Money, Money!

‘You can only go outwards as far as you have already gone inwards.’

When I heard this quoted in a sermon the other week, it struck a chord with me as being the opposite of what our expectation is. And as I continued to mull it around, I could this insight as being very important to the stewardship within the church, indeed to the well-being of the whole church.

A church that has been a vibrant part of this community for just short of 200 years got some bad news at their last vestry meeting. This aging congregation, who are not able to meet their current operating costs found out that the building is in need of repairs costing in excess of 1 million dollars. When someone was asked what they were going to do, the answer was “Worry!”and that I suspect is not far off what they have been doing these last few years.

Worry does not lead anyone further forward. What does is theological education, being engaged in meaningful ministry, living out the gospel precepts, among other things. Worry is stultifying. Worry is self-destructive. It is risky to step out in faith, to address the needs of the surrounding community as they identify them [not as the church does]; to take a public stand on controversial issues, to expose yourself to perhaps being wrong. But it is only be doing those things that there will be any growth inward. And as this quote so aptly puts it, without the trip inward, the growth outward is not going to happen.

It is past time for the church to take a hard look at what the reality is for many of the congregations out there. Congregations that have been dealing with
increased costs, declining membership and aging buildings for some time. Those are the things that have taken all of their time and energy - not ministry, not education, not a living out of their faith. I would be willing to wager that if these things are explored and become a part of congregational life, then the people in the congregation will experience a new life. They will begin to see that the call of stewardship is central to their individual lives, as they feel moved to respond to the new life they have experienced by their own inward, spiritual growth.

Now they may find that what they want to support isn’t the ancient structures, but then again they might. Whatever the focus of this renewed call, that church will flourish. When it comes right down to it, in the end it’s all about Stewardship! You can only go outwards as far as you have already gone inwards.

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