Last month I talked about “radical authenticity” and our work at Trinity. I ended with comments about the upcoming Stewardship campaign. In fact, I only talked about money. “We live in a society that depends on the exchange of money to get management functions accomplished. As we move into the season of Stewardship, consider our Radical Authenticity as you pledge for 2025.”
This month I want to talk about a different kind of stewardship. Let’s call it Investing in Trinity. This kind of stewardship involves time, talent, volunteering, sharing, networking information, and serving others. It is authenticity that aligns your values, ideals, and actions.
Now, I know that everyone is busy. You’re working and taking care of a family; you barely have time to come to church on Sunday! You don’t have time to volunteer for anything else. Well, let’s look at time. A 24-hour day is 1,440 minutes; you cringe – that’s all there are? Let’s look at a bigger range of time: in a 365-day year, there are 525,600 minutes. Feels better! But let’s talk about the hours now; a full 365-day year contains 8,760 hours. If you are working a 40-hour work week you are only using 2,080 of them. Subtracting hours for sleep; family time; vacations, we surely all have some hours left to invest in Trinity. We have 171 members. If everyone contributed five hours, we would have given almost one-year’s worth of hours. That sounds surprisingly good! It takes a lot of time to plan and execute all of the projects Trinity has going on each year. Besides, you can engage in events and projects which give you joy. That is awesome! It is easy to contribute to “Investing in Trinity” and not feel it is a chore but a gratifying service to others.
It is not a contest about “how many” hours you can give; rather it is a measure of your ability to “serve.” Remember, we reflect the “Radical love of Jesus.” Look at the time you have and what you can contribute to: Johnson Family Connection, lunches for the homeless, buying extra groceries or supplies for the needy; ordering supplies from Amazon; preparing the Altar and Sanctuary for Sunday Services; serving pancakes once a month; participating in the knitting group, the men’s group, the widow(er)s group; teaching Sunday School or Confirmation; serving on the tech team; providing music for Sunday services or being an actor or singer in Live Nativity. There is so much more.
If we characterize ourselves as Radically Authentic, then we are also “Servant.” Jesus responds to James and John, two disciples.
“The Son of Man came not to be served. But to serve and give his life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:35-45)
