There are many churches who find themselves from time to time in difficult financial states, to the point that it can be difficult to hire a priest even. Fortunately, some dioceses out there are able to help in these situations. Some even help cover the costs for recent seminary graduates to come and serve a parish for at least two years.
There was one such church who had a recently ordained priest serve as their rector. Now this parish hadn’t always been in a difficult financial situation. A few years previously, they had a full-time rector. He was a good guy and a faithful priest, but not everyone liked his style so an effort was made to push him out. People stopped giving as they had before. Soon the full-time position got pushed to ¾-time. With a family with young children, the rector couldn’t afford to stay with that salary, and soon he took another position elsewhere.
The problem was that afterwards, the parish still couldn’t afford a full-time priest. Unfortunately, they continued to have trouble affording their rector. Once two years with their recent seminary graduate were finished, they could not continue to pay him as rector, so he had to leave too. They have not had another full-time priest since.
There were further issues too. Without clergy leadership and undeveloped lay leadership, it was hard to develop important parish programs like Christian Formation, Outreach, and at times even Fellowship. These programs either had to be started or reformed, making it impossible for any of them to gain traction. Their lack of giving made it difficult to grow in all senses of the word.
While the church is not a business but a community, we still need money to keep everything going. It can be all too easy to think that using our money will help us get what we want for the community. Sometimes we may think that not giving our money is the most powerful way to speak. However, not giving only hurts our parish. While it may work as a short-term solution, in the long-term it causes great damage.
There is never a time when giving is more crucial than during an interim period. If people do not continue to give, then the parish won’t be able to “hit the ground running” when a new rector is called. That will not just hurt the new rector’s start of ministry, that will hurt the parish as well.
Continuing to give and pledge as you are able shows your commitment to seeing what God will work in this community together, now and in the future. In this way, giving becomes a sign that you believe we, as a community, are still committed to heeding God’s call for us.