One of the techniques in couples’ counseling involves a checkbook . . . or two. The clients are asked to review together how each person spends their money. Are dues to the golf club a bigger monthly expense, for example, than babysitters and an evening alone with your spouse?
The Book of Common Prayer defines a sacrament as an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. Country Club fees by that definition can be a sacramental statement . . . so can romantic dinners. The results can make interesting conversation for the couple, and for the therapist’s supervisor as you can imagine!
It works for institutions as well. Last spring Greer Terry was a student at the non-profit fund raising school in Indianapolis. The session she attended focused particularly on church stewardship. Early on, a statement from the Lake Institute became the theme of the day:
"Your church budget is a moral document; it reflects values and priorities."
It may be true that in the spring a young man’s fancy turns to love. It is certainly true as summer fades to fall that every rector’s fancy turns to stewardship. We are not in the fund raising stage at this time; we are in the imagining stage. I wish you would participate as well.
The mission of a church is a complicated one. It only looks easy! There is a significant segment of ministry that is designed for our members: helping people develop a living relationship with Jesus Christ, binding people together to celebrate the best of being human, forgiving each other when we fall short, sharing our heritage and story with our children and those who have time after time been on the short end of life.
It’s also about what we call outreach: providing sustenance, a safety net, to the body, but sustenance for the spirit and soul as well.
We don’t always get that balance right, but we do always try. This is the time of year we reflect what parts of our ministry we can continue to enrich and what we could do better individually and as a community of faith. Later we’ll need to do a reality test or so, but now is the time to dream.
Would you dream about how St. John’s can more completely express the love of Jesus Christ to Teton County? Would you share those dreams, together with how we might accomplish them? I’d love to hear from you. What would the moral document of how we spend the resources entrusted to us look like?
Beloved, God’s peace.
