A blog post of mine from a ways back is included in the recent UUA Annual Program Fund newsletter on page three. Particularly useful if you find yourself trying to convince people to give away some or all of the collection plate. Thanks to Laurel Amabile for reading my original post and sharing it with much better clip art. Download PDF here: http://is.gd/2SkBNh
The Needy Church
by Peter Bowden
The big church said, “People, giving away a significant portion of your income to others will not only help transform our community, you will be transformed as well.” To this the other church asked why it must
wait. “Because when you first came, our congregation was keeping all of our pledge income to support our own institutional survival. We weren’t giving any away ourselves. But now we’ve approved an experiment
for next year to give away all Sunday collections and 10% of all pledges to charitable causes.”
What if your congregation approached its worship offerings, budget and larger stewardship as if the congregation was Gandhi, telling its members and friends that it is good for them to give away a significant
portion of their income for the betterment of others? What would that look like?
I think it would look something like this:
All of the worship offerings are given away to support charities outside of the congregation. Budgets are drafted as intentionally moral documents, with a significant portion of total pledges given away.
Pledging is done through a stewardship process that calls people to participate in the outward –focused work of the congregation.
Each week the congregation feels good about helping a charity. People give more than their regular offering, in support of the charities because it feels better!
Modeling stewardship as a religious community raises the bar for everyone. The congregation reclaims its moral authority by budgeting in ways that illustrate its mission and values. When people are asked to
pledge it is a simpler calculation — this pledge is for who we are and what we believe in.
What would happen if your congregation modeled the generosity you want to see demonstrated among your members? Does your congregation give away a portion of its offering or annual budget?
It is common for our congregations to dedicate time in every worship service asking for money. This approach may undermine the success of the larger stewardship effort. We regularly ask people to be inspired
in their personal stewardship while focusing the congregation’s stewardship message on institutional survival.
