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Dave
Pottenger's "Dime Data" Message to the COngregation Good Morning. I am here this morning to follow-up with you on last week’s “Dime Sunday”. It is my job to create an inspiring, faith-based stewardship message from the statistical data gleaned from last week’s effort. Remind me not to miss anymore stewardship committee meetings where duties are assigned!
To review, or for those of you who weren’t in church last week, everyone attending Sunday’s services was given thirty cents, in the form of three dimes, and asked to place them into labeled cans in the front of the church. Each can represented a specific mission initiative or expense category supported by Westminster. These included worship, property, youth, benevolence, service/nurture, music, Christian education, and staff. Together these eight categories actually comprise our operating budget.
The specific results, can by can, will be reported in the newsletter. My goal today is to speak to a few of the highlights revealed by this exercise.
The most striking observation was that each can, each mission, received significant support from the congregation. There were no major imbalances, no cans with small support and none with a big overemphasis. Your preferences were actually more evenly distributed than the church budget calls for. I conclude that this speaks volumes about the healthy position that Westminster currently finds itself in. Our missions are widespread, our interests are diverse. We find many different ways to connect with one another and with our community. Our priorities as indicated by this exercise reveal much about who we are as a church.
Two cans, however, did receive a somewhat larger number of dimes: youth and benevolence. We clearly continue to want to dedicate significant resources to the spiritual and emotional development of our youth and for the nurture of our children and the future they represent. Further, we feel called to reach out to those in need in our community and in the greater world, reflecting our commitment to work as God’s servants in the spirit of Jesus Christ.
Our music program also enjoys a passionate level of support and represents how important the glorious gifts of our choir and instrument programs are to our worship.
Now: a dose of economic reality. Earlier, I referred to the Church’s operating budget, and you should know that seventy percent of this, in actuality, goes to staff and property. This is a fairly fixed amount, required to operate our church, pay our staff, and keep up our physical facilities. Your desire to strongly support the other cans, as expressed in the dime exercise, such as music, Christian education, youth, and benevolence, means that we simply MUST be successful in our stewardship effort. Westminster has had, and you’ve indicated an overwhelming preference to continue to have, strong, vibrant efforts in these missions. For us to continue to be the church that we are, we need everyone to be generous with their gifts.
In concluding, I want to return to my earlier point about the remarkably healthy place we find ourselves currently. The diversity of our missions and the balanced support they all enjoy is what struck me the most upon reviewing the data. Our current health is due to many factors, one of which is our history of successful stewardship and the prudent, spiritually-guided decisions made for the use of these resources. Your “dimes” have told us that you wish for this balanced diverse approach to continue. Please help us fulfill that in this year’s stewardship effort. We Can.
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