Before worship last Sunday we had a chance to go over some material in preparation for our Annual Meeting on January 26th. Since stewardship is our ongoing focus, most of the presentation centered around that topic.
The "Narrative Budget" is one of the recent, and helpful, developments in explaining church stewardship. Traditional budgets focus around numbers and columns. They give you information (at least if you're inclined towards spreadsheets) but they don't tell a limited story about a church's financial resources. They encourage people to think of stewardship as a matter of digits and the church as an institution little different than a bank or investment firm.
A narrative budgets still gives you numbers, but it tells the story of how the church's resources are being used, not just by column and committee but in ministry involving real goals and real faces. "Worship Committee spent $500 this year" is a far different kind of presentation than, "We hosted a cluster-wide gathering, added large-print hymnals to our pews for those who can't see the normal version, and used a brand new liturgy for our Lenten evening services." The former just tells you how much. The latter answers the question, "For what?"
The "Narrative Budget" is one of the recent, and helpful, developments in explaining church stewardship. Traditional budgets focus around numbers and columns. They give you information (at least if you're inclined towards spreadsheets) but they don't tell a limited story about a church's financial resources. They encourage people to think of stewardship as a matter of digits and the church as an institution little different than a bank or investment firm.
A narrative budgets still gives you numbers, but it tells the story of how the church's resources are being used, not just by column and committee but in ministry involving real goals and real faces. "Worship Committee spent $500 this year" is a far different kind of presentation than, "We hosted a cluster-wide gathering, added large-print hymnals to our pews for those who can't see the normal version, and used a brand new liturgy for our Lenten evening services." The former just tells you how much. The latter answers the question, "For what?"
This is an important step in our stewardship journey together. Coloring an budget line red or black doesn't encompass what we do here. It's almost like there are two churches: the warm, supportive, and intriguing gathering we know and love and the cold, demanding, bottom-line institutional machine that demands support so it doesn't "fail". We enjoy the former but when we think of giving, we usually envision the latter. That disconnect has to be bridged. The church we give to is the same church we love. The other image is a false construct. We don't give money to an institution so we can do the things we enjoy and benefit from. We give to each other and God as we enjoy the same way we give to family members and friends as we experience our relationship with them.
We all budget in our daily lives for food, shelter, Christmas gifts, and everything else. But few of us say, "I am feeding you dinner, spouse and children, so that you will remain my family and I can experience a relationship with you." Instead we share with our family because we love them and they love us, because it's a joy to do so, because that's what we're called to do. Our giving is intimately and naturally connected with the people we give to and among.
That's exactly the way church giving is supposed to be. We're like an extended version of your family. Theoretically people shouldn't be giving just to meet a budget. The budget sets the bar for what we need, but it's a step in the stewardship journey, not the ultimate goal for it. Instead we should be giving in the name of God and for the benefit of each other and the world around us. We give because we trust and believe that God gives blessings more powerful and enduring than money. We sacrifice so that others might have a chance to experience something good. We give so that our friends and neighbors can feel secure and confident sharing their gifts as well, not just monetary but investments of time and talent as well. We don't give to support an institution or viewpoint, we give so that ministry will come alive (and continue to live) among us.
Giving is an intimate, joyous experience. We miss out on all of that joy when we disconnect it from the faces, talents, and loving generosity around us and make it just about numbers and columns. Can you put a price on hearing the girls sing on Sunday morning? I can't. Which column should that get filed under in the budget? Or should we instead agree that God is showing us reasons to trust, reasons to celebrate, and reasons to give all the time? And perhaps we should also agree that fencing away a part of our life--in particular our financial life--from this process is a less than ideal response to the grace he has shown us.
Tomorrow: Soul-baring on my part.
--Pastor Dave (pastordave@geneseelutheranparish.org)
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