Radical Prayer

This is what I read this morning, from Henri Nowen's little book, The Spirituality of Fundraising:

To pray is to desire to know more fully the truth that sets us free. Prayer uncovers the hidden motives and unacknowledged wounds that shape our relationships. Prayer allows us to see ourselves and others as God sees us. Prayer is radical because it uncovers the deepest roots of our identity in God.

Do we see prayer that way? Do we want to experience prayer that way? 

I remember years ago (why do so many of my stories start with the words "years ago." I wonder if it is my version of Once Upon a Time).  Anyway.... I was attending an Emmaus Gathering, and the Community Spiritual Director used Psalm 139 as the basis of his communion mediation. It's a great Psalm until you get the last verses, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." When you get to that verse, a Psalm that seems like a wonderful poem becomes personal. You realize the meaning of the whole thing. Who wants to be known by God like that? 

Do we pray for that kind of relationship with God? Do we see prayer as a way to achieve it? Or do we only see prayer as a time to ask God for what we want done in the world?  Do we really want God to know our hidden motives? Truthfully, do we really want to know our hidden motives and do we want to face up to the unacknowledged wounds that shape our relationships?

If we thought that was the purpose of prayer, would we ever pray? Are we brave enough?

Fundraising and Relationships

One of the challenges I have encountered when I was involved in the stewardship campaign at my church is that some programs required that we contact every person on our membership list and invite each of them to a consecration dinner. It's a wonderful idea to call everyone on the church's list to invite them to an event, but because this was a stewardship event - even though we weren't asking them to make a financial commitment - it was perceived as the leadership contacting those who were not attending only to ask them for money. All of us realized that we should be calling them more than just one time a year during the stewardship campaign. Visitation programs sprung up from this experience.

Nouwen says, "Asking for money is a way to call people into this communion with us. It is saying  "We want you to get to know us." Gathering together by our common yearning, we begin to know this communion as we move together toward our vision."

Anyone who has had any fundraising experience knows that fundraising is about relationship. You have to build, strengthen, and maintain relationships in order to be successful. If we get the order wrong, though, it feels manipulative. 

Spiritual fundraising is inviting people into a relationship with God - with their neighbors (us) - so that they can experience the communion of the kingdom of God, and participate in the work of the kingdom by giving of themselves - their time, their gifts and their possessions - to the work of that kingdom. It isn't asking for money so that the church we love and function. It's inviting people to be a part of something larger. It's knowing that our own lives will be enriched by their participation, and knowing that what we offer - Church - will enrich their lives through the presence of God.

It is about relationship - about communion. It's not relationship for our own profit. It's relationship for the building of the kingdom of God.

Relationship with Money

No servant can be the slave to two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or be attached to the first and despise the second. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money." (Luke 16:13)

What is our relationship with money? Henri Nouwen asks that question in his book, "The Spirituality of Fundraising." Is it something we are comfortable talking about? Was money something your parents talked with you about? Do you talk about it with your children? Why is money so secretive?

The United Methodist Church passed a new rule in the discipline (Paragraph 340.2.c.(2)(c)) that the pastors will have access to giving records of members. Why do you think the person who is essentially the CEO of a church wouldn't have access to giving records? And why did we need to pass a rule that provides for that access? Why are giving records a secret from pastors who have a responsibility in fundraising? And why is it that there are pastors to don't WANT that information?

The most common response I hear to that question from pastors is that he or she is afraid that information will lead to the pastor treating people differently. Could it be that they are already are, based on what they think they know? 

Why are people afraid for their pastors, who know everything about them, including their addictions, their family issues, their grief, their medical complaints - to know about how much they give to the church?

Why is our relationship with money? Do we see it as security? Do we equate money with personal worth? How does God enter into that equation?

Nouwen's thesis is that we, as church leaders, will be uncomfortable inviting people to give if we ourselves don't know how to relate to money. That's true, but it impacts much more than that, don't you think?

Fundraising

Have you ever served on a Stewardship and Finance Committee  Have you had the meetings where the committee talks about what "stewardship" program to use for the coming year in order to raise funds for ministry? Have you been a part of the discussion that includes worries over expenses, and the resulting "letter of appeal" to the congregation outlining the dire circumstances of the church's finances and how everyone must give now? Have you been in the congregation on "commitment Sunday" and heard the whispered groans (or made them yourself): "I hate it when the paster talks about money."

Read this from Henri Nouwen's book, "The Spirituality of Fundraising":

Fund-raising is precisely the opposite of begging. When we seek to raise funds, we are not saying,"Please, could you help us out because lately it's been hard." Rather, we are declaring, "We have a vision that is amazing and exciting  We are inviting you to invest yourself through the resources that God has given you - your energy, your prayers, and your money - in this work to which God has called us."

The truth I've read says that appeals for money based on scarcity ("Pay now, or the electricity will be cut off.") are less successful than appeals that are based on abundance. (We're having Vacation Bible school - look at the good is will do in our neighborhood! Please come be a part of it.)

One of the best "fundraising" talks I've ever heard wasn't about money at all. It was a mission project director describing the situation in the area his mission project serves - the circumstances and challenges faced by those who live there (and they were desperate circumstances). He then went on to describe what the mission project was doing to help people face the challenges. At the end, once the vision was declared, there was an invitation for people to help. And by that time, I would have given him my shoes if that was what was needed to help people. He never talked about how short their supply of funds was, or about how they struggle to meet ends meet, or even how frustrated he can get in the running of the mission project. He declared the circumstances and explained the ministry to meet them.

Fundraising is ministry. It's inviting people to give all they have (including their money) to the work of the kingdom of God.