In honor of TVUUC
The
Worst Sermon I’ve Ever Delivered
First
delivered at UUCB on November 12, 2006
There is one sermon every minister dreads delivering, or at least should. I remember a few pastors in my childhood who gleefully launched into their annual pleas for generous stewardship with great gusto. I spent one Sunday locked into a sanctuary while the minister explained why we needed to support the church monetarily. Don’t worry, we can’t lock you in from the outside here.
While most of us might prefer to remain engaged in the world of spiritual awakening at church, every once in awhile we have to admit we exist in the material realm. Even aesthetics have to dine once in awhile. “AUMs” and “hallelujahs” may feed spiritual hunger, but they don’t nourish the body.
Our gathering in communal worship hopefully feeds our emotional and spiritual needs. But we must also be realistic and recognize that the physical body of the church requires more material sustenance.
We have basic operating expenses that cannot be ignored if we want to simply keep the doors open. At a minimum we have a mortgage, utility bills, cleaning expenses, insurance and routine maintenance. That has to be addressed before we can even begin to consider the content of our programs. Some other operating expenses that simply allow us to consider offering programs aren’t quite as large, but also often fly under the radar. Office supplies, paper goods, candles, staple food and coffee items, and such. Now we can bring in the people for communal worship and service.
While the human resource can never be overestimated, the fact remains we also need material and financial resources whether we wish to offer a small selection of high-quality programs or a wide variety. Obviously, understanding the communal mission helps provide focus for determining needs and the resources necessary to fulfill them.
According to small church ministry support with the UUA, a church our size must put its first and foremost priority into offering the highest quality Sunday morning possible. That means our primary focus is on Forum, the Sunday worship service, Religious Education for children and our social hour. Everything else that we do after that is pure gravy.
Do we have what we need to knock everyone’s socks off each and every Sunday morning? Do we have an attractive and clean environment? Are we scheduling impressive professional speakers? Just don’t consider this Sunday when answering that question! Are we investing in our Forum and Religious Education programs to the extent that we should and are able?
Quality Sunday mornings is far and away the number one reason visitors return. We can warmly welcome visitors until we are blue in the face, but if we do not offer an enriching and ennobling Sunday morning experience they will not return. I would extrapolate that to include long-term members. It’s not just about retaining visitors, but fully engaging our entire church family over the years. Everyone needs a reason to want to return.
As a faith community we also need to consider other issues involved in budgeting. Budgets address not just historically established needs, but reflect aspirations for the future. They require some sense of direction and identification. Are we aspiring to full-time ministry or is part-time ministry or a lay lead congregation our faith community identity? The prevailing wisdom at UUA headquarters estimates that in order to support full-time ministry a church must maintain a level of at least 125 members. Currently we are approximately 1/3 of that size.
Do we intend to remain stable in our membership or strive for growth? If we desire to grow, what membership level would be a responsible goal?
I’m going to take a minor detour here and ask a question. Does anyone know what the UUA advocates as the very first paid staff member a small church should hire? It’s not a minister or a director of religious education. It’s a part-time administrator. Not only does an administrator lend professionalism to the organization and improve internal communication, but this person does much to relieve the burden on a church’s volunteers. This is absolutely the easiest and most effective step a church can take to alleviate volunteer burnout. Amazingly, having a part-time administrator also spurs growth. Obviously this is a paid position, but as I understand it, a position that more than pays for itself in growth.
I calculated our potential membership based on a formula provided by the moderator of a congregational growth seminar at GA. Using the lowest percentage that take into account location within a traditionally conservative area, I came up with a rather modest estimate of 800 prospective members within a 20 minute drive of our church. This formula is intended to identify people who not only sympathize with Unitarian Universalist principles, but would be attracted to participation in a Unitarian Universalist community. Do we have a responsibility to reach out to these roughly 750 people?
Clearly our sanctuary is not going to accommodate 800 people…well unless we want to have 5 services a weekend. But there is nothing that says this area cannot support eight 100 member churches or even 16 fifty member UU churches. Let’s consider our record of outreach with respect to what we have to offer the larger community, especially those in need of a welcoming, understanding liberal religious congregation.
