—St Barnabas Mission Statement
October 12, 2023
Dear Ones, At the heart of the Gospel, at the heart of God’s mission in the world is Christ’s call to love, service, growth and transformation. How we answer that call is something we would do well to keep in mind and heart at all times. And now, as we begin our 2024 Annual Giving Campaign, Be The Mission, it is especially important. How will we respond to God’s call to us?
This year, we are inviting you, and every parishioner, into prayerful discernment about what the St Barnabas community means to you, what the mission of the Church means to you, and how God is calling you to act, both individually and as a part of the St Barnabas community. We are inviting you to actively discern how you will respond in financially supporting the mission and ministry of St Barnabas. We aspire to 100% participation in the 2024 campaign, and while we know that’s ambitious, we have faith in your faithfulness!
Discernment is essential in this process. You’ve likely heard me say there is a distinct difference between discernment and deciding, that deciding without honest, prayerful discernment leaves God out. Leaving God out of any part of our lives is a poverty, but leaving God out of our thoughtful consideration of what we will give to support God’s good work in the world really doesn’t make much sense at all. It might be fear, scarcity, shame (I have too much! I don’t have enough!), or secrecy that leads to an unwillingness to talk about, pray about, ask the Holy Spirit’s guidance about how much money we will give to support the mission and ministry of St Barnabas. But when we discern rather than decide, when we engage this question in partnership with God’s Holy Spirit, we become co-creators and active participants in God’s mission in the world.
In your prayerful consideration, you might reflect on the blessings of your life, gratefully acknowledging God as the source of those blessings. You might consider the challenges you’ve encountered, and the importance of your faith and faith community in moving through those challenges. Your prayerful consideration might include poignant reflections on the brokenness of the world, as well as the role of love and Christian community in healing that brokenness. Or perhaps you’ll consider what it means to take your place and do your unique part as co-creators with God in transforming the world by sharing God’s love. Bring all these, and any other considerations that might inform your discernment before God, and then listen. Listen for what God’s Holy Spirit is saying to you as you consider your pledge for the coming year.
I know that every single person in our parish has the capacity to make a thoughtfully discerned pledge to the mission and ministry of St Barnabas. As I’ve often said, it doesn’t matter to me if you give one dollar or twenty-five thousand dollars, and I don’t think it matters to God, either.
What does matter, is that we listen and respond to God’s Holy Spirit, starting with a blank slate and an open mind and heart. Some people simply write the same number on the pledge form year after year without a thought or a prayer. Some people don’t pledge because they feel they cannot give enough, which breaks my heart, because everyone deserves the opportunity to be a participant, to know the joy of giving to St Barnabas and the joy of belonging that comes from sharing the load by sharing the gifts God has given us. When we truly listen, when we invite God into our conversations about how we use our money, we will know how much to pledge. And our pledge will be right because when we invite God into the conversation, we will find ourselves aligning the way we use all our gifts, including our money, with our most deeply held values. This isn’t something to fuss or worry about. This is something to wonder and be curious about, something to delight in! Consider your gift not just as pledging money to support this place that means so much to you, but as thanksgiving for what God is doing in your life and a deepening of your commitment to being God’s mission in the world.
Once again this year, you will hear from some of the people who dearly love St Barnabas, about why they love their church, and about how their love and faithfulness leads to generous, open hearts. And while we will surely keep you informed of “the numbers,” this year our campaign focuses on 100% participation rather than focusing on what we need to meet our budget. We’re focused on participation because we know that when we participate, we feel a sense of belonging that simply does not happen when we stand back, set ourselves apart, and let other people take care of sustaining St Barnabas. Every one of us can be a part of the mission and ministry of St Barnabas, and absolutely everyone can participate in this annual campaign. We are a wonderfully welcoming and inclusive community, a community where everyone belongs. Participating in the life of St Barnabas by making a financial commitment serves to bring us ever deeper into this community.
So thank you for your prayerful discernment. Thank you for your involvement and support of God’s mission in the world through the mission and ministry of St Barnabas. We give thanks for your many contributions to this community of faith, and for the blessing of having you as part of the St Barnabas family. Please know that your prayerful consideration and participation is truly what this letter invites. Know too, that I welcome your questions and conversations, as do the members of the Stewardship Committee.
We look forward to talking with you, to praying with you, and to celebrating together with you and the whole congregation on Sunday, November 19th when we will gather up all our pledges and consecrate them for God’s good work in the world. Thank you and may God richly bless you as you have blessed us all. Faithfully,
Faithfully,
Karen +
The Reverend Karen Haig, Rector
P.S. We’ve included a “Proportional Giving” table so you can see what proportional giving might look like for you.
