Sermons

Minister: Rev. Margaret A. Beckman | “Clearly, the purpose of wealth is not security.
The purpose of wealth is reckless generosity.”
Joan Chittister, OSB and Archbishop Rowan Williams
READING ~ Michael Durall, selections from The Almost Church, Redefining Unitarian Universalism for a New Era. Tulsa, Oklahoma: Jenkin Lloyd Jones Press at All Souls Unitarian Church, 2004.

The subject of money is not just for those who are well to do or have plenty to give. Nor is money a subject only for the financially astute, those persons blessed with the gift of numbers or a background in finance or accounting. Money is an issue that affects congregants every day, in one form or another, for better or worse. P.64

READING ~ Joan Chittester, OSB and Archbishop Rowan Williams, from Uncommon Gratitude, Alleluia for All That Is. Collegeville, Minnesota: Liturgical Press, 2010.

Singing alleluia for wealth does not sound, at first blush, as if it would be difficult. The fact is, however, that wealth may be one of the most demanding things in life for a person to handle well and really feel good about. (p.18)
Clearly, the purpose of wealth is not security. The purpose of wealth is reckless generosity, the kind that sings of the lavish love of God, the kind that rekindles hope on dark days, the kind that reminds us that God is with us always. It creates in the holy heart a freedom of spirit that takes a person light-footed through the world, scattering possibility as it goes.(pp. 21-22).

We sing alleluia to the wealth that invests in what can be—as well as what is. This kind of wealth seeds the hopes of tomorrow today.(p. 23).

SERMON
Sister Joan Chittester, a member of Benedictine sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania – my hometown, tells this story about her own deepening sense of gratitude and generosity from a moment she witnessed at an international women’s conference she attended. Sister Joan says:
One of the participants, a Kenyan woman pastor of a Presbyterian church in Africa, simply passed the sign-up paper on to the person next to her at the table when it came around. The purpose was to collect people’s e-mail addresses so the contacts and connections made at the conference could go on long after we left there. When they pushed the paper back to her, pointing at the line she’d left blank, Rose said quietly, “I don’t have e-mail where I am. It is too expensive for us. And when I can use it, it is too slow to be reliable.” She pushed the paper down the table again, and this time it made the rounds. “I can’t leave without seeing Rose before we go,” a woman said to me later as we pulled our suitcases out to the cab. “I promised her that I’d give her something,” she said, running back up the hostel stairs. “What did you give Rose?” I asked her later in the trip. “My credit card,” she said. “Your credit card?” I gasped. “Why in heaven’s name would you give her your credit card?” I asked unbelievingly. “So she can pay for her e-mail every month,” she said quietly. The answer was a clear one. An alleluia for wealth has little or nothing to do with money at all. It has something to do with the way we deal with money, with what we do with it, with the manner in which we do it, with the reasons for which we do it. The conference would, in the long run, be very good for a lot of women. The credit card would make life better for at least one of them immediately. It demonstrated in a great glaring way the difference between talking about doing great things and doing what you can while you wait to do even more. Clearly, the purpose of wealth is not security. The purpose of wealth is reckless generosity, the kind that sings of the lavish love of God, the kind that rekindles hope on dark days, the kind that reminds us that God is with us always. It creates in the holy heart a freedom of spirit that takes a person light- footed through the world, scattering possibility as it goes. -Chittister, Joan (pp. 21-22).

We sing alleluia to the wealth that invests in what can be—as well as what is. This kind of wealth seeds the hopes of tomorrow today.
Chittister, Joan. (p. 23).
Mike Durall, in his book, The Almost Church, Redefining Unitarian Universalism for a New Era, challenges his readers with four essential questions about congregations and their money:

What is the attitude, or “mindset” toward money in the church?
Who controls the money?
How is money spent?
What should people be asked to give? Pp. 70-71

These are good questions that congregational leaders struggle with all the time. Sometimes, congregants ask these questions of their leaders – well maybe not the last question – the one about how much to ask members and friends to give. People want to know that their money goes toward our ministry and mission and that the people managing the money are doing a good job.

We say together each Sunday the mission of our congregation. When we think about our money, we ought to be thinking about our mission and the ways that our money forwards our mission. So I thought I’d take some time this morning to talk about where our money goes. Stick with me through the details and let’s see where we come out.

Budgets. A budget is our best guess at what our income will be and then describes how we allocate that money to meet our expenses and live our mission in the world.

Our budget for 2018 is $247,000. In order to make this budget work, we need income of $247,000 and expenses of no more than that amount.
Where do we get that kind of money?
As you probably know, the two main sources of income for our congregation are current giving by members and friends and withdrawals from retained asessts – in our case, the endowment. We also have a smaller amount of income from things like gifts and bequests, building use funds, concerts, and other miscellaneous money – all of these smaller items is estimated to total $1300.

So, current giving is a little less than 14% and it’s contributions from our endowment are about 85%
Now, where does it go? Let’s try to follow our money as it leaves us ….

