A Spirituality of Fundraising
We are honored to be asked and to serve as your Stewardship chairs for 2022. As we thought, prayed, and discussed how Stewardship has looked and how it could look, some things became very clear to us. Relying on the ideas presented by Henri Nouwen in his book, A Spirituality of Fundraising, our vision of how Stewardship might look at Trinity came into focus. Stewardship is more than an Annual Giving Campaign; it includes annual pledging and giving to provide the operating funds for our daily activities but it also includes foundation and other monetary offering opportunities, such as Friends of Music and others, but, also, taking care of physical properties-cemetery work days, general grounds and building work days, storage clean-up work days, learning center, tcmm, etc. We find God’s charge to humans to be good stewards early in the Bible:
The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. – Gen 2:15
Several years ago, most annual giving/pledge campaigns by many denominations focused on a theme of Time, Talent, and Treasures. All three of those components are needed to follow God’s charge to us to work and take care of what he has given us.
Thus, by definition of Stewardship is not limited to giving money:
“Stewards were household managers, with complete authority over all members of a household-but they were not the owners. They managed the assets for the benefit of the owner. Therefore, a steward then was both a ruler ‘in charge’ and a servant.”
We do not own Trinity, but we are in the long line of faithful parishioners who are charged with being it’s rulers and servants. That being so, how should we act?
Time, Talent, and Treasures
Time is our only truly limited resource
Treasures can be replaced or earned continually
Talent is our individual unlimited resource
According to Nouwen, “Fundraising is, first and foremost, a form of ministry. It is a way of announcing our vision and inviting other people into our mission…it is proclaiming what we believe in such that we offer other people an opportunity to participate with us in our vision and mission.”
Our vision as Chairs of the Stewardship Committee is for Trinity Cathedral to reap and enjoy an abundance of our parish’s Time, Talents, and Treasures to support the mission of Christ’s church within our parish community.
Our mission is to share with you the cornerstone ministries that support reason we are here:
Gathering for Worship, music, and formation
Care of each other: Pastoral Care and Parish Life
Care for others: Faith in Action — Outreach
Care for the buildings and grounds that house these activities.
Over the next several months, we will be presenting a multimedia message about each of these ministries. The purpose of these presentations will be to describe the purpose and function of each ministry and share opportunities to become involved with your time and talents.
In the fall, we will give you an opportunity to support these ministries, and our spiritual life together financially (with your Treasures) for the next year.
We are excited about being a part of this journey and hope each of you will join us and share our excitement in being a member of the Trinity Cathedral community.
Rusty & Kathy Miller, 2022-2023 Stewardship Chairs
The Stewardship Steering Committee