When we come to the budgeting process are we investing enough in advertising? Are we as individuals contributing to an outreach or advertising initiative? Unfortunately, we’re not positioned on 192 or Wickham Rd. for walk-in traffic visibility so we need to invest in such things as newspaper advertising, radio spots and prominent phone book placement. Do we feel such expenditures would be worth the potential return?
So. UUCB needs your money. That much we all know very well. By all means, donate a few hundred thousand dollars if you wish, but I’m going to guess none of us are in that position. I know I’m not. I have to be quite honest and tell you that while my husband and I increased our pledge for 2006 we are unfortunately not in a position to do so again in 2007. We’ll be staying at the same pledging level for at least 12 more months.
But there are things we can all do to pitch in just a little bit more. When I go to the grocery store I try to toss in an extra roll of paper towels for the church. Or when school supplies are slashed 75% off at Target I’ll grab some pencils and pens for the office. These are expenses I can bury in my family’s budget and not even feel the hit.
Volunteerism cannot possible be valued any higher. I’m sure you’ve noticed the areas of the church that received fresh paint jobs this year. Our church is blessed with willing, able and talented volunteers who saved us the expense of hiring professional painters. If you have any talents that can be put to use in the maintenance, operations and programs of this church, consider that an extremely generous and appreciated donation to UUCB. The time and effort spent working for the church is every bit as important as monetary donations.
But I sincerely believe the membership base should not bear the sole burden of the church’s income whether it comes in the form of monetary gifts or volunteerism. Although we haven’t aggressively marketed the property, we do have facilities available for public rental. This is certainly an area that could be managed well as a reliable source of income.
Probably the area we fall shortest however, is in fundraising. I am pathetic when it comes to fundraising. I’m afraid my expertise in this area does not exceed car washes and bake sales. But there are people who are simply amazing when it comes to creative fundraising endeavors. Fundraising that not only brings in resources beyond our congregation, but engages us in both public relations and community service. I seriously suggest we identify a creative and energetic individual, or group of individuals, who will work with the Board to plan, organize and implement exciting fundraising projects we can all enjoy.
As UUCB begins it’s annual stewardship campaign I urge you to seriously consider what this community means to you. What value does UUCB serve in the context of your life? Do you have any hopes and dreams for this church, and if so, what is your imperative to help fund them?
Treasurers and Stewardship Committee chairs will absolutely cringe when I say this, but I make this recommendation anyway. When you turn in your pledge, include a note about things that are of interest to you. Tell them what you’d like to see our money spent on. This is absolutely vital to future budgeting processes.
Also, if you typically pledge $100 a month, but want to contribute to an advertising fund with an extra $20 a month, pledge $120 with the stipulation that $20 be spent on advertising. Now we do have to be realistic. We can’t all earmark 100% of our donations for specific purposes, the board and the treasurer must have discretionary use in order to keep things running around here. I’m talking about the aboves and beyonds. In the past we have had special gifts for the expense of professional ministry and the mortgage. Please consider your personal priorities when determining your contribution to the church. It is important that we understand your needs. In such concrete terms, if necessary.
I have heard it said that UUs are not exactly the most generous givers to their faith communities. I guess I can see why, it’s not like we’re going to damn ourselves to hell if we don’t tithe. But I think this little story illustrates the relationship our ministry has with money fairly well.
A Jewish Rabbi, a Catholic priest and a UU minister were discussing how they divide the collection plate between church use and God. The Rabbi said that he draws a circle in the middle of the room, stands in the middle of it, and throws the money up into the air. Whatever falls outside the circle goes to the Lord, and what falls inside goes to the church. The priest said that he does something similar. However, he draws a line. When he throws up the money what ever falls in front of him is for the church, whatever is behind him goes to God. The UU minister said that she also used a similar method for dividing up the collection plate. She throws up the money and she figures whatever God wants, God will grab.
They say you should dress for the job you want, not for the job you have. Well in that vein, I would like us all to consider donating not to the church we have today, but for the church we want tomorrow. What is given in love, is received with gratitude. May we be ever worthy of your gifts. Thank you!
Copyright © 2006
Ann Fuller, November 2006