C Day-1

Here's a play by play of the past few days here at FUMC.

Thursday they began blocking off the streets for the Texas Book Festival, setting up tents. We were waiting in the office for Olivia the Pig to be delivered (a costume we had agreed to accept for the Book Festival crew).  A call from the delivery company reported their truck had been delayed and Olivia would not be arriving until Friday. Alas - not here on Friday I reported. Find a plan B or get Olivia here today.

Friday -  setup began in FUMC spaces as chairs, sound systems, and other necessary items magically appeared on our premises. On duty all day was David Bonner, receiving, stowing, moving, setting up, guiding.... 4:30 he contacts me in LaGrange to report the Festival crew has not shown up to set up the sound. Advising him to go home and rest up for tomorrow, I make sure they have the access code to the FLC. Friday afternoon -  Stewardship Team members update the Extravagant Generosity wall in the Family Life Center.

Saturday 6:30 a.m. Arrived at the FLC and met David. Found the chairs set up facing east, and the panel discussion stage with mics set up in the northeast corner of the room. Reported the problem to event management. Found the Green Room for speakers filled with the items stored from the Women's Shelter and moved them to another classroom just as the volunteers arrived to set up the room. Russia (now Eurasia Team) arrives to set up to sell hot dogs and sausage wraps in the parking lot as a fundraiser. Coffee turns out to be the hot item on this cold morning. Admire the new banners and signs Jen Stuart installed in the FLC and Sanctuary foyers. Respond to request that it's too cold in the FLC.

9:45 a.m. Attendees begin to trickle in to the events in the FLC. Volunteers trained by me to answer the all-important first question - where is the bathroom? Enjoy watching people stop and look at the Extravagant Generosity wall in the FLC and read the cards. Respond to request that it's too hot in the FLC.

Check in at the Sanctuary where a group of FUMC volunteers led by Ann Teich wait prepared to welcome and direct people to the restrooms. Do you notice a common theme here?

All of this trivia leads up to the fact that meanwhile, FUMC is doing church, making all of the plans to celebrate the final week of our Extravagant Generosity study and bring our thanksgiving offering, our estimate of giving for 2013, to the altar on Sunday.

Most of us have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, how many examples of extravagant generosity, radical hospitality, and risk-taking ministry are carried out here every day by faithful stewards. Some are employees, some are volunteers, some are lay members, occasionally they aren't even affiliated with our church, they just like what we do here and want to be part of it.

The sun is shining, children and adults who love books are surrounding the church, hot dogs are waiting to be eaten, coffee is waiting to be enjoyed, FUMC is alive and humming with activity. I think I'll leave my desk (I had to come change the AC setting AGAIN) and go join in the fun. Maybe I'll even encounter the mysterious Olivia. See you on Sunday!

Dreams and Visions

This Sunday in our study of Extravagant Generosity we are considering heart cards that ask about our dreams and visions for our church. Last week I talked about our tendency to consider the word Stewardship as maintaining the status quo. From that perspective, the request for dreams and visions may challenge some of us. How does stewardship relate to dreams and visions. Can we be good stewards if we don't consider ourselves the author of dreams and visions but rather one who is the hands and feet to carry out dreams and visions given to us by others? The Bible stresses that the church is one body with many members, each of whom brings their own unique gifts. It also says that each of the gifts is equally important. If I am a facilitator, and enabler, then I am a good steward if I create environments in which those who are given the gift of vision can be inspired to have visions. If I am given the gift of organization, I am a good steward if I create the infrastructure that enables the dreams and visions to be carried out. Being a good steward consists of many facets, and no one can define for anyone else what one's stewardship call may be. Certainly that call will change over the years as our experience, wisdom, knowledge, and physical strength change. What never changes is the need to be in prayer to discern our gifts and the best way to make use of them. John Wesley goes so far as to pray to God that he should be "put to work for you or set aside for you."

So my fellow members of the circle of stewards, what is your dream, what is your vision? If you don't come up with one, take a look on the website and on the Extravagant Generosity bulletin boards at the main building,or the wall at the Family Life Center. Maybe you will find a vision that calls to you to claim for your own.

Stewards and Wagon Trains

During our discussion on Extravagant Generosity, I want to bring up the always troubling story told in Matthew 25:14-28. It is convenient for illustrative purposes that the word "talent" has double meaning as a coin of the Biblical era and as contemporary natural gifts and "talents."
You can read the story in your favorite translation. The "skip to" verse is verse 36  when the master chastises as "wicked and lazy"  the slave who hid his talent in the ground and gave back only what was given to him. "You should have invested my money with the bankers and when I returned I would have what was mine with interest," the master says.

The slave was afraid to take a risk, afraid to put the talent out in the world and use it to create more talents. By being afraid to fail, and by giving in to that fear, the slave failed on a grand scale. I wish the story had included another slave, one who invested the money and lost it. I long to hear what the master's treatment of that slave would have been.

I feel that too often we view stewardship as only taking care of, maintaining the status quo, protecting where we are, circling the wagons, putting up the stockade fence, waiting out the storm - enough cliches? In this story, Jesus clearly tells us that isn't good stewardship.

We are using the term circle of stewards here, so I want to take the circling the wagons analogy a bit further. The wagons were circled at night so the pioneers could rest safely, but they weren't stopping there, they were resting in order to gain strength for continuing a journey. The safety of the circle was only a temporary respite  in the midst of a journey to a place they have never seen, but had faith existed because they had heard of it from others. The circle was a place of rejuvenation that enabled them to move on to new unknown destinations through a sometimes exciting, sometimes boring, and sometimes dangerous journey.

