Interviewed but not used

I mentioned that last week I was interviewed, by Steven Vegh of the Virginian Pilot, about stewardship. The article was published yesterday, and nothing from my interview was used at all! Perhaps I was just speaking "on background"?

Anyway, there was an interesting nugget in the story:

Sylvia Ronsvalle , a researcher at empty tomb , said church leaders are going up against a powerful trend: American consumerism.

“People are buying more things, carrying more debt,” she said. “People are finding money for things and cutting back in other areas, and the church may be one.”

Some boil down the explanation even further: that as Americans have generally become more prosperous in recent decades, they’ve become stingier at the offering plate.

Citing his experiences in ministry, Short said that affluent people often attribute their bounty to their own hard work, while poorer people credit providence and give more openhandedly.

“Affluence is a detriment to stewardship,” Short said.

Think about that: the affluent give a smaller percentage than people who are less affluent.

I really like the quote, "affluent people often attribute their bounty to their own hard work, while poorer people credit providence and give more openhandedly." So, affluent don't consider what they have as "God-given" perhaps?

Musing here: Does that mean that all the talk about stewardship falls on deaf ears in a place like Trinity, a place where -- admittedly -- we have a number of affluent parishoners?

Did I step over the edge?

So, were you at the annual meeting? Did I scare you off?

I stepped down from the lecturn, sat down, and thought I'd perhaps gone over the edge. Perhaps I need to make things clear; I'm not sure I was really understood. Let me try again.

Let's talk about what it means to be "formed" a Christian. That's right; we aren't born Christians. We make choices. And, we form ourselves as Christians, like a potter who forms a vase from a hunk of clay. What does it mean? What do we need to do? What actions do we take, like the potter wetting the hunk of clay and spinning the potter's wheel?

I suggest that stewardship is a key way we form ourselves as Christians. We define stewardship as taking care of, being responsible for, that which has been entrusted to us: our time, our talents, and our treasures.

And, I suggested, that one of the ways we use our time is through corporate worship. I'm not talking about coming to worship two or three times a year. A cynic would suggest this past Sunday there were members of the congregation who had darkened the doors last this past Easter... and Christmas before that. Actually, a cynic would say there were people who came for the meeting and didn't even bother coming to the worship service.

That, my friends, is not a good use of our time. We are asked to participate in the corporate life, the corporate worship, of our church on a regular basis (and by regular I mean weekly, or at least nearly so). And that's just the first stewardship of our time.

Anyway, an interesting thing about this is this: when we talk about forming ourselves as Christians, we're talking about Christian Formation.

More to follow.

Our status... here in mid-November

Well, here we are, the 10th day of November... and you are perhaps wondering what's up with the Pony Express.

A great question. For the most part, all the bags are in; I think one saddlebag is still making the rounds. Tomorrow, I'm sending a letter to all the households that missed the Express (and there were quite a few, I'm sad to report).

Dear Friends and Fellow Trinitarians,

You are perhaps wondering what happened to the Pony Express. Well, I have good news and bad news.

The good news is the Express ran it's course, and we have on hand pledges from 126 in the amount of just under $202,000.

The bad news is that some of our horses died.

I suspect one of the horses fell along the trail before reaching your household. As you know, the original Pony Express was a short-lived event, lasting not even two years (according to this web site the Express ran from April 1860 to October 1861). While we didn't have to travel 1966 miles, we did have quite a feat, attempting to reach every household of the Parish in just two weeks. We did okay, but, alas, and as you know, we weren't perfect.

Of course, I want you to have the opportunity to participate in the Every Member Canvass. Perhaps the Pony Express didn't make it, but the Every Member Canvass is still going to strong.

Please prayerfully consider your pledge to the Church and her work; please return the enclosed card to the Church office as soon as possible. Our in-gathering of pledge cards wimcarter@vaems.orgll be on Sunday, November 20th. We'd like to have all the pledges in and accounted for before the in-gathering so that the Finance Committee can finalize it's work on the 2006 budget.

If you have any questions about stewardship at Trinity, please get in touch with me.

