As most of you know, several of us who make up the Stewardship Team here at Esperanza have been hard at work building a program that is meaningful and timely to the work and ministry of this community. A part of any good program, of course, is staying on time and on task. Since I take an active role in our stewardship drive, this means I need to be able to be on time and on task. We had planned for this coming Sunday (the 2nd) to be the final day of our program itself, where we would gather intents to give our congregation a sense of how our community’s giving would help us accomplish the goals of this congregation. But my ability to shepherd that plan was impacted last week when news of a former colleague’s arrest hit the local news. I found myself dealing with concerns and crises on multiple fronts due to my involvement in several Synod-level ministries, and I realized that we were falling behind on getting everything together for this Sunday’s planned in-gathering of intents.
At this point, we had a choice – we could push forward, get out the initial (still being workshopped) drafts, and keep things on our initial timeline, or we could stop and push everything back a week, which would change some of our other plans and ideas, but allow us to put out a more complete vision to the congregation for how and why our giving intents matter. I’ll confess – a part of me really wanted to push forward, to show that I could do it all. In that moment, I wanted to prove that I could be all things in all times, despite the stress and frustration that the week had brought.
We decided that we couldn’t have a letter out before the weekend hit, which would make us unable to offer the information (and attached pledge card) to people in person. Still, I had a vision that we could have the letter done by Monday and mailed out Tuesday, giving people the opportunity to receive it before the weekend and to bring the intents this coming Sunday, preserving our timeline simply by spending a little extra on postage. But then the weekend came. It was a full weekend with birthday parties to attend and Fall festivals to enjoy. I found myself – with the stress I was still carrying – choosing to focus just a little more on my kids and their activities and worrying less about keeping things on their preferred timeline. I allowed myself to stop and be a parent. And then I allowed myself to breathe.
And by breathing in, trusting in God’s goodness and grace, I began to realize that there is grace in not rushing through things. I began to realize that the only one putting pressure on me to be everything for all people was me. Consulting with the stewardship team, we agreed we could afford to push things back a week, even though that meant small adjustments for several of us. So if you’re wondering why you haven’t received a giving intent card in the mail yet, you haven’t received it because we wanted to do things right, and trust that Esperanza is okay with things being a little off schedule, so long as that makes things better. I believe it does. Because getting things right matters. Giving you as a community time to breathe and examine the important questions of giving matters.
So I invite you – take time to breathe. Take time to re-focus on what truly matters. And as you focus on the important things, I am hopeful that you’ll see God at work in these things. I know God’s at work through the work of Esperanza, and through the small graces I allow myself through families and friends. I hope you’ll breathe in these gifts of abundance from God, and then share your joy with renewed vigor with all the world.
Please be sure to review our Intent Information Sheet & Stewardship Letter by visiting this week’s Stewardship Post.
Pastor Chris Heller