Dear Church,
Let me say a few words about why we do a giving campaign at The Table. The reason being: I ran an informal survey on social media this week about how people feel about giving campaigns and the reactions were all over the map: some love them, some are ambivalent, and some have negative connotations to it.
So why do we do a giving campaign?
- It helps us plan for the year. We want to steward well our common resources and having an idea of how much we can generally expect help us to budget wisely for the year. Of course new jobs, winning the lottery (!), or losing our jobs happen throughout the year to many of us. The pledge isn’t binding, but a way of indicating our intent as of today that enables us to plan for our coming year.
- Giving is a spiritual discipline. This is why we have the wooden tokens that people place in the offering plate: many of us give faithfully via an automatic recurring donation online so we don’t physically ‘give’ weekly. The token lets us embody the act of giving, calling to mind how we are offering a token of who we are to God and our community.
- We commit to a common mission together that needs funds to be fulfilled. We’ve talked a lot about the complications and complexities of money in our world. In the midst of these realities, and our ever-present vigilance to living compromised by Mammon, our church commits to a common cause together that requires funds to be lived. Salaries, building costs, participation in wider local ministry, supplies, equipment all support our work together.
- It’s not only a spiritual discipline to give, it’s a discipline to ask as well. Asking for what we need – personally and corporately- is a vulnerable place where we communicate our humanness to each other. Asking for a pledge is a way we offer our needs to each other and place ourselves in a posture of receiving. It’s in the giving and receiving we learn how to love, learn how to be humans who trust and help each other.
We invite you today to join in our common life together by making a pledge for 2024 today. We thank you for your generosity and faithfulness and consider it a privilege to serve you at the Table.
With joy and appreciation,
Fr. Matt
