Growing in Faith Through Giving

We all know how hard it can be to talk about money, and this seems to be especially so in church. But as a former Grace Church Treasurer and Stewardship Chairman I want to talk about why we give and what our contributions do.

Some of you have heard me say this before– Grace Church is not rich. We have a decent, but far from extraordinary endowment that we draw on almost every year to meet our financial needs. With very few exceptions, our income does not meet our expenses. This means that we are reliant on those who came before us to help us meet our financial needs.

Now, let me talk about what your pledges do. They support our clergy and worship. Our clergy provide us with excellent, thought provoking sermons; they support us in our times of need; and lead us in an incredibly extensive series of community outreach endeavors. Very few of us really know how much they do for us. It is not only the clergy that we should be thankful for. We have an excellent music program. Our office and maintenance staff makes sure that we meet our financial, service and community commitments– and care for these old buildings.

I understand how hard it can be to make a commitment of money or time. We worry about our other commitments and whether we will be able to fulfill our new obligations. The first time I made a pledge I felt like I’d stepped over an invisible threshold into an unknown and scary place. I soon came to find that fulfilling my pledge wasn’t all that difficult at all – especially as I’d been putting money in the plate every Sunday already. I also found the same thing with commitments of my time. I’ve been on a good number of not for profit boards – none of which I sought out and several of which I actively resisted joining. In each case I came away enriched by the experience. I suggest that Grace Church might benefit greatly by increased involvement by all of us. I am sure that the clergy can help with ideas.

I’ve been attending Grace for just over [five years] now, having first come at the end of September 2019. I grew up singing in my parish choir and after a few years’ hiatus for college and teaching abroad, followed by my move to Brooklyn in 2017, I began to feel an itch, a rootlessness. I went up to Paul following the service, showed up to rehearsal that Thursday, and the rest is history!

My experience at Grace, short though it may be, has been so rich. There was something intimidating about seeking out a spiritual home for myself for the first time as a young adult and I feel so blessed to have been steered here. At lunch around the corner one Sunday with members of the choir and parish, the conversation turned to engagement, and other matters pertaining to Grace, among them pledging. I felt moved to ask, having never quite considered it or received guidance on the subject, “When is it normal to start pledging?” The reply I received from the group couldn’t have been clearer, more insightful. “When it feels right. Just asking that question is kind of an answer in itself.”

This was prior to March when our familiar days began to unspool. Since then, through the various forms of Zoom worship and having the privilege to return to the sanctuary a few times, my love of Grace has continued to swell. I pledged for the first time in my life last month and it felt so powerful to commit myself to Grace and the important outreach it supports in the greater community. Like the flipping of a switch, this transition marks for me the beginning of a more established connection to this amazing community, and my desire to empower it through thick and thin. Those roots I longed for now grow more deeply in rich, fertile soil.

We (Abagail Nelson, her husband Grant Smith, and their children Mikaela and Vita) love Grace Church and have pledged because Grace is a community of warm and compassionate people genuinely open to every age and stage of life’s spiritual journeys. Each ministry feels held and bolstered by many hands. We know we are part of a fabric of caring that extends back in history, and will continue on beyond us, embracing whatever we are able to contribute, and adding our gifts to those of its many generations.

Pre-pandemic, Grant and I taught together the Godly Play curriculum, and got to know so many families first through their 4-6 year olds! There is always space at Grace for children, and our own girls have loved literally running through the sanctuary during Family Service, playing cello on special occasions, or coloring quietly. They know Grace is a home to them.

Heidi and I first became members of Grace Church— and of the Episcopal Church— in 1984. Grace has given us so much over the years that we have always felt an obligation to support it in all it does, not only for us who belong to the parish but also for the community beyond. I remember how proud Goldy Sherrill, the Rector who confirmed us, was of the help that Episcopalian, Catholic, and Lutheran parishes were giving to the East Brooklyn Congregations that established the Nehemiah housing program, which today is still building homes on city-owned properties for people living in disadvantaged neighborhoods to own and move into. People from Grace continue that kind of engagement today, with Allen Robinson’s encouragement and full support.

Empathy is the human quality behind it. Heidi and I feel the kindness that radiates from your faces even on the computer screen in constricted Zoom services, and it is profoundly moving. Empathy on a wider scale is what motivates us all to help neighbors less fortunate than we are, and fellow parishioners when they need help. What makes it possible to keep up our beautiful church, to attract and support our inspiring clergy and our superb musicians, is generosity— as much as we can muster. We make a pledge every year, increasing it when we can, and we are doing that this year. We hope you will, too, if you can. That will help ensure that Grace Church will always be ready to open our hearts to the faith that brings us together and will be here to console and comfort us all. Thank you!

Grace has a Roll of Honor tucked away on a wall in the back of the sanctuary. It lists the names of Grace parishioners who served in World War I. We’ve often looked at that list of names and been humbled by the thought that more than 100 years ago, those people sat in the same pews where our family sits today. Even more humbling is the thought that the church was already at least 65 years old when that Roll of Honor was placed on the wall. But Grace Church is more than just a historical building — it is a living congregation, and it persists and thrives because its parishioners have passed its stewardship lovingly from each generation to the next.

We have been attending Grace for seven years. Those seven years already feel like a lifetime (probably because we now have three kids and can barely remember what it was like to attend the “adult” service), but that time is really just a blip in the church’s long history.  Grace was here before us. We give faithfully to Grace to ensure that it will be here after us.