The Divide

Okay, I have a need to offer confession before proceeding! First of all, I am looking at that crazy calendar that is a life in Accountable Ministry and realise I have two similar Tasks that are pending. Both are sitting in my Outlook Calendar and require me to write something that is reflective and, hopefully, also useful and meaningful. One is text-based, the other digital … and I think they are similar enough that I have decided to put them together! Now, as for the second confession, it is that this ruminating piece is heavily influenced by an article from the Alban Institute that has taken hold of me with its clarity and import. I hope, therefore, that the following is inspired and not plagiarised …

NASA Fiscal Year 2011

We are, at The United Church in Meadowood, currently in our Annual Stewardship Campaign. It is a rich time – a time to review where we have been and continue to imagine where we might go. Such a time, in the church year, can be an intentional opportunity to hold up needs and realities in a way, which hopefully, highlights the year long work of discussing what Stewardship means. One of the ways we have been framing Stewardship is to think of it as ‘caring for someone else’s stuff’ or ‘caring for someone else’s child’ (yes someone = God). Part of my reflection with the Finance & Stewardship Group has been the reality that no matter how much money comes in, if we do not have clarity as to why we need it, there is no way that we will be able to inspire people to offer their time. And, without commitment, one’s mission cannot be lived out. Without the people, Discipleship is simply expressed by a bank account number – not so bad as a metaphor, not so good as a gauge of living out our Call.

A significant component of our Stewardship Packet is a Time & Talent Sheet. A tool that asks members of our faith community to indicate what might interest them, where their gifts and skills might complement the work that we do (work which this year has also been articulated in a new feature called a Narrative Budget). I know this may seem dry and this is where the bread and stone comes in!

Four Generations

Larry Peters’ article discusses the tension in having the volunteers (this means Christians in our context), in place in order to do what we believe! And, in his article, he clearly demonstrates well the generational divide (please do hear the following as a gross gloss that is a tool of understanding, not a judgement or criticism). In general, for those raised prior to the 1960s, commitment comes from a place of obligation, from a context/culture that presumes involvement because it ought to be done. Within this generation’s experience, volunteerism comes from a perspective that ‘civic faith’ was served out of an implicit expectation when the church was the primary institution that met needs that ranged from the social to the spiritual.

Those who have come since, however, have not generally had the church as the central institution in their lives. As a result, their perspective is that such obligation only reiterates our current society’s “patterns of deception, burnout, overwhelming expectations, and demands they are already experiencing elsewhere.” So, asking a 30-something person to sit on a Committee sounds more like a stone, than a piece of bread. It feels like a weight, not an opportunity that is transforming and sustaining.

The Divide, though it may be a tool to understand where we are coming from, is not described as to say one experience is better than the other, it is a way to understand how we share, describe and articulate our Call to a multi-generational reality. Regardless of the context, I think that is fair to again borrow Peters when he observes this truism, which I think crosses the generational divide: “Oftentimes members truly seek to give back to their faith community or to live out their faith through meaningful volunteer service within the church or the community. Yet we often don’t provide an opportunity to hear this deeper yearning even in ourselves.”

How we hear not only one another, but the needs of our communities is extremely important. If we hear them as an opportunity to do what we feel is important than we are doing well what we are Called to be – the presence of Light in the world that often seems dark. If, however, we hear Stewardship as a weight, as yet another thing that has to be done and if I don’t do it no one will … well then, I would offer, we have turned the Good News into a weapon that holds no Hope. There is definitely choice in what we hear, but there is also a responsibility that comes with being the people – us the Church – in how we share our Message. And how we begin to share the Message, must be grounded in appreciating that what one person might experience might not be the same for someone else. What we must do is find the balance that everyone hears our Christian Call as an opportunity to be fed by the bread of life and not weighed down by the stone of burnout.