Dear Members and Friends,
Nearly a generation ago, Carl Scovel told his parishioners at King’s Chapel, “If someone in the next century wanted to know who we were, she could read our letters and our diaries… our obituaries, report cards, and job evaluations. But if she wanted to know what we valued, I think she’d have to find our checkbooks.”
I think Carl is exactly right. What do you truly value? Just look and see where your money goes! It can be sobering to take a close look, if you haven’t done so for awhile, and it can be vitalizing if you have done that challenging spiritual work of bringing your spending in line with your values.
This past Sunday, to kick off the Annual Fund Drive, I reflected on how an unexamined relationship with money can hold power over us if we don’t actively attend to the fear and shame that naturally comes with it. When we talk about money we aren’t ever talking about just money. The vast majority of us have anxieties around how much we earn compared to others—and how much we give compared to others. It is nearly a universal to have unresolved shame about our relationship with money. We don´t want to be judged for what we have—or don´t have. It is a part of being human to be prone to the powerful grip of fear, anxiety, and shame that comes with talking about money.
Some people believe that the Bible says that money is the root of all evil. It’s not true. The Bible doesn’t say anywhere that money is the root of all evil. But in 1 Timothy, it does say, that the love of money is the root of all evil. It matters what we love.
To the extent we love money and what we think it can bring us, we struggle spiritually. We can transcend this struggle when generosity becomes a spiritual practice. Frank Hall once shared: Generosity is generative – it’s like a motor that charges the battery that lights us up. It’s about the spirit in which you live your life—like your posture or gait—how you carry yourself. It’s about the use of what we call free will and what we loosely call “spirituality”; it drives the decisions we make every day. It’s about who we really are.
It’s tricky and subtle how our relationship to money relates to our spiritual well-being. Those who suddenly find themselves with considerably more money than they had previously are suddenly faced with real spiritual and ethical problems. Jacob Needleman, a philosopher of religion, has studied people who suddenly deal with sudden large increases in their wealth. He writes that “if you are a worrier when you are poor, you will be a worrier when you are rich.”
Having money does not change how we feel inside. However, learning how to give away what we have with intention—identifying what we love and giving of ourselves to this—the practice of generosity changes the way we feel inside.
When I was at Unity Temple, the budget grew by $800,000 in my first 16 years. How? Several reasons, but a significant one was that each year more and more people engaged the spiritual progressive tithe. What’s the spiritual progressive tithe? It’s giving 10% of your income away and giving the largest portion to your faith community. And so the goal the congregation urged one another to give became to give 5% of one’s income to the congregation. When I first suggested this, many people rolled their eyes, but each year fewer people rolled their eyes. I imagine most of you aren’t ready to make such a leap, but how about stretching to give 2% of your income to support your faith community?
I know that many of you already are very generous. Some of you give closer to 5% of your income. Many of you increased your pledge by 10% or more last year. This year, I want to invite you to consider a significant increase in your pledge if you are capable of doing so.
Last year, as a congregation, you collectively pledged $430,000, but that covered only 85% of this year’s staffing costs. Paying the staff, including pension, medical benefits and expenses—and you have a lean staff for a congregation of 346 members—costs you about $500,000. Fortunately you have an endowment to rely on during the lean years.
You may or may not be aware: over the last four years this congregation has spent $340,000 of endowment funds. But if you look at the past 10 years, nearly that much was made up in surpluses, so please don’t be too worried. You are in a healthy position with an endowment, but current giving levels will not sustain the current basic staffing pattern. This year, if the total pledged is 15% more than last year, you will cover the staffing costs. You will need to pledge more collectively to cover program costs.
I recently asked lay leaders for what they hope to fund this next year. Just the committees of the social justice council have requested over $15,000. Your Faith Formation Lead has projected a need of just over $20,000. Music and worship will require another $8,000 in the operating budget. It adds up. You are fortunate to have rentals that cover most of the building costs!
Some of you may be wondering if I will be with you next year. Well, it depends. If there’s a good response to the pledge drive over the next two weeks—if you demonstrate that you are generous people, yes I definitely will be here next year, because that will mean you can afford to have a full-time minister without dipping much into the endowment. If there’s not a strong response, then the board and I need to have a conversation about what they and I are willing to do.
But let me say this: I believe this year will be a watershed year because so many of you have shared with me with such sincerity and openness about what you hope for this community and why you value it. So many of you truly love this community and what it can be. One of you said so poignantly, “It scares me what is going on in the world and it rattles me to the core. I don’t know what to do with all the anxiety and existential fear in the world. I come to this congregation to find hope and community where, in the midst of all that’s difficult and crass. Here we can hold each other tenderly and learn to be a community where love is, truly, the doctrine of this congregation.”
Some of you might wish to know how much it costs per pledging unit, and if you want to know, ask me. But I’m not going to share this publicly because quite frankly, there are many households who simply can’t afford that much. I don’t want you to feel ashamed if you can’t give that much. However, if you have a significant income, I encourage you to give several times that amount!
This congregation is filled with people who have really strong values. And as you live your values, you give your values, when asked. Pledge generously if you want to grow spiritually and know the joy of committing to something larger than yourself. If you struggle with your relationship with money, learn how to transcend the fear and shame that comes with an unexamined relationship with money—and cultivate generosity as a spiritual practice.
Will you join me in stretching toward the spiritual progressive tithe and give two or three or four or five percent of your income to this faith community? You will be in good company!
Warmly,
Alan