As you might guess, the largest expense is payroll.
You have a great staff of people working for you and we trust that this will continue for many years to come – but we aren’t cheap.
Our congregation pays its staff according to our UUA fair compensation guidelines. We do this because it is a justice issue and it is the right thing to do.

We take very good care of our Meeting House, Parish House and office space on Main Street.

Program and Administrative expenses total $80,300.
Program expenses include the Religious Exploration work we do with our young people and any adult classes or conferences or participation in our faith activities. It includes our advertising and outreach efforts. It includes our participation in professional organizations and participation in activities of the Unitarian Universalist Association at the local, District, Regional and National level, including attendance at General Assembly.
We provide support and materials for our music program and the RE program.
We spend another $5,000 for musicians and pulpit speakers (people not sound).
Our support of our three-church collaboration – including our ministerial interns – comes to $5,000.

Now, for our congregation, here comes the interesting part – at least to me it is interesting, and it’s fabulous. We have a whole category of our budget that is called Social Justice and Outreach that totals $50,000. Then, we also have the recently established Opportunity Fund that paid out $100,000 to five organizations in 2017-18 and your governing board has just authorized another distribution of $100,000 for 2019 to be given to organizations whose mission we support and want to bring to life in bold and sustainable ways.

So – we are giving away about $100,000 a year in social justice work.
This is amazing. I hope you all realize in some way just how special and unusual this level of giving for a small congregation, or any congregation, really is.

Let’s get a quick breakdown as we follow where our money goes …

Pulliam Grants for 2018 went to:

Maine Unitarian Universalist State Advocacy Network
Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence
Families First Community Center
Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition
Nichols Day Camp
Volunteer for Hancock County Jail Residents

The Opportunity Fund distributed $100,000 in 5 equal shares to:

Castine Childhood Learning Place
Community Compass
Families First Community Center
H.O.M.E., Inc.
Open Door Recovery Center

We gave $5,000 in Hilton Scholarships to area youth and adults as they pursue post- secondary education and training.

Now, that’s the budget. And the budget is not the whole picture.
We do a things that don’t get run through the budget.
Our Dollars for Scholars funding is separate from our budget. Many thanks to all of you whole contribute to Dollars for Scholars by sponsoring one or more children to go to school and have healthy meals. Thanks to all who help with our spring Filipino Dinner and our fall turkey supper. And thank you for attending these dinners and bringing your friends and neighbors, your cousins and your siblings.

Also “off budget” are things like our support for people experiencing food insecurity in our area. The No Neighbor Left Behind community dinners are prepared by local people and distributed locally – through the Baptist Church in Sedgwick. We provide that meal once a quarter.

Hungry Sunday each month sends a bit of money to local food pantries in Bucksport and Blue Hill.

We support the Holiday meal-in-a-box efforts. Gil Tenney has lead this effort before and I suspect he will reach out to us again in the very near future to support these families in very tight financial situations.

We recently added a specific category to our mission and budget for fuel assistance and home heating for people who struggle to keep warm.

I can’t begin to total up all the money our members and friends contribute so that we can do our work in the world and realize, to some noticeable measure, our mission. Thank you.

I said that the way we spend our money ought to be a reflection of our mission. I think we are doing well with that marker. When it comes to managing our endowment finances, we have two goals:

To preserve principle to the greatest extent possible and grow the value of the endowment when conditions are favorable to do so.
To use the strength of our resources to preserve our historic presence and to invest in the future.

You might wonder how we arrive at the amount the endowment generates for the annual congregational budget. We have an investment policy that is a formula for distribution that preserves principle and encourages some growth of the fund over time. There are legal limits to how this done. There are general principles of prudent and fiduciary responsibility that we follow. So – the formula is basically up to 3.5% of the average endowment value of the previous 12 calendar quarters. This formula is quite standard and it has served us well. It also means that the amount from the endowment changes slightly each year – sometimes it could go up and sometimes it will come down. We need to be prepared for a downturn in the value of our endowment if economic conditions change.

This formula also means that we can’t just decide to spend the money we have invested to meet expenses in any way we want. When we imagine what we might do to expand and improve our Religious Exploration programming and our Music programming and our Justice Ministry, we can’t expect that the endowment will provide that increased funding. We can’t increase our programs and outreach and good we do in the world without current giving from members and friends. We need you. Your gifts make it possible for us to do the things we do in the community to enhance the well being of our members as generous and justice-seeking people and the enhance the well being of our community and our world.

Are you still with me? Alright.
Back to Mike Durall and the four questions.

What is the attitude, or “mindset” toward money in the church?
Who controls the money?
How is money spent?
What should people be asked to give? Pp. 70-71

I think I’ve talked about how the money is spent.
Who controls the money? Well, it’s your governing board and their designated leaders. Ultimately, the congregation votes on how we spend our money – through approval of the annual budget and through special meetings of the congregation to discuss and vote on any additional major expenditures.

Two more questions – and now it’s time for you all to speak.

What is our congregation’s attitude or mindset toward money?

What should people be asked to give and why should people give when we have such a big endowment?

And now, let the people say, “Amen.”