Elds. Jessica and Germaine in the kitchen wrapping up dogs for a picnic. Photo: Gerald Farinas.
Every year around now, when that hawk starts blowing off the lake, and we all dig our real winter coats out of the front closet, a very familiar word starts floating around the church.
Stewardship.
We all know that word, right? Honestly, most of us know what it means before the letter from Pastor Kristin even hits our mailbox. In church talk, stewardship season is basically code for, “Hey guys, we gotta talk about the budget. It’s the time of year when we look at the spreadsheets, we count up the pledge cards, and we figure out how we are going to keep the radiators clanking and the lights on for another year.”
There is nothing wrong with all of that. Taking care of what was handed down to us is a good, faithful thing to do. People way before us built Edgewater Presbyterian Church, poured their hearts into this corner of the neighborhood, and handed us the keys. Looking after it matters.
But our church is ready to try a new way of calling what we actually do together. We are stepping into something we are calling “sustained giving.”
You’re probably thinking, "Okay, that sounds nice, but it’s just different words for the exact same thing. There’s still gonna be a pledge card waiting to be filled out."
And you know what? You’re not wrong.
On the surface, it really is just different words for the same idea. Changing what we print in the EdgewaterPCUSA.org articles or the bulletin doesn’t magically pay the ComEd bill or the Peoples Gas bill.
We still have a big historic building on Bryn Mawr that needs constant love and work. We still have good staff to pay fairly. We still have ministries to run. Those bills are very real.
Still, the words we use matter a lot. How we talk about things changes how we see our role in the wider Church. When we talk about sustained giving, we are looking at a much bigger picture. It’s a picture that goes way past our wallets, and it speaks right to where we are at today.
All over the country, and right here in Chicago, churches are being forced to figure out who they are. What’s our purpose? What’s our mission? What’s our vision? Long gone are the days when a church could just unlock the front doors on Sunday morning and expect half the neighborhood to just walk on in. The world right outside those thick-leaded windows, right down the block by the Bryn Mawr Red Line stop, is changing fast. How people look for community, for a fair shake, for belonging, and for God is shifting right under our feet.
In a time like this, writing a check or setting up an autopay from your bank account, as huge and helpful as that is, cannot be the whole story of our faith. (By the way, if you need help doing recurring withdrawals from your bank account, let me or Eld. Kathy Anderson know.)
Because just getting by is not a mission statement. Keeping the doors open just so we can sit in the same chairs we have always sat in is not why Jesus called the Church together. If Edgewater Presbyterian Church is really going to show up for our neighbors today, we have to ask bigger questions about why we’re on that block and what God wants us to build next.
That is where sustained giving really comes in.
Think about it like this. Money pays the heating bill, and thank God it does when January hits the lakefront.
But money cannot dream up new ways to love our neighbors over on Broadway or Sheridan. Pledges keep the front doors unlocked, sure, but a $20 bill can’t smile and welcome the person walking through those doors for the very first time, wondering if there is really room for someone like them in a house of God.
Sustained giving means the real heartbeat of our church is not just what is in our bank accounts. It’s our time. It’s our effort. It’s our energy. And maybe most of all right now, it’s our imagination.
When we talk about sustained giving, we’re talking about bringing our whole selves to the table.
It looks like the real effort of showing up for a meeting on a Tuesday night when you just got off the ‘L’, your feet hurt, and you’re completely wiped out from work.
It looks like the energy it takes to set up folding chairs in the fellowship hall for the food pantry, to make the coffee and put out the donuts, to sing in the choir, or to pick up the phone and check on a neighbor who has not been able to make it up the church’s front stairs lately. (By the way, please use the ramp if you need it. There’s a doorbell to call for help.)
And it looks like imagination.
We need so much imagination right now!
Figuring out our purpose and our vision here in Edgewater takes people who are willing to throw ideas at the wall and see what sticks. We need folks who are ready to try new things and dream about how the Gospel calls us to show up for our neighborhood today. Whether that’s welcoming the newcomer, standing up for our immigrant neighbors, feeding folks who are hungry, or just making a quiet, safe spot for people who are beat down by the news every single day, that takes heart and creativity.
A spreadsheet cannot dream that up. You guys do that.
I also really love that word: “sustained.”
It means we keep going. It means we have stamina. It reminds us that being a church is not just a mad dash every fall to plug a hole in the budget. It’s a long, steady walk together down the street.
And the best part about a local church is that this kind of giving always goes both ways. We keep our church going when we show up and pitch in, yeah. But at the same time, the grace we find in that sanctuary keeps us going too. Because nobody can do it all by themselves forever.
Some weeks, you’re going to walk through those doors running on empty. Your energy is gonna be shot. Your imagination is going to feel totally tapped out. And on those Sundays, somebody else in the chair next to you has got your back. Their effort, their prayers, their showing up carries you through until you catch your breath again. That’s just how the body of Christ works. We look out for each other.
So as we make this move from “stewardship” to “sustained giving” at Edgewater Presbyterian Church, what I am asking you to think about is pretty simple.
Please, keep helping our church out with your money as you are able. Every dollar counts. That keeps our feet on the ground and makes everything else possible.
But don’t stop there. As you look at your week ahead, ask yourself what else you can pitch in. Bring your time. Bring your hands. Bring your good energy. Bring your biggest, best ideas for what our church can mean to our little corner of Edgewater.
Because when we do sustained giving in every sense of the word, we’re doing way more than just keeping the lights on in an old building. We’re building the future of God's mission right here on the North Side, one day at a time.
