I know that there are a lot of people who resist the Stewardship program in their church, or in their life for that matter. They are not interested in someone telling them what they need to do or what they need to give to their church or their community. I am here to tell you that I believe that if you don’t adhere to the stewardship ideal then you are missing the boat. I know you don’t want to hear that but that’s what I’m going to tell you.
Anyone can write a check. There. I said it. Yes, I did. Anyone. It might be for $5, it might be for $50 or it might be for $5000 but anyone can write a check. Sometimes it’s hard to encourage someone to do that but when it’s all said and done anyone can write a check. Right now there are a lot of fundraisers going on for kids schools and ball teams and such. They are selling t-shirts and candy bars and cookie dough and all kinds of other things. Since I come from a long-line of kids who always were selling something I try very hard to support these. But sometimes I just don’t want the item they are selling. It really freaks a kid out to tell them that but I would be glad to make a donation. They don’t know what to do with a donation. Sometimes I tell them to buy the product for themselves but I usually want to see how much of the sales price goes back to the organization and that’s what I’d like to contribute. It freaks kids out. But I think it’s important to support programs like this so I’m all about it.
I think it’s important to support your faith community with money. But I will tell you that I get the least out of my support by just writing a check. I’d rather do more.
Oh, the scary “do more”.
Yes, and I think you should too. You will get so much more out of it. If you give of your time, oh wow, I know you don’t have a lot of that, but if you do that, you’re going to notice a difference in your faith journey.
Our church has started going on a mission trip, every other year. There are people who work themselves to death all year, raising money, collecting donations, before they even head out on their trip. But once they do, they go into a community and volunteer. They work with little kids and with families and they end their trip by building a house for a family in the community. They come back from Jamaica tired and sore but smiling from ear to ear. Did they get to go to the beach? You know, I don’t even know if they spend any time on the shore. They don’t want to talk about that. They want to talk about the fact that these little kids loved the items we sent down to them and all of the hugs that they got. The people who go on that trip come back stronger in their faith, and their commitment to community.
All it took was time. No one who went on the trip was out any money. They raised that. All they were out was their time and what they got in return they will carry with them the rest of their life.
I look around at our faith community and I see people with lots of talent. There are people who can do many things and it amazes me how many of these people through the years have done this for our church. Most of the buildings were built by parishioners. Our beautiful landscape was done by our wonderful Pastor. And he doesn’t get paid to do that. We are so blessed to have people minister at Mass. Honestly, I’m sure that there are so many things done that no one knows how it gets done. I can remember years ago, my uncle, who was an electrician, always went out to the church the week before the church picnic to string up the lights. They felt that they needed to have an electrician do that work. I am also sure that he never got paid a dime for that. I don’t think he would have taken any money from them in any way. That’s not what you do.
I have been lucky to do some things for the church. For awhile I charged for it but I came to realize that my mama would slap me upside the head if she knew that I was doing that. I probably should give all of that money back (she would say).
But I will tell you this, I would much rather give of my time and of my talent any day of the week than to write a check. And I pray to God that anyone who sees me do that realizes that it is more important that people see me do it than for anyone to see me drop a check into the collection plate. I pray that God allows me to continue to be able to offer my time and talent all through my days. Because I know that He is building my faith, and I’m usually having a whole lot of fun in the process.
Won’t you join us?