Stewardship Message - October 20, 2019 Darryl Marshall, Stewardship Chair

Stewardship Message – October 20, 2019

Darryl Marshall, Chair Stewardship Ministry

Good morning. My name is Darryl. I am here to talk about stewardship. If you have heard me in past years, you will think that I am very likely to suggest that you pledge for 2020 and that you use a percentage of your income to guide you in the amount. This historical guideline is a tithe, or 10% of adjusted gross income. You would be right. That’s my message. Please hold your applause until the end.

Having said all that, I have a question: Why are you here? My view is that we both want to be here and need to be here, as Christians, members, and communicants. This provides us a way to leave the world better than we found it. And, we need to support “here”.

I enjoy reading The Economist, which is a weekly news magazine published in England. Last week I ran across an article on the subject “Pay to pray.” This is what I learned:

“The governments of ten countries across Europe administer membership fees on behalf of religious organizations. In two of these, Spain and Portugal, believers can opt to pay a portion of their income tax to their religion of choice. Six others run opt-out systems, whereby registered members of certain Christian churches (and, in some cases, other religious groups) are required to pay tax. In most of these, leaving the religion is the only way to get out of paying. Some states in Germany require even more arduous methods of disassociation—in addition to leaving the church, you must also file a notarized de-registration form with the local government, which demands a fee.”

Clearly, this approach would make my job a lot easier. But it would miss a critical issue: this is a faith community. Here is where the Son of Man will find faith when he comes. We have a clear purpose that goes beyond a social club. When you participate in this church you can encounter God in a unique way. And, we give back. You, and this church support many programs helping fill the needs of not only our parishioners, but also our wider community.

And, there is more to the story in Europe: “Icelanders, have found a cunning way to get refunds. Their tithes are distributed to each religious group according to the size of its flock. A surprising number of people have registered as members of the Zuist Church of Iceland, a previously obscure group that preaches ancient Sumerian beliefs. It refunds the contributions of its members, greatly broadening its appeal.”

In the past few months I have done a survey of people who attend Church of Our Saviour, asking them why they are here. When talking to our members the question immediately evolved into “why do I need to be here.” Allow me to read some quotes of the answers I received:

·        I love the clergy here.

·        An opportunity to learn.

·        This is a family.

·        A very human thing, to seek and find our better angels.

·        COOS expresses the full breadth and depth of feelings.

·        A very comfortable experience

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·        I am valued for what I am, not what I do.

·        It is important to love and be loved. I would love less if I did not come to church.

·        It spans entire lives, birth to death. Very few groups are multi-generational. Very few groups help people die.

·        I love to see young parents relating to kids and kids growing up. Family not close, so it is a treasure watching people go through life.

·        We have a person to person connection, as opposed to social media.

·        It is such an exercise dealing with various people, even with those I don't enjoy.

·        I come to church each Sunday to hit the "reset" button on my life through confession and the Eucharist. I need to get away from the "noise" in the world and give praise to our Lord through prayer with my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I love this one. We worship, sing, and confess together! Once, about three churches ago for Jackie and me, I sat next to someone in choir named Jerry. I noticed that he did not join in the confession during the service. I asked him why not? He said that he had not sinned in the past week, so did not need to confess. I said, “Look Jerry, maybe you didn’t do anything wrong, but you have no idea what I did, so you should join me and the others.”

It is what we do together that is important. We do not say “I confess…”, we say “We confess…”.

Learning is very important to some of us. I saw a survey once that showed that 70% of people in the US think Joan of Arc was Noah’s wife. We can do something about this state of affairs and are working on it. The first group I joined here was the Men’s Bible Study & Breakfast. It is a great experience. 

To me, the most compelling reason to be here and support “here” is this: The common theme in the reasons given is that we need to be here for one-another. God is real and can be experienced. If we pay attention, we can learn how to recognize that experience and participate in it. We are called to love one-another. We share the love here through many programs, our liturgy, and our mutual support.

We need to be here, and we need to support "here." Love demands that we support "here" for those depending on us. It is important to you, to me, to your neighbors in the pews, our community and our world.