My dear fellow stewards, my prayer is that we may be for this congregation the circle of safety, but also the faithful stewards who lead in daring to invest our talents and the talents of this congregation in the world so that the Master will receive back what we were given with interest.

Making a Difference

This week's Heart Card is a bit more difficult for me than last week. It's easy to mention pastors or staff who have had an impact on my spiritual growth, but I had to reach into my heart and memory to come up with the name of a fellow member, and then I found myself a little embarrassed to list the names. I know that some of these people have no idea they had an impact on my spiritual life. They may not even know or remember me. That's the thing about living the steward's life. We never know the impact we may be having on those around us. This Heart Card gives us a chance to say thanks to people who have had an impact on us, and to be aware that everything we say or do is having some impact somewhere.

A friend of mine once wrote a play called "Bianca's Wake". I thought from the title it was about a party following a funeral. It turned out the play was about a very self-centered person whose circle of friends found themselves constantly dealing with the drama of Bianca's life. The unfolding of the play was their decision to stop living in Bianca's Wake, and set themselves free to live their own lives. Each of us leaves a wake, and everyone we come in contact with will be affected in some way by that wake.

Here are the people who will appear on my heart card this week. There are more, but this is the start.

Jerry Heare and Dick Young, my long-time mentors in stewardship
Sharon W who taught my first Disciple class
Glenn Johnson who modeled that serving as Finance Chair was a faith journey, not a piece of business, and that prayer really mattered when deep decisions have to be made
Beverly Silas who taught me to say "thank you"

Some of these people have deeply-held beliefs that differ greatly from mine, but in matters of the spirit they have made a difference in my life. I never told them before, so now I follow the simple directive I learned from Beverly Silas: Thank you Beverly, Jerry, Dick, Sharon and Glenn.

Stewardship Vs Generosity - Apples to Cauliflower

Since we've had our first Sunday of discussion, I'll share with you my opinions about "generosity" and "stewardship." Generosity is an aspect of character, the author says. Stewardship is  a responsibility. The author tells us stewardship sounds "weighty, dutiful and legal." How sorry I am that the author's experience with this word has been so negative.

For humans, stewardship is not an option. We are all stewards. The only question is what type of stewards we will be. Whatever our faith beliefs may be, we have responsibility for our actions in relation to the earth, our own gifts, talents, and possessions. Our only decision is what we do with that responsibility. It's like being a citizen. Those of us fortunate enough to have been born citizens of the United States are given certain privileges and responsibilities at birth. We can choose to participate in our processes or not, but we don't choose whether we have the responsibility for doing so - that is our birthright.

I agree that those who are new to the church may not be ready to examine stewardship. They may first need to learn about having generous hearts. But to remove stewardship from the conversation would be to leave those who are on a spiritual path in kindergarten. While we want our language to be available and attractive to those who didn't grow up in the church, we need to be equally dedicated to helping them continually progress in their faith and not leave them at the quick and easy phase of spiritual growth. We never know for sure where anyone is on the path, so we need to continually offer a variety of types of language and faith formation opportunities.

The author leaves us with a set of questions I hope were discussed on Sunday. He asks us to examine ourselves and determine which term is most useful to us, acknowledging that using both terms wisely helps us reach those at different places on the journey of faith. For me, this challenge means keeping myself aware of where others are and keeping my language accessible. But I won't be doing my duty as a steward to leave anyone at a superficial level of faith development. For me, being a steward is not weighty, dutiful or legal. Stewardship is a way of life that enables my every day to have meaning and purpose, whether I'm having a deep spiritual conversation or scrubbing the church floor. If I live this way, I won't have to try to explain what the words mean. I'll be able to say with Gandhi, "My life is my message."

I hope you picked up your devotional book at church on Sunday. If not, they will be available in the foyer of each worship space this Sunday. Here's a preview of what will be happening over the next four weeks. Each Monday we are mailing a note to you with a "Heart Card" enclosed. We are asking everyone to respond by filling out the card and bringing it to the church. You will also be able to fill out the cards online and email them to us, although that isn't quite ready on the website as of this writing. As members of the Stewards Circle, please take the lead in filling out and returning the cards so our bulletin boards can be filled with the messages from our congregation. It always takes a few leaders to get things started. We will have a different card each week.

I got my first heart card returned yesterday. The question is "What do you love about your church? The answer ways, always something to do. Since this came from a fellow staff member I suspect a bit of wry humor there, but it could be taken another way. In a world in which we sometimes feel unimportant and unwanted, FUMC is a place where there is always something to do, and it is always something that really matters. When I was young I thought the "real world" stuff mattered and the church was on the periphery.  Now that I talk every day with people who come to the church for a variety of needs, I realize the church deals with the essential questions, like life and death, and most of the "real world" is on the periphery. In a world where unemployment haunts too many talented people, always something to do can be a gift and a blessing.

Have you read the introduction and first devotional in Extravagant Generosity? Have you seen the differentiation between generosity, the theme of this study, and Stewardship? Please think about this and ask yourself if you see a difference. How would it affect your position as a steward if we changed the name of the office I hold from Stewardship Team Leader to Generosity Team leader? Not surprisingly, I have an opinion. I'll share it with you next week.