Having wound up our church’s Stewardship campaign, as well as a combined Remembrance Day/Sunday Worship, I found myself on Sunday again using the picture of the key being passed from old to young. I used this image throughout Stewardship to talk about Legacy. Legacy has multiple meanings in our society, from the ‘legacy’ that gets into a good school because their parents went there, to things built and constructed as a ‘legacy’ to a family or event, or the more personal hopes and gifts that we leave to our children. It was that final one, but in the sense of the church, that we discussed. Legacy is so easy to consider and do when it is our family. To pass on a legacy to my son, Lincoln, of values, material comfort, and all the opportunities of the world, is so simple to have encompass my thoughts and actions. In the guise of the church, it seems much more difficult. In reading for the Stewardship campaign, I came across a wonderful quote that epitomized why legacy giving, which is gifts imparted in a will or otherwise, is not happening in churches:
“In a seminar I did last year in Houston at a large downtown church, I posed a question to 250 clergy and laity in attendance. I asked for all those who had received a letter, email, brochure from their church asking them to consider a gift in their will or some other planned give for the church this year to please raise their hand. Not one hand went up. I then said, ‘OK, how many of you have received more than one email, letter, brochure from another nonprofit asking you to consider making a planned gift to them this year?’ 250 hands went up. Never had I seen such confirmation of why the church is not getting these gifts. We simply aren’t asking.” Friends, today we have talked about gifts – they are good! Leaving a legacy, that’s good! And sharing, we talked about sharing, if you don’t remember how good that is, I have a little song to help remind you… ‘Magic Penny Song’
To decide to talk about this was not easy, but we did it! What was easy was singing the Magic Penny song, that brought back memories. Thanks Choir! Sheena Wock from our church gave an impassioned speech on the importance of writing a will, no matter what age you are, and others shared short stories about the importance of legacy giving that I had given them to read. The service was more moving than I could have hoped. To view the church as important in our lives, important enough to tell others about, has been one of our goals through our Evangelism campaign. To realize the same, but for our children and grandchildren, and to ensure that the church is still here doing its good works, is the goal of the legacy giving Stewardship campaign. I ended the campaign with stories of how we never know the impact our words can have sometime. We will never see the ripple effects of some of our actions, words, and gifts – but they are there. That’s what is important, in a world where every piece of information is at our fingertips, not knowing the impact can be frustrating. That is where stewardship intersects with faith. We know the good that our church does, and that is the belief that has to be on our hearts when we give, every Sunday, or as a legacy in whatever form that takes.
“In a seminar I did last year in Houston at a large downtown church, I posed a question to 250 clergy and laity in attendance. I asked for all those who had received a letter, email, brochure from their church asking them to consider a gift in their will or some other planned give for the church this year to please raise their hand. Not one hand went up. I then said, ‘OK, how many of you have received more than one email, letter, brochure from another nonprofit asking you to consider making a planned gift to them this year?’ 250 hands went up. Never had I seen such confirmation of why the church is not getting these gifts. We simply aren’t asking.” Friends, today we have talked about gifts – they are good! Leaving a legacy, that’s good! And sharing, we talked about sharing, if you don’t remember how good that is, I have a little song to help remind you… ‘Magic Penny Song’
To decide to talk about this was not easy, but we did it! What was easy was singing the Magic Penny song, that brought back memories. Thanks Choir! Sheena Wock from our church gave an impassioned speech on the importance of writing a will, no matter what age you are, and others shared short stories about the importance of legacy giving that I had given them to read. The service was more moving than I could have hoped. To view the church as important in our lives, important enough to tell others about, has been one of our goals through our Evangelism campaign. To realize the same, but for our children and grandchildren, and to ensure that the church is still here doing its good works, is the goal of the legacy giving Stewardship campaign. I ended the campaign with stories of how we never know the impact our words can have sometime. We will never see the ripple effects of some of our actions, words, and gifts – but they are there. That’s what is important, in a world where every piece of information is at our fingertips, not knowing the impact can be frustrating. That is where stewardship intersects with faith. We know the good that our church does, and that is the belief that has to be on our hearts when we give, every Sunday, or as a legacy in whatever form that takes.
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