Good morning. Peace and grace to you on this very colorful October morning.
In this season of giving and at the urging of Session, I wanted to share with you my earlier appeal to the congregation for our 2020 stewardship campaign. As you prayerfully consider your support of our mission, think about the impact you would like to have in the year to come..
October 27, 2019 - Today I want to talk to you about stewardship. Yes, as you know from your mail, this is the season when we set out to secure your offerings for the coming year. While you prayerfully consider your contribution, I thought I might share some insights.
I don’t know about you, but when I look around the church during services or chat with members in fellowship during one of our many events and activities, I sometimes forget how fortunate we are. We’re well-dressed, everyone seems pretty well-fed; by and large, healthy. It is smiles and laughs and hugs and congratulations. Good times, indeed.
It doesn’t seem at all that we live in the poorest large city in America. That 25% of our neighbors live in poverty. That means a family of 4 living on less than $26,000 per year.
I’ll give you another one. 19143. Does anyone know that zip code? It is South West Philadelphia – about as rough a neighborhood as they come. Life expectancy for those residents is nearly 20 years less that it is here in 19087. These are American Heart Association figures. Look them up.
The aim of stewardship development is not to finance the church's annual operating budget but to change lives. Giving is part of discipleship. It is a part of our spiritual formation. The most important aspect of stewardship is the development of devoted Christians. The mission of the church, of Wayne Presbyterian Church, is to build, form, and sustain disciples. The school for love is the mechanism through which we come to understand gratitude as the basis of discipleship.
Supporting the work of the church is among the purest forms of gratitude. Most of us will never know the folks whose lives we changed. One of the incredible truths about gratitude is that it is impossible to feel both the positive emotion of thankfulness and a negative emotion… Gratitude births only positive feeling—love, compassion, joy and hope… As we get older, we get schooled in our mistakes and learn to focus on what’s not right, what is lacking, missing, inadequate, and painful. That’s why gratitude is so powerful. It helps us to return to our natural state of joyfulness where we notice what’s right … Gratitude reminds us to be like plants, which turn toward, not away, from the light.
One verse in every six in the first three Gospels relates, either directly or indirectly, to money. Sixteen of our Lord's 44 parables deal with the use or misuse of money. A loving, joyful, liberal giving to the Lord's work is an acid test of a spiritual heart, and it is deeply pleasing to God. Giving is more than a responsibility—it is a privilege; it is how we express our own gratitude—it is evidence of our faith.
Back to 19143 for a moment. You may not realize it, but you’re making a difference there. You’re doing God’s work in that neighborhood through one of our principal ministries, The Common Place. It is working. It is changing – saving actually, people’s lives. Whether it is IHN or Broad Street Ministry or Radnor Community Center or Music Transforms; it is making a difference. The incredible music program, the children’s education, this beautiful sanctuary, the pastoral care; they are all components of our school for love here at Wayne Presbyterian.
As you prayerfully consider your contribution for the coming year, our 150th by the way, I would like you to consider how many lives you would like to change for the better – apart from your own? How many poverty cycles do you want to break? If I told you that contributing a certain amount would lift a single-parent family out of addition and into a productive, healthy, loving home, would you do it? Would you feed someone for a year? How about 10 people? All of this is possible.
As you ask yourself these questions, I will leave you with a witticism of a deeply-faithful man who was better known for his comedic genius. Bob Hope once quipped during a benefit performance, ‘You can't take it with you, but you can send it on ahead.’ Thank you.
With gratitude and blessings to you in the New Year, David Benway, Elder and Chair of the Stewardship Committee of Session – Wayne Presbyterian Church