You Matter

The kids (from the youth group) were asking me about stewardship the other day -- we had just had consecration Sunday. They had a lot of questions about who gives, how much, and finally, who doesn't. They may have thought that I had names and numbers -- which I don't -- but I did have an idea of the percentage of people in the congregation who gave and the percentage that didn't. So we talked about why possibly some people don't give.

Ira Glass, the host of This American Life on public radio was once trying to get people to pledge to WNYC. He said that only a small percentage of listeners actually gave to public radio. He observed that there was a real incentive NOT to give. Year after year public radio has pledge weeks -- sometimes twice a year -- and year after year the majority of listeners don't give money and year after year programming continues. Great radio gets made and nothing really changes because they don't give. The obvious answer to the question, "Why don't you give?" is "It doesn't matter."

In some ways, things happen very much the same way in churches. Finance committees make preliminary budgets based on what has been given in previous years and for the most part they end up about where they expect to be. For church members and attendees who don't give, their experience is very much like public radio listeners. Year after year they are asked to give, or to give more, and year after year they don't and really nothing changes. The church continues to do much of the ministry work it has always done and things don't really change.

And that is part of the problem. Things can't change unless more of us participate. We can't make bold plans to "Change the World" with the same people and same resources we've always had.

But that is only one part. For those who don't give time or financial resources to ministries the answer to the question, "Why don't you give?" may seem like it can be answered, "It doesn't matter." But it does. Each and everyone of us matters, that is our faith statement. We know we matter, yet when we act as if we don't -- that things will be just fine if we don't participate, if we don't share -- then we are denying who we are -- people with valuable talents and ideas and ways to love and care and share. If we deny that we matter we deny all that God wants for us -- that our lives have depth and meaning. The truth is we do matter and we share because we matter.