By total coincidence this was the weekend that all the members of the house went a'traveling. Me by myself, the others together. It's a good thing about everybody in the house being adults, we're not obligated to go somewhere just because another member of the house wants to go somewhere.
As I was saying, I went a'traveling to visit some dear UU friends who live east of Eden. Part of the reason that I went to see them was that their church was having their annual auction and I'm always interested in how UUs fund raise. All-in-all it was a good evening, but as I sat there I wondered just how much money they made and how much more they could have made had things been a little different. More on that in another post.
So being with my UU friends this weekend has got me to questioning yet again: why are UUs sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo bad at raising money for their churches? For a group of people who, on the whole, have more disposable income than most others, UU churches seem to always be in a perpetual state of near desperation when it comes to money. It also strikes me as odd considering many members of UU churches fund raise for a living.
Why has the theology of scarcity taken hold in UU churches instead of the theology of abundance? Why do those who have less disposable income give more to their churches? (and yes, I do know some of this has to do with theology, but not as much as you might think) Why do UUs treat giving money to their church as an afterthought? On the flip side, why does the typical UU church as for so little (somewhere between 2-5%)? When Us/Us/UUs threw most of the Christian theological baby out with the bathwater, why did we give up the idea of TITHING?
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2 comments:
The abundance theology is taking hold in UU churches. The Brazos UU has embraced it and the level of giving has increased. Also, our budget is only based upon pledges. Fundraisers are a nice afterthought but they do not enter into the budget. A culture of generosity toward the church (financial and other) has been developed over the years. A real connection between what one gets from this comunity has been established and that one should support a community that sustains you.
My theory, Five Oh, is that the reason UUs are so bad at raising money (I'm a former stewardship chair at a UU church), is that they are not /asked/. My theory is that they are not asked bc. people are /afraid/. Afraid that they will be like the Catholics or the Baptists. Afraid it will look like they are asking for a tithe (which is probably the only thing worse than mentioning G-d for some UUs.)
My experience is that when asked, UUs will give. But everyone's too afraid to ask. And the asking has to be more than a pledge drive, it's got to be face to face.
Will
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