Having the Hard Conversatons

Part of being a member of the Bishop’s Committee means being willing to have difficult conversations from time to time. At our past Bishop’s Committee meeting, we had a difficult conversation about money. Money is a hard thing to talk about in our culture. We love to talk about our purchases but not our questions, confusion or problems we have with money. We love to hear Cinderella stories about people who overcome great obstacles and become rich, but we don’t want to hear about those who are poor and struggling.

At our last meeting, we had a very frank conversation about pledging money to the church and how much each of us as a Bishop’s Committee member gives. I began the conversation by saying that tonight we are having a naked conversation about money and how much we give. Perhaps some of you are wondering why we’d choose to have such an uncomfortable conversation; perhaps others of you are relieved that you weren’t part of the Bishop’s Committee!

We had this conversation because one of the most important aspects of a healthy church is being as financially transparent as possible and a requirement of being a member of the Bishop’s Committee is that each of us pledges and is working toward tithing our income. A tithe means giving away 10% of our income.  Some of us are there and some of us are not.

As a whole committee, we decided that we wanted to raise our pledge as a group. But how? We decided as a group to look at the percentage of the gift we give and pray about increasing that gift. On the average, our Bishop Committee Members pledge 5% of their income to this church in 2007.

This is an average some people give less and others more. Each member of the BC after reviewing their finances, talking to family members and praying, responded about raising our collective pledge as a Bishop’s Committee for 2008 and again, the group has chosen to increase giving by an average of 2.4% for a total of 7.4% average as a group.  This a big stride forward for our leadership to take and I am so grateful to them for their commitment to St. Benedict.

These conversations are hard ones to have. Money is not easy to talk about and yet, the ways that we learn and are inspired is by talking to one another and strategizing and listening to others who are also struggling on the journey as well. I am proud of our Bishop’s Committee. I gave them the option of not having this hard conversation and they unanimously chose to have the hard conversation and to do the praying and to increase their giving. And I am aware that generosity and giving means sacrifice in other places. We are on our way to making our BC a tithing leadership body. What a way to practice generosity.