St. Matthews Church - Rector's Greeting

The following notice – or one very similar to it -- has appeared in recent Sunday service leaflets at Saint Matthew’s Parish. Members of the Parish’s Executive Committee have asked that this notice appear here as well.

A WORD TO THE PEOPLE OF

SAINT MATTHEW’S

The Treasurers of Saint Matthew’s Parish want you to know how important it is to keep current with your Stewardship Pledges and offerings. Saint Matthew’s was unable to pay all of its bills by the end of the month of May, and that was not the first time this has happened this year. We are still in arrears on our Contribution for Common Ministry (Diocesan Assessment) and our Property Insurance premium. Please make every effort possible to bring your Stewardship Pledge up-to-date and keep it current, especially through the summer months. If you cannot be in church to make your offering, please consider putting your pledge or offering in an envelope and mailing it to Saint Matthew’s! If we all work together on this, we’ll be able to stay current in paying the parish bills! Thank you all.

Whenever the leadership of a parish believes that it is necessary to publish such a notice, it always makes everyone feel a bit uncomfortable. “They’re always asking for money,” and “Don’t they know that times are hard?” may be thoughts that have gone through your mind. Indeed, your parish leaders know that the economic challenges faced by many of our members are difficult, and few of us feel comfortable “asking for money.” However, what this particular notice is asking us all to pay attention to are the Stewardship commitments that we made as individuals and families to support the ministry and mission of Saint Matthew’s during last year’s Stewardship program in October and November 2009.The 2010 Parish Budget was developed based on the pledges that were received at that time, and the Wardens, Officers and Vestry adopted that budget in good faith, based upon the report of all of our Stewardship commitments. Being able to pay our parish bills and obligations really does depend upon all of us who made such Stewardship commitments. We need to keep the promise that we made – and if we are unable to do so, we need to tell someone, so that budget adjustments can be made if possible and as necessary.Perhaps you were wondering how to let someone know that you are unable to keep your Stewardship commitment for 2010, without feeling embarrassed or ashamed. It’s really rather easy: all you need to do is write a note to the effect that you need to make a change in your pledge, and tell us what the change is (a dollar amount) and when the change takes effect. Put your pledge envelope number on your note, and drop it by the Parish Office (you can address it to the Senior Warden or the Rector). If you want to speak with the Rector or someone else about your situation, that can be arranged easily.The bottom line is…the bottom line: in a Christian community, we are to depend upon each other, as we all depend upon Christ. We are asked to learn to live together in greater honesty and transparency than we are usually asked to by our surrounding environment, and we are asked to rejoice with one another in the good days, and to help to bear one another’s burdens in the tough times. Sometimes, I think we send the wrong message in our Stewardship programs, saying that your pledge is a matter “between you and God.” Truthfully, my pledge or your pledge is not a private or personal matter, but rather a matter with far-ranging communal impacts, just as how you and I spend our money and our time impacts the quality of life in our local community and the strength of our local economy. We live our lives in a “web” of relationships, where our individual choices, decisions and struggles have consequences beyond ourselves. John Donne famously said centuries ago that “No man is an island…,” and I think his words are even more true in our day of the “global village.” Rather than being uncomfortable talking about money, Stewardship commitments, or the keeping of promises, perhaps we need to see these “uncomfortable moments” in our lives and our communities as “teachable moments,” times when we might be asked to deepen and to grow in our awareness and understanding of what it really means to be and to live as members of the Body of Christ.

Let’s be encouraged – and not discouraged – by this opportunity to learn and to grow, and to be thankful for one another and for all God has done for us, even in these challenging times!