Stewardship Column
March 2008
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...to uphold this congregation of the United Methodist Church by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service. Each quarter of the liturgical year First Church focuses its attention on one area of stewardship. Stewardship is the act of recognizing that all that we have and all that we are is a gift of God, and using those gifts as caretakers of God’s kingdom here on earth. This quarter we focus on Presence. |
Marily Good (Director of Stewardship)
“Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up...” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, 12)
In Newsweek of November 3rd, 2008, there was an article entitled “Click in Remembrance of Me.” It described two types of online communion services, one by an anti-organized-religion site, and two others provided by United Methodist churches who view their sites as augmenting, not replacing, a church service. The article raised the question, can Christian community be authentically replicated online? It raised for me a further question: is community necessary for practicing the Christian faith?
For nearly 20 years I stood in the ranks of the disaffected and viewed my spiritual growth as an absolutely personal and individual thing. Over time, I noticed that every spiritual path I pursued included the same admonition: community is an essential part of spiritual growth. I am a slow learner. Fortunately God is patient and my health is good.
Certainly I didn’t come to First Church in search of community, or even in search of spiritual growth. I just came to sing in the choir. Each time I became involved in one more activity here I told myself I was “just” serving on the committee to help out, doing my part because I owed it to the church, doing good for the community, taking a class because the teacher was interesting.... it’s amazing how many excuses I found for my participation. I could have achieved any of these goals in secular pursuits. The fact is, I was in the presence of people whose lives were such examples of the active love of God in the world that I was finding the spiritual grace that so long eluded me during my solitary searching. Once I stopped blindly searching for a new roadmap and opened my eyes, I realized I was already home.
This quarter the stewardship focus is presence. We vow to support this congregation by our presence. As part of that presence we may each take our turn as questioner, lost sheep, dissenter, seeker, or even saint. That’s how we learn from each other, by each living out fully the life we are given. Because we are a congregation of the United Methodist Church where all are welcome, no exceptions, we have a rich, full, and challenging spiritual environment in which to grow.
As a fan of technology, I applaud efforts to reach out in every way we can. We are called to do that. But we are also called to be present for each other. John Wesley preached, “Christianity is essentially a social religion, and... to turn it into a solitary religion is indeed to destroy it. By Christianity I mean that method of worshipping God which is here revealed to man by Jesus Christ. When I say this is essentially a social religion, I mean not only that it cannot subsist so well, but that it cannot subsist at all without society, without living and conversing with other men.”
And so to my question, is community necessary for practicing Christina faith. Scripture, my experience, and Methodist tradition say resoundingly, yes.
As The Beacon moves to a quarterly publication, we will have only one Stewardship column per quarter. However, if you would like more conversation, please visit the Stewardship blog. You can find it by going to the First Church website at fumcaustin.org and clicking on the blog icon on the front page. There we can transform our Stewardship conversation from a monologue to a dialogue. Yes, I do believe in technology as one means of community, but God willing, I’ll be present in church next Sunday as well.
To read more Stewardship columns, go to the Stewardship blog.
