“Now there are varieties of gifts but the same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”
(1 Corinthians 12:4-7, NRSVUE)
Every time someone new steps through our sanctuary doors or joins the church on a Sunday morning, we have two questions in mind:
- What gifts do we have to offer this person, this child of God?
- What gifts does this child of God have to offer to us?
When we all bring our gifts, what happens next is a work of the Spirit: Our collective generosity gets multiplied, like loaves and fishes, yielding sufficient resources to care for the needs of our church family, with plenty to spare for the community around us.
As our congregation grows increasingly diverse — in terms of race and culture, gender, neurotype, and even faith tradition — we celebrate that the variety of gifts being offered has become increasingly diverse, as well. Congregational United Church of Christ is socioeconomically diverse in addition to all of the other ways. This means that the size of our individual financial gifts are as varied as our membership, but we all draw upon two basic Biblical principles for stewardship:
- That we give according to the resources we have at our disposal.
- That we give generously as God has given to us.
Like people, generous gifts come in all shapes and sizes. Some of us have plenty of money to share; others not so much. Some of us have plenty of time to spare for volunteering and service; others not so much. Others may be short on time, money, and even energy, but the wisdom they have to offer from their lived experience is its own investment. We let the Spirit be our guide as we think and pray about what gifts we have to share. We let our holy imaginations dream big dreams for both ourselves and for our congregation. We trust that our unique contributions are indispensable to our collective flourishing, because they absolutely are.
We are in this together, and when we give generously in community, we become something more than the sum of our parts. We become the Body of Christ in this time and place. Many gifts. One Spirit. All for the Common Good.