge card to church with you or mail it to the church as soon as possible. If you have any questions or need additional information please contact Stewardship Chair Jeff O'Sullivan. Below is Bishop Beckwith's outstanding report on his own journey of financial stewardship. At left is the confidential e-mail address where you can send your pledge.
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Contemplating God’s Abundance While Sitting at the Kitchen Table
By The Rt. Rev. Mark M.
Beckwith
Bishop, Diocese of Newark
One of the first stewardship sermons I ever heard was one I didn’t listen to. But my wife did.
It was 1982 and I was a newly married associate rector at St. Peter’s, Morristown. In his sermon, the rector, David Hegg, talked about the discipline of proportionate giving, which involves adding up the amount of your charitable giving for the year, figuring out what percentage that number is of your total income and then making a conscious decision to increase that percentage each year—with 10 percent tithe as a goal.
I didn’t want to do that, and so I didn’t pay attention. I figured that my decision to become a priest meant that I was entering in to a vocation of giving, and so I shouldn’t be pressed to give any more. Besides which, the financial sacrifice I had made by choosing the ordained ministry – over some more-lucrative professions I had also considered, put me in a position of not being able to give much, if anything.
But my wife, Marilyn, paid attention, and she dragged me to the kitchen table one night so we could together figure out what we gave to God’s work in the world (which included the church, our colleges, and some favorite charities). It wasn’t much – about one percent.
After some discussion, she eagerly – and I reluctantly – decided to increase our giving to two percent the next year. We also decided that our first financial decision each year would be how much we were going to give away, and that the tithe would be our goal
That sermon, and the subsequent kitchen table discussion, served as catalysts for one of the seismic shifts in my life. When my wife and I increased our giving – and made it our primary financial decision, I found myself to be less resentful over what I didn’t have (and wouldn’t earn) and more grateful for what I was able to give freely. It was a move from scarcity to abundance – and as my family and I have continued to increase our giving level to the tithe, I have found myself less hostage to economics (which by definition is the science of scarcity) and more available to the wonder of God’s abundance.
This is the season of financial stewardship. As we get ready for the rather daunting task of asking parishioners to make financial pledges to fund mission and ministry of the church, a strong case can be made for the church’s need to receive.
Each of our parishes has visions and priorities, buildings and staff, programs and bills – all of which need our attention and support. Our substantial financial support. And as each of our parishes begins to engage in its annual end-of-the-year reality check – otherwise known as the creation of next year’s budget – it has been my experience that a growing anxiety over scarcity often can overtake opportunity, and a congregation’s need to receive can become an unpleasant process of exerting pressure for people to pony up.
But I think Christian stewardship really comes down to our need to give – not as an economic necessity, but as a spiritual discipline. It is a discipline that involves some arithmetic, discussion, and debate at the kitchen table – and an opportunity to delve more deeply into the abundance of the living God.
Exercising our need to give – by freely sharing the money we have – is one critically important way that we can be co-creators of God’s unfolding creation. Money directed to our most important commitments nourishes our souls – and our world.