Stewardship: Glad and Generous Hearts

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• Stewards All: A Message from Art Schoeller & Frank Basler
• "Giving: What Have You Known and Learned?" By Andrea Cross, Stewardship Committee
• Why I Pledge

“Stewards All”

A Message from Art Schoeller & Frank Basler,
Co-Chairs, Stewardship Committee

In February the Stewardship Committee mailed out thank-you letters to all who pledged to support the annual campaign. Every member of Saugatuck probably would do better to thank one another; all of us are stewards. Saugatuck is ours. We provide the life, the spirit, energy and vitality. We reach out to one another and to the community in countless acts of care, concern and love. Everyone gives, everyone deserves thanks.

We know that some do not or cannot pledge, but nonetheless there is no one among us who does not give and deserve recognition and thanks for his or her generosity. We also know that some might feel uneasy about giving, embarrassed that they do not have the means to give more. We want to say, and we mean this, that everyone, no matter what they give, is appreciated. Whatever the amount, it is appreciated. Often it is those who appear to give the least, who in fact give the most, who make the greatest sacrifice. Pledges continue to come in, and Stewardship appreciates that. It would mean so much if those who can hardly afford to sacrifice somehow managed to make a very small pledge, a pledge in spirit, where the gesture and amount clearly say: I'd like to help more but this is what I have to share. Your gift is blessed.

• We thank those who pledge to support the annual stewardship campaign.
• We thank those who pledged less than they wanted, yet to whom this was a real sacrifice.
• We thank those who gave in other ways.  They make our Saugatuck the giving community we all know it to be.
• We thank those who, on a tight budget, struggled with the knowledge that there were both  Stewardship and Capital Campaign pledges to fulfill, yet still sacrificed and gave what they could.
• We thank those who are still deliberating and weighing what they can manage to give.

This has been a successful campaign. We pledged only 6.6% short of last year – not bad, considering what has happened to the stock market! There were fewer pledges than last year – and the giving spirit is strong at Saugatuck, in all ways.

As a committee we thank Bill Morse for his tireless labors this past year as Chair of Stewardship; thanks as well to Andrea Cross, who will continue this year, and we especially thank Linda Bradbury Danner, Sonna Van Kampen, Mark Russi, and Charlotte Stacey for their tireless service, now that they have "retired" from the committee.

As we roll up our sleeves and get back to work, planning for next fall, we ask you again to remember to show appreciation towards one another, always, for the countless acts of giving, generosity and concern for others that define us, Stewards all, of Saugatuck, the much-admired Westport church that touches hearts and changes lives.

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Giving: What Have You Known and Learned?

Serving on the Stewardship Committee provides an opportunity, not only for connecting with the congregation, but also for personal reflection about giving. As a co-administrator of our Capital Campaign, giving has been at the forefront of my thinking for the past few years. I was inspired, during the active phase of that campaign, to witness individual acts of extraordinary generosity. In the joyful tallying of pledges, a picture emerges of a community of faith that is committed to the work of our church and optimistic about Living our Vision in the years to come. In asking you to consider your annual pledge to Saugatuck, it is with tremendous respect and gratitude for the financial commitments you may have already made. 

Giving is learned behavior, and my first experience with making a charitable contribution was at my church. Just like we do with our church school kids, I was given a box of small white envelopes and encouraged to make a weekly contribution. I well remember riding in the car on Sunday morning, sliding a big quarter from one corner of my envelope to another. I also recall how proud I was to drop my envelope into the offering basket; knowing that each of my gifts, as well as those of my church school classmates, would add up to a significant sum. My parents set an expectation that my sister and I should regularly give a portion of our allowance to church, but they didn't share with us any details of their own commitment-making, how they decided on a pledge amount, or the mechanics of their giving.

It took me awhile to grasp that my parents were monthly contributors. Before I figured this out, I was both confused and embarrassed as I frequently saw my parents wave away the collection plate. It was with great relief, but not until my teenage years, that I made the connection between my mother's reminders; "It's the first Sunday of the month, Hans" and my father's hurried retrieval of the checkbook before we left for church.

Not surprisingly, in most ways I parent my children as my parents parented me. David and I let our kids know early on that giving was a family value and expectation. We advocated the guideline of a third to savings, a third for spending and a third for charity. But we have not shared with our children our philosophies or our personal considerations and challenges as we make our annual pledge. It is likely that my children, if they join churches in adulthood will feel as clueless about annual giving as David and I did when we joined Saugatuck.

At the time we received our first pledge card; we looked blankly at each other and shrugged our shoulders. We listened to the words from the pulpit and from the kind and thoughtful members of the Stewardship committee. We looked at each other and shrugged our shoulders again. Words like "being a cheerful giver" or "give 'til it feels good" weren't providing specific direction. We wanted to give what was right, to pay our fair share as active members of this church community, and while I knew that the quarter in the envelope each week, or even $10 or $20 weekly wouldn't suffice, I also knew that tithing was beyond our reach. So I called my father, and his counsel provided a clear guideline. He suggested that I look at the church's annual budget, and divide it by the number of pledging units. This average pledge would be a good place to start our prayerful consideration of what commitment would be right for us. [In 2008 and 2009 the average pledge was ca. $3,150.00.]

How simple, why hadn't that occurred to us before? David and I considered this average figure, and we prayed on how to respond. We counted our blessings: our health, our growing family, our optimism that we would be gainfully employed for many years to come. We thought about the benefits that we derived from our church membership: the spiritual challenge and nourishment we received at each weekly service, the care that Robert received in the crib room, the value of being a part of a church community that would support us if we were ever in need. The responsible response for us was to stretch our pledge beyond the average, even while accepting the financial burdens of being young homeowners and needing to save for our children's futures. Each year, even in those where our financial compensation has not matched our optimism, we continue to approach our pledge with this same spirit of thanksgiving.

May the God of Peace be with you,

Andrea Cross
Stewardship Committee

Originally published in the October 2008 issue of The Herald

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Why I Pledge

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