Greetings in the Name of the Lord, 

It is that time of year, stewardship season, and I always worry that the requests for increased pledges will become background noise the way public media annual fund drives do (I always find myself saying- when do we get back to the music!).  That is the risk, but pledging is important for us to be able to operate the church so it can live into its call from God. But as I think about pledge drives, I think about how Church, particularly the presbyterian church, is different from a lot of other organizations that ask for donations. 

Back in Jesus' day the Temple was the means of sanctification, of forgiveness of sins, of atonement, of so much. And in the model the priests were the ones who acted as intermediaries to God, the ones who could facilitate the healing, prayer, offerings, confession, etc. The money the temple collected went to ensure the priests could continue their work as intermediaries.  But Jesus comes along, gets everyone thinking differently about the temple and the priests, and eventually presbyterianism (and more largely reformed theology) boldly proclaims that the church is a priesthood of all believers. Think about that for a second, it means we don't need someone else to manage our interactions with God, that each of us can facilitate our relationship with God, and to think about it in a really radical way, we can serve as each other's intermediaries to God. 

To put it within the lens of stewardship it means that when we pledge to the church, we are supporting each other, we are supporting the work that we all do, not only for ourselves, but for those beyond the walls of our church. By pledging we literally create a space where we all become this holy thing, together!  When you give to public media, you are paying for space for others to create and share, when you give to any number of nonprofits, it is not that much different.  Those organizations can certainly use donations for providing important services, but here, we are creating the space so that we can be that priesthood of all believers, that we can live into our gifts and talents. Where else can you give money to support your own work, where you create space to facilitate your relationship with God!  The building, the staff, even in my role as pastor, it is all here to support the communal work of the congregation.  So hopefully our stewardship campaigns hit a little differently than the fund drives that interrupt some of our favorite programming, because Church, well, it is just different.  

In Peace, 

Mike