Saturday, February 26, 2011

Stewardship Fund Drive theme

Yesterday the Brockport Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Stewardship Fund Drive committee had its second meeting. We covered a lot of topics in 1 1/2 hrs.

Edward B. Landreth in his book, Fundraising With A Vision, that a fund drive should have a theme.

We considered a few:

Give to Grow
Together We Make Dreams Come True
Invest in Our Future.

We chose Together We Make Dreams Come True.

I don't like asking people for money, but I want to grow the church so we need it to pay the bills.

Being a covenantal church we are not asking people to give to an institution but to each other so that we can support each other and pursue our mutual goals together.

What are our mutual goals? We are just beginning, less than two years old so our needs are pretty basic.
A place to meet together.
A minister/leader
Music for our services
Some advertising to get the word out.
Basic supplies of paper, stamps, etc.

People donate a lot of stuff and time and talent.

Together we are making it work.

From the Reagan era of the 80s Americans have been told that its every person for himself. Government is not the solution, its the problem. Get what you can for yourself because that is a sign of your success. Committing to the common good is for pussies. It's  a liberal, commie kind of thing.

So we struggle. A stewardship fund drive is counter-cultural, even anti American.

But our faith calls us to ask each other to contribute to the common good. People respond tentatively not wanting to get burned again by organized religion. Bono said, "The God I believe in isn't hard up for cash." We aren't asking you to share your treasure with God, we are asking you to share your treasure with your fellow human beings with whom you have common cause.

Jesus said, "Where two or more are gathered in my name there I will be." Did he mean that gathered together we are God?

1 comment:

  1. I love your blog and I love this post. Together we are God, I hope. This is my faith - the Body of Christ, the interdependent web. The universalist faith in all for one and one for all. We all get to heaven or none of us so let's work together to make it happen.

    Bless you and your work.

    ReplyDelete

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