By Peter Munson

There is one area in our life together at St. Ambrose where we are really average.
Do you tend to think of St. Ambrose as an average congregation? I don’t. There is nothing average or mediocre about the way you all have reached out to the Vigil family during their time of need. There was nothing average about our mission trip to the Dominican Republic in June. There is nothing average about how many individuals step up to teach Sunday School or to help Heather with youth activities. There is nothing average about how quickly the sign-up sheets get filled when we announce that it is time to cook and serve at the Boulder Shelter for the Homeless. There in nothing average about the staff members who work with me. There is nothing average about the ability we have demonstrated to keep loving and eating with, and staying friends with other members in the congregation with whom we have significantly different political or theological views. There is nothing average about the dedication of those in the Altar Guild and Sexton’s Guild, or the dedication of those in the 8:00 choir and the 10:30 music team, nor is there anything average in the quality of the music at our church. There was nothing average about our presence, our singing, and our floats in the Louisville Fall Festival, both last year and this year. (First place in the Civic Float category both years!)

And yet… St. Ambrose has an area of our life together where we are really average.
Do you know what that area is? It is our financial giving to support the work and ministries of our parish. In mainline churches across the country (Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist, United Church of Christ), the average giving of members to the church is 2% of income. At St. Ambrose, based on 2008 statistics of the average household income of the three communities that most of us come from—Louisville, Lafayette and Boulder—we give, on average, 2% of our income to the church. So in terms of being generous in our financial support of the church, we are really average. We get a “C” grade. Yes, some of our members give above the 2% level, and some obviously give less than 2%, but our average is right on the average—2%.

In the interest of being transparent, I will do something I haven’t done before. I will tell you that my pledge to St. Ambrose this year is $5,200. It is not the highest pledge in the congregation. But you might be interested to know that in every year that I have checked, my pledge (or our family’s pledge) has been in the top 10 of pledges to the congregation. In addition to this $5,200, I have continued to give $30 a month (over three years) to support the capital campaign fund. I usually write an extra check every month when we do our Second Sunday Outreach offering, as our church supports a specific charity. When a pancake breakfast is advertised as being $5 per person, I will usually give $10. When a Girl Scout or Boy Scout or high school choir member from St. Ambrose approaches me about buying popcorn or cookies or a Christmas wreath, I always get out my checkbook, partly because I want to support our young people, and partly because I love
being generous.

Zach is in college now, and his tuition and room and board at CU come to $21,000 a year. And I very well may have to cut back on my pledge to St. Ambrose next year. But you know what? I could cut back to 4% giving and still be at twice the national average, when it comes to what members give in mainline churches.

I have a challenge for each one of you. As we move towards our fall stewardship campaign… as we move towards turning in our pledge cards for 2010 on November 8 and 15… I ask you to really think and pray about what having God in your life means to you, and what having St. Ambrose in your life means to you. And I ask you to think about whether you want to be average in your giving, or whether God is inviting you to be excellent. And I ask you to pray about the faith dimension of giving, i.e., do you trust that if you stretch in your giving, God will help you grow in your faith? Do you trust that if you make a commitment to move beyond being average in your giving, that God will transform your life?

Sometimes I have heard people say in churches that “What I give is between me and God.” To tell you the truth, I don’t think that’s true. What you give is between you and God and all of us at St. Ambrose, because we’re all in this community of faith together. And the community of St. Ambrose cannot be truly excellent—in all areas of our parish life– without each person taking 100% responsibility for the faithfulness and health and success and well-being of the community.

My sense is that if we were more transparent with each other about this one glaring area where we are really just average, the culture might begin to change, and we might begin to delight in all the possibilities that would come our way if we became a truly generous community. This is an attempt on my part to begin that transparency process around money and giving and generosity.

As always, I welcome your feedback. Grace and peace, Peter