My plan for Hope 2010 Stewardship Campaign? I am going to start selling bobble heads. Our church needs to really have a good year in 2011 and I have decided that this might be the most realistic way; to create and sell bobble heads of all of the staff members at Hope. The goal could be that congregants would collect them all and worse case scenario even if a congregant weren't super excited about the job one of us was doing they could purchase one and snap its head as they passed by it on their way to do the dishes or put in another load of laundry. But even in this quite possible worse case scenario, the church would still profit from its purchase and have more funding to meet the expectations of its congregants, while simultaneously creating an alternative outlet for disgruntled church members to release frustration. Yes, Hope staff bobble heads seem to be a win-win idea.
I am not sure if the Stewardship Committee will appreciate my creativity but as we enter our time of Stewardship money is definitely on my mind. I feel the pressure to generate income at Hope more than any other church I have served before, although I find myself serving in a very affluent area. It has a lot to do with the reality out of which my position was created. See, at this appointment I have found myself in the unique position of filling a job that was not budgeted for; filling the shoes of a position created out of the hope that change would result in revenue...and I am that change. No pressure for a first appointment, right?
It is a precarious position to sit in church committee meetings during which cuts are made and budgets fall short and the cause is your salary. It's the sort of discussion that could easily result in my volunteering to learn how to bake bread and spend my Saturday mornings in front of King Soopers doing my own little fundraiser. It feels like a more realistic option than bringing in more people, more pledges in the time frame of next eight weeks to make up for a shrinking income and a significantly rising budget.
Perhaps it is even more awkward because growing up money was never something we were ever supposed to talk about. It was a private matter. But Hope's financial situation is public knowledge. And although they are running short, it is definitely nothing to be ashamed of. See, they made a decision to do what they believed would benefit there church knowing that if it was the right thing, God would provide. It takes a faithful church to move forward when the numbers say otherwise and I am proud to be serving such a church. If the way you spend your money tells others about your priorities, then Hope's financial situation is evidence that they believe in the power of the Holy Spirit.
For me, my issue is letting go of this self-imposed responsibility to do God's job. (A re-occurring theme for my life). It requires holding fast to the vision God has given me for my ministry even while remaining incredibly aware that all the ministry I do is against this backdrop of the necessity to bring in the income for my salary...and still my only ideas are bobble heads and bake sales.
I was brought here to bring new people to Hope but the reality is that bringing in new people costs money. Money for marketing, for resources, for staff. And it takes time. Lots of time spent on meeting the needs of 'outsiders' with the risk of what might be perceived to be less attention paid to the needs of the people that are already sitting in the pews. It's a great way to make the people who have the power to pay your salary incredibly uncomfortable and potentially very angry.
Therefore, let's just sum this all up by admitting that there is an enormous tension around the pastor who has been called in to bring in new people without the money budgeted to pay for their salary. A sort of schizophrenic energy where the pull of gravity is in a million different directions. The learning curve is to begin to float in the presence of God. To believe in the power of the Holy Spirit to do crazy things in communities that take risks...even if after doing so they wish they could retract.
And while bobble heads and bake sales might sound like desperate measures it is much less for my sake and my family's that I feel so invested in this year's Stewardship Campaign at Hope. It is really a matter of faith. Of supporting this idea that God is still active in the world and is physically present in the lives of people who take steps toward a vision that can only materialize with God's activity being obviously present. I want the people of Hope to be able to taste and feel and hear God in the life of their community because they have taken a risk that in the eyes of some makes no sense and I believe those are the times when God just seems to happen to show up.
My prayer for Hope during this season of Stewardship is that those faithful leaders who once believed in the power of one person to change the course of their congregation's future could find inspiration in the truth that they, and only they, hold the power to make this vision true. The irony in all of it seems to be that if the people of Hope can pull together to have a Stewardship Campaign which incorporates the costs of an Associate Pastor and many of their growing ministries (without selling bobble heads and me having a "Tea Party" style bake sale) they will have gained the knowledge that it was never another person that they needed to 'succeed' but the courage to follow through with their belief in the power of individual gifts committed within the context of a community to perform miracles.
