A Tool for Self-Offering

Dear Friends in Christ,

 

A few weeks ago, a green envelope appeared in your mailbox.  (If it didn’t, then the church office doesn’t have your address—give us a call.)  Inside that envelope was a letter and a pledge card.

 

Hopefully, the card got put someplace special and safe, but it may be somewhere else.  It may have gotten tossed on a counter somewhere.  In my house, even the most important mail tends to get used as a bookmark or a notepad.

 

Find that card, if you can.  Or plan on getting a new one here at church on Sunday.  (We have more.)  Your pledge card is an invitation to a deeper and richer life.

 

During each of the services on Sunday, we bring our pledge cards forward from our pews and leave them in front of the altar.  The action reminds of us our commitment to live differently as members of this church—with commitment, with generosity, without fear.

 

Pledging supports the church, of course.  We need your gifts to our operating fund—especially this year, as we live into our newly discerned vision. Pledging supports the facility and staff that enable our mission to love, proclaim, and serve.

 

But pledging also supports our souls.  When we give back to God even a small part of what God has given to us, we say something about our priorities in the world.  When we pledge, we are not beholden to other people’s ideas of status or success.  We are not ruled by anxiety.  We are people who trust God and want every part of our life to reflect that trust.

 

That card is just a piece of paper.  But it is also an outward and visible sign of our priorities.

 

I hope you will come on Sunday, pledge card in hand, ready to step forward in faith.

 

Almighty God, whose loving hand has given us all that we possess: Grant us grace that we may honor you with our substance, and, remembering the account which we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of your bounty, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

Yours in Christ,

Anne+