Peace always,

Peter A. Stinson

P.S. Even if you are not pledging a specific amount for 2006, please return the card. This is an every-member-canvass, and unless we hear back from you, there's no way it can be “every member.” Thanks.

We had our monthly Vestry meeting tonight. Plenty of questions about the budget and the every-member-canvass. A couple of interesting bits.

While we will have a balanced budget for 2005, the next two months are going to be rough. Gene does a fantastic job at getting the numbers to both work out and make sense. However, we're going to end up short from the original budget of some $30,000 (at least that's what I think it is; I don't have my notes with me).

We are currently about $19,000 under in terms of pledge income after 10 months. That's very bad news. That means that there's $19k that was promised to the Church and likely isn't going to come in. I'd hope that people would maintain their pledge or, if circumstances have changed and they are unable to follow through, that people would notify the Church they'll be reducing/cancelling their pledge. At least then we know what to expect in terms of planning.

The nation-wide pledge average two years ago was about $1,700; we are currently under that. Under! I find it hard to believe that a parish like ours is under the national average. Sure we have folks who are on a limited fixed income and likely can't give all that much, but we have a huge slice of professional, working folks who can go well above the average.

It was suggested -- and I'm going to do it -- that we provide a pledge overview by segments. Not attaching names, but listing pledge amounts or categories (so many pledges at the $5-7k range; so many pledges at the less than $1,000 amount, etc.). I've been advocating we publish names and categories, just like secular non-profits (such as schools, colleges, theatres, arts groups, hospitals) do: At the ArchAngel level, Dr. & Mrs. David G. Boomlotz; at the Friends of Jesus level, Mr. and Mrs. Paul R. Rogers, etc.

That idea has never gotten very far. A few laughs, but that's about it.

As someone tonight said, "We don't really talk about money here at Trinity."

Okay, for those that want the hard numbers, here's what Bill L. provided to me tonight:

Number of pledge cards sent: 211

Number of cards returned to date: 168 (almost 80% returned)

Number of cards indicating no pledge: 42 (I'm not sure about this number; I suspect some of these are people who didn't want to participate in the Express. I need to track this down.)

Pledge cards returned with pledge: 126

Total amount pledged by 106 existing pledgers: $179,913

Total amount pledged by 18 new pledgers: $19,034

Total amount pledged by all parishoners: $198,947

Pledge from trust fund: $3,000

Overall total pledged to date: $201,947

Number of households increasing pledge over 2005: 32 by $21,944

Number of households decreasing pledge from 2005: 29 by $19,428

Pledge amount from last every-member-canvas (for 2005): $216,000

This year's goal: $240,000

Still needed to reach our goal: $38,053

One last item. Last week I was interviewed by the religion reporter for the Virginian Pilot for an article he's writing about stewardship. He asked me two questions of note.

First, he mentionned that, as a percentage of income, pledges today (nationwide) are less than they were during the Depression. I didn't find that at all outside the realm of expectations. Actually, he started to tell me, and I finished his thought. We're more turned inward, I think, today; there's more stuff to buy and fill our homes with; and there's more opportunities to give to charitable causes (although, I'd suspect there's a reduction even when all charitable giving is taken into consideration).

Second, he asked if anyone uses pledges as a weapon or expects something in return. While I think some of the pledge reductions from current year amounts to next years' pledge have to do with changes in circumstances, some of them (perhaps most of them) are from people who are using their pledge -- and the pledge reduction -- as a way of communicating displeasure.

This may be harsh, but this is my response: get over it folks. There are only 4 people in the entire parish who know who pledges what... and the person you're attempting to send a message to isn't one of them... and neither am I. I know how much one person pledges -- that would be me. I'm at about 10% of my post-tax, post-insurance, post-child support income. Not where I'd like to be, but where I am. I have bumped it up a bit every year for the last couple of years, so it's getting closer, but it's still not there. An ideal world would find me giving 10% of my total (pre-all-that-stuff) income to charitable causes.

Okay, that's it for now. As always, if you have any comments or questions, send 'em my way. And feel free to use the comments feature on the blog, too.