Moment for Mission: Campaign Wrap-up  

Given by: Jim Bays  

Sunday, November 6  

When Steve asked me to wrap up our 2012 Stewardship Campaign with this Moment of Mission, I will confess that I had some apprehensions. If there is anything I dislike more than being asked for money, it is asking someone else for money. I have met very few people who are really comfortable doing that.

So, I considered several different themes and approaches until I arrived at one that made me comfortable. First, I considered recounting the wonderful moments shared with us in October by Sonja Rogers, Judy Keith and Mark Glasschroeder about how together we serve our world, our local community, and our fellow congregants. I then thought about building on the inspiring words of Adele Stewart concerning how worship at St. Andrew is both corporate and intensely personal or on last Sunday's comments from Eric Bright about how education and learning are vital to the fabric of the church. In the end, however, I decided I had little to add to those thoughtful messages.

I then considered a bald-faced financial plea. I thought about telling you that to meet our goal we will need to average $4,000 per pledging unit; or that most of us will need to increase our pledges by 10% or more to meet our goal. Finally, I considered discussing the biblical adjuration of the tithe. But, I know that all of you understand that the church has tangible financial needs and that those needs are genuine.

Instead, I would like to address what may seem to be an incongruity in the message of the campaign. On one hand we are urging you to consider "sacrificial giving" and, on the other hand, we are asking you to be cheerful about doing so. Aren't those diametrically opposed messages?

Actually, they aren't; they are compatible and interwoven ideas. There is scientific evidence that the act of giving is self-rewarding. When we give, the scientists say, there is a chemical reaction in the brain - in the ventral striatum to be specific - which trigger pleasurable feelings. It is the same chemical reaction that causes us to fall in love, to enjoy a fine meal, to experience joy in the birth of a child or grandchild.

So, how did we get this part of our brains that psychologists call the "warm glow area" and how did we end up having that part of the brain activated by the act of giving? I think Steve set the stage for the answer in his sermon last Sunday. Listen carefully to the scripture from 2^nd Corinthians that has been the theme of this campaign: "Each must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."

In a very interesting way, here we find the unique intersection where science proves the scripture and scripture explains the science. Not only has God given us every reason to present our tithes and offerings to Him with utmost generosity, He has hard-wired our DNA to reward us for doing so.

So, as Judy Keith urged us at the end of her Moment of Mission six weeks ago: "Instead of giving 'til it hurts, give 'til it feels good!" As you prayerfully consider what you are going to put on your pledge card for the coming year, please make it a number that makes you feel good about your own contribution to the ministry and mission of this church. If you do that, you will be living generously and you will be giving cheerfully.