The church I attend has been turning its mind to money, of late, and recently, traditional sermons have been replaced by presentations on giving (money to the church). I have missed all of these, as I've either been teaching at Sunday School or wandering around the churchyard with Isabel in order to spare the congregation from her screaming, running, jumping, singing and other attempts at disruption.
I have, though, read the vicar's piece on stewardship in the church magazine and, as well as providing me with the lovely bit of wit that I half-inched (pinched) for the title of this blog, it has given me a little food for thought. Our church was built for £12k in the late 1800s. It is now insured for nearly £9m (berlimey). It's a beautiful church. So anyway, if we were starting from scratch as a parish, we'd need to find rather a lot of pennies in order to build a church like the one we have. I suspect that if we were all to chip in, we might be able to afford a large tent somewhere.
Aren't we lucky then, that our ancestors made this investment in fabulous church buildings when they did? I mean, religious or not, I think most people would be heartbroken if these historic buildings were to disappear from our cities, towns, villages and hamlets.
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4 comments:
I like the title of your posting! It brought quite a chuckle to my day.
Stewardship.. I am still wrestling with the whole concept. Why are we focusing on just the needs of our parish/church when there is so much other need in the world?
Sure.. in the past, when travel was limited, our energies turned into our community, and we buit the loveliest church we could for ourselves, and for our children. However, today it is hard for me just to focus on the people who live within walking distance of my house... I have internet friends in Australia, India, China, Japan, Brazil, etc. I have become aware of the injust amount of money that some countries receive for their exports. I have learned about the ways in which the developed nations use the poorer nations.
Stewardship? For me, it means opening my heart to the needs of more than just my personal parish, but to support positive growth everywhere.
What annoys me is when "stewardship" becomes "give to this church". The two are not equivalent. Stewardship means responsible use of our money. That may mean giving some to our local church, but will also involve giving outside that, to other needs both local and wider spread.
What also annoys me is when churches spend weeks and weeks on "stewardship". That's not right. Once or twice a year in a sermon, no more than that. Appeals in the magazine, even the notice sheets, are fine. But the sermon isn't about pleading for money. It's for preaching the word of God.
[fx: end rant] :-)
pax et bonum
I do agree - with both of you. And here's a thing that miffs me. As regular church-goers we are expected to give some money per week - quite a large sum really (which we can't afford and so we fall short in our giving but I do lots of voluntary work for the church (I even clean the loo sometimes) so hopefully that makes up for it a bit .... and breath)
Bear with me here: the thing that miffs me, is that we give a sum each week so that the church can be maintained. We also work hard for fund-raising events (I mean one lady has made over 1,000 pots of jam in her time to sell for the church and another couple run the marathon each year), and yet complete strangers can wander in and use the church merely as a beautiful setting for a christening or wedding, and swan off out again, never to make any serious contribution to its long-term upkeep.
Last week we had a very large christening, by which I mean there were lots of people who'd been invited to the christening and thus had to endure what was clearly for them, a boring service, before they could hit the beer afterwards. It irritated me.
Hmph.
It's a difficult one. We've inherited these beautiful and historic buildings that cost two arms and both legs to maintain. We are, generally speaking as congregations, too small and too retired, to be able to upkeep them properly. What's to do? It is awful that the hundred or so from within a community (parish) of say 10,000 who attend a church have to sit and listen to why they should increase their giving, whilst everyone else who lives nearby and would be up in arms if the church were to be demolished for a block of flats, sit at home watching the TV (our church lies in an upper-middle class enclave and there would be an uproar amongs people who've never set foot in it if it were to disappear).
Oh yes.. you will find that kind of thing happening in any organization.. where there will be a handful of people doing the work/support and a whole host of people using the benefits. Strange isn't it? I guess that it's just a lack of understanding, or a lack of caring.
We see this kind of phenomenon in the stories that Jesus told us: How the farmer scattered the seed on the ground, some ground was too rocky, some ground was filled with weeds, and the fertile ground gave varying amounts of growth... some 30, some 60, some 100 times the amount sown. So, if you look at it, let say that this farmer had scattered 100 bushels of seed, 33 bushels was lost on rocks, 33 bushels on weeds, 33 bushels went to good ground, but out of that only 11 bushels gave 100 percent. OUCH! Only 10 percent of the seeds gave their best! Sounds familiar.. doesn't it?
If that handful of supporters stopped putting in their efforts, we would lose a whole bunch of wonderful things in the world, wouldn't we? Thank goodness that God calls just enough workers to the fields to get the jobs done.
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