Churchy

 Awhile back I  was asked to present one of the stewardship speeches at church.  I spoke briefly the words pasted below. Three people said after it was the best pitch they ever heard:

I wrote my first thousand-dollar check to Trinity Episcopal Church on March 8, 2013, two years before I began attending regularly.  You know that date. The day the Bend Bulletin ran the story about the fire.

 

It was at that moment I realized how important the actual building called Trinity Episcopal Church was to me, even though I wasn’t an Episcopalian yet. Beauty in art, architecture, and language has long been the primary tool through which God seduces me into belief.

I love this building.

 

But it wasn’t until I retired from teaching to become a dementia carer that I became interested in regular attendance. I needed the support of a believing community. And as I learned more about the Via Media, the middle way of Anglicanism, and the focus on  using reason to interpret scripture, I began to appreciate the theology as well. And as I grew to understand the theology and history of the Episcopal tradition, I met the people of Trinity and became inspired by this loving and service-oriented community.

 

And most importantly, I found a tradition that had a decades-long history of supporting the queer community, of which my late husband and I were a part.

 

In other words, I came for the church, I came for the steeple, but I stayed when I opened the door and saw all the people.

 

So, OK.  I really dislike endless stewardship appeals. So bottom line:  You know that life is expensive and our broadcast studio, personnel, and both buildings don’t run on fairy dust. Let me remind you of

First Timothy 5:18: “For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn. And, The laborer is worthy of his hire”. 

 

Remember – you are a necessary support for all the beauty of the work and structure of this congregation. Remember to be generous.