On a recent Saturday morning in the middle of summer, twenty UUCC members met to discuss stewardship. We ranged in age from our 30s to our 80s. Some of us have been members for less than one year, others for more than thirty years.
Looking around the room before the meeting even began, I was struck by just how committed to our congregation all of these individuals are. They care deeply about its future and want to ensure its long-term sustainability. During their time at UUCC, they have experienced birth, death, and myriad transitions and challenges, joys and sorrows, and everything else in between. And they want others who haven’t yet heard of Unitarian Universalism to experience the warm embrace of this congregation.
Of course, most conversations around stewardship are rooted in . . .
you guessed it – money.
Or perhaps a bit more broadly, the Three Ts – Time, Talent and Treasure.
But as our conversation unfolded, these were some of the words and ideas I heard:
So many different ideas and actions, concepts and processes. And many of them are not connected to anything having to do with money. It reinforced for me something that I know already but that does not often bubble up to the surface of my mind as I go about my daily work – everything we do at UUCC ultimately connects to why we exist as a faith community and the difference we want to make. And all of it is intertwined: Stories. Mission. Time. Coffee (yes, of course coffee). Data. Questions. Members.
As summer winds down and we begin to look forward to a new church year, I am eager for all of us – young and old, longtime members and newcomers – to work together to be committed stewards of this precious community.
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