“As a form of ministry, fundraising is as spiritual as giving a sermon, entering a time of prayer, visiting the sick, or feeding the hungry.” – Henri Nouwen

Admit it — you are here reading this blog because you are in love with your congregation.

For lay people, this may be a life-long love or a new-found love. You care deeply about your congregation. So when the call came to serve, you answered yes. Some of you even care about the wider sense of your religion – your denomination, your friends’ congregations, and so on.

For clergy, you heard the call to ministry. You sacrificed years of life in seminary or lay ministry training – evenings away from family, weekends tied up with worship responsibilities, tragic phone calls in the night.

I hope you see your love for your congregation as a vocation, as a calling. Related to that, and my own passion for ministry, is that you will understand your fundraising role as an integral part of that vocation.

Yes — asking for money for your ministry is a high calling. Other people care about the same congregation you care about, and you are inviting them to consider a tangible investment in your shared love. (If you don’t love your congregation enough to invest financially, please consider resigning.)

Why is it a calling?

• This is a shared value conversation — you are speaking of a congregation that you and your fellow member both love.
• This is a witness  — an opportunity to share with another person the reasons your congregation is important to you.
• This is a spiritual transaction — rather than a monetary one, because you are building up another person’s confidence and faith in God through the ministry of your congregation and encouraging them to grow in their own faith.
• This is a healing conversation — because it’s a conversation based on a shared relationship — you are speaking, and you are listening, which are both healing activities.
• As this blog suggests, God isn’t short of money, but does need continued spiritual growth (including stewardship) in order to accomplish what God dreams for humanity.

Ministry is a vocation, whether a clergy or a member. Inspiring one other to go deeper in our spiritual walk is our covenant to each other as church members. Financial stewardship and sacrificial giving is an important part of growing in faith.