Let’s be honest: Not everyone knows the word Stewardship. Yet all of us practice it as we make choices about our spending on housing, food, desires, and donations. Stewardship is more than budgeting. It is a way to distribute the gifts that we have to sustain our creation and community. It’s a way to honor God. This is an introduction to church stewardship.
Our Stewardship at NHCC has two main roots: Thanksgiving and Sharing.
Meister Eckhart wrote, “If the only prayer you ever spoke in your whole life was ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” Our stewardship is part of our expression of thanks to God, to each other, and even to the world. Giving to the church reflects the measure of thankfulness that we feel. At Newton Highlands Congregational Church (NHCC) we translate thankfulness into ministry.
NHCC practices a ministry of worship, education, celebration, and fellowship events — mutual care, mission, and prayer. We own one building, sustain a staff of one full-time and twelve part-time persons, and support programs such as Christian Education, youth activities, and fellowship events. We give away over $55,000 in cash (not counting our Bread Ministry and more). We do this because the Bible and our faith invite us to remember, to heal, and to share. Our scriptures encourage us to glorify God in what we create together and to reach out to those in need, even those we will never meet. All of this takes the organization, vision, and contribution of members, volunteers, and friends.
Specifically, NHCC needs about $600,000 per year for our program, staff, and building. We receive over 35% of this from our building use, almost 12% from earnings on our endowment and 15% from other sources. This means we need almost 45% in donations and gifts from members and friends —over $225,000 annually. There is good news in this: our parish needs us. Churches that do not need their members are often unhealthy. We are a healthy church!
Our health and our need translate into a request for annual pledges.
As a Congregational church NHCC does not receive any money from a statewide or national organization. No diocese gives anything to us. We are autonomous in decision-making, theological interpretation, and fundraising. This is good but it means we have to talk about money and we have to work to raise money.
A pledge is a promise to give a certain amount during a year. A pledge to NHCC says, “We believe in how you are going about God’s work, and we want to support and promote it. We are responsible to this ministry.” Pledging helps the parish plan and flourish through the years.
Year after year we have taken leaps of faith in our budget planning. We have a three-quarter-time Christian Education director and paid teachers and nursery caregivers. We’ve strengthened programs, increased mission giving, and improved our building through a Capital Campaign. (Finally our organ is in great shape.) We do all this with the guidance of committees made up by our members, and through our congregational meetings. Because we have a progressive, Bible-based and hopeful ministry planned, we need strong and visionary pledges of time and money. We need you! Details are available in our Annual Report — a report anyone can have.
How can you help with the care and feeding of the church and its commitment to Jesus’ values of inner peace, honest prayer, social justice, healing, and celebration? You can make a pledge of time and treasure.
What should you pledge financially? This is up to you. We have household pledges that run from $300 to over $25,000 per year coming from our members and friends. Many of our members pledge in the range of $2,000 to $7,500. Some people pledge based on a percentage of their income, such as 3% or 5%, and some members are blessed to achieve the ancient goal of 10% (called a “tithe”). Again, it should be an amount that is right for your household. Once upon a time people said, give until it hurts. We say, Give until it feels good.
We are not a large church, but our vision stretches to the heavens. We preach of a God who is big enough to incorporate and embrace all. We receive a promise that has no limits. We sing together with bold and joyful voices, without reservation. And we provide for our members, but moreover for our world, the best that we have received and the depth that all people deserve: the love of Jesus.
Thank you for prayerfully considering how you might care for this parish of God’s Church. We are blessed that you are here!
(Here’s an interesting fact: the English word Steward now means a high official in a royal court, on a boat, or even private club. But it comes from the term “sty warden” which elegantly means the one with care of a household, but actually means the one who cares for the sty, as in the place that farm animals live, especially pigs. A lot of our Biblical images have agricultural roots. Humble ones, they are.)
