This letter appears in the October edition of The Beam, the monthly newsletter of First United Methodist Church of Ontario where I am pleased to serve. I hope it brings up some questions for you as we enter the fall and holiday "giving season" as well as leading into this years contested presidential election. Do you let God influence every area of your life?
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Dear First UMC Family,
The month of October is going to center around two things you hope your pastor never talks about:
Money and Politics
Why?
Because there should be no area of our lives we attempt to keep separate from God.
October is going to be our season of Stewardship. This is usually code in “church-ese” for fundraising. But I want to invite us into deeper reflection on the topic.
Stewardship is defined as “the conducting, supervising, or managing of something; especially: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care”.
Everything we have in this life is entrusted to us by our divine maker. Life on this earth is temporary. Our existence here will only last a lifetime. But WE together as the Body of Christ are co-eternal with God and God’s creation. Therefore the decisions about how we live out our lives have both temporal and eternal implications. Which is a big responsibility! And that responsibility encourages us to evaluate how well we are using our temporal blessings for eternal kingdom building.
While Stewardship is about more than money, it is also absolutely about money. Because money reveals our true motives. James K. Frick, the iconic development officer at Notre Dame University, who took the University’s endowment from $9 million to $200 million over his 20 year tenure, had a saying that defines why Stewardship will always involve conversations about money. He said,
“Don’t tell me where your priorities are. Show me where you spend your money and I’ll tell you what they are.”
We can not claim to be Christians who are focused on making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world if our pocketbook says otherwise. This season of Stewardship will include reflections on how we participate in a temporal economic system using eternal kingdom values. AKA, how we can make sure our financial lives are in line with our spiritual lives. This goes for individual families as well as our church family.
The consideration of our money also leads to inherent conversations about politics. One definition describes politics as “the study or practice of the distribution of power and resources within a given community… as well as the interrelationship(s) between communities”. Politics is about how we organize ourselves and manage our relationships with others. More often than not how we choose to be in relationship with others is influenced by financial concerns. The Gospel of grace and abundance asks us to flip that narrative, to make our relationships what informs our financial actions.
People first, money second.
This is not easy work, but it is good and important work! There will certainly be many opportunities for confession and repentance for all of us in this reflective process. But I pray that on the other side of it we will have freer spirits, a renewed trust in God and a clear set of priorities for the next year of life together in this faith community.
May God’s grace and wisdom be abundant in your life through this season, and in our life together.
Peace,
-Pastor Blair
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