Through the years, I’ve been blessed by friendships with several clergy mentors, from whom I have learned many of those churchy things that don’t get taught in seminary. Among them, the best teacher for stewardship was the late K.C. Ptomey, who chose autumn as the season to retire so he could preach through yet another Stewardship Season at his beloved Westminster Presbyterian Church in Nashville. Nearing the end of a long and distinguished career in ministry, K.C. enjoyed being plain-spoken and honest about the need for his congregation to support the church with their financial resources.
After 41 annual pledge drives and more than a few capital campaigns, K.C. said, “I’ve seen everything… house-to-house calls, letters, telephone campaigns, challenges to tithe, banners, posters, fancy stationery, charts, graphs, movies, skits, Bible studies, potluck suppers, lunches, breakfasts, dessert parties, efforts to impart guilt, promises of eternal bliss, threats of hell-fire and damnation. I’ve seen it all. I’ve done it all.”
K.C said, “But what a lifetime of ministry has finally taught me is that generosity simply comes out of people who have experienced the love of God,
the unmerited grace and goodness of the living God, which is something we can never earn, which is always out of proportion to what we deserve. Awareness, deep awareness of the abundant and undeserved goodness of God, is the only thing I know of that can elicit abounding generosity. Guilt, slick stewardship messages, and charts won’t do it. But awareness, deep awareness, of the abundant and undeserved goodness of God – that will do it.”
I invite you to prepare for this coming Sunday’s Stewardship Dedication by considering your awareness of God’s goodness and grace. Take a prayerful inventory of your depth of gratitude for God’s gifts of beauty, of community, and of our church family. Ponder our stewardship theme, Bryn Mawr Gives Light, and think about how the church has been a light for you and how your light has shone through the ministries of BMPC.
Filling out a pledge card and making a regular financial commitment to the church is an act of generosity, an expression of gratitude, and a sign of deep awareness that everything we have of ultimate value is a gift from God. But before you do, I suggest you pause and think about God’s gifts of life and light and then make your commitment out of deep awareness.
