Dear First Parish Family,
There is a story I have been carrying with me since my very first week at First Parish. Not long after I arrived, the church office received a mysterious gift. Five hundred dollars. There was no note. No signature. No explanation. Just cash in the mail. And every month, another gift would arrive. Sometimes it was less. Sometimes it was more. It would come with no return address. Making it impossible to know who had sent it. And yet, somehow, it feels deeply personal. Because someone had decided that First Parish mattered. Someone, somewhere quietly said, “I want this place to continue.” There is something beautiful about that kind of generosity. It asks for no recognition. No thank-you card can really be sent. It is simply a gift given because a heart has found something worth loving.
And then there is another kind of stewardship I have witnessed here. I have watched someone give hours, not dollars, to our church. Time spent planting and tending gardens, cleaning, creating beauty, and making our grounds feel welcoming and alive. The flowers bloom because someone has cared enough to put their hands in the soil.
This, too, is stewardship. And perhaps this is what Jesus means when he tells us that where our treasure is, our hearts will be. Because our treasure is not simply our money.
Our treasure is our time. Our energy. Our creativity. Our hands. Our prayers. Our presence. Our generosity.
Stewardship is what happens when all of those things come together. One person gives $500 anonymously. Another gives an afternoon in the garden. Someone else sings. Someone teaches our children. Someone fixes what is broken. Someone makes coffee. Someone sits beside a person who is hurting. Someone shows up. And together, all of those gifts become something larger than any one of us could create alone. They become church.
As we begin our stewardship season, I want to invite you to think not simply about what can I give? but about a deeper question, where is my heart? What do I love about First Parish? What do I hope will still be here five years from now? What do I want to help grow? And yes, I also want to ask you to prayerfully consider making a pledge to First Parish for the coming year.
Pledges are important, not because the church is keeping score, but because they help us faithfully plan for the year ahead. Knowing what we can reasonably expect each month allows our church leadership to build a responsible budget, pay our staff, care for our historic building, support Christian education and worship, and continue the ministries that make First Parish a living presence in our community. A pledge is not a promise about what you must give. It is a way of saying, This is what I believe I can offer, and I want to help us plan together. And perhaps most importantly, it is a way of putting our hearts where our hopes are. The mysterious envelope. The garden carefully tended. The offering placed quietly in the plate. The hour given. The prayer whispered. The pledge made. None of these things may look like much on their own.
But gather them together, and something happens. A church begins to bloom. And perhaps that is the great mystery of stewardship: we give because we love, and somehow, in the giving, we discover just how much we love.
May we continue to be people who give not because we have to, but because our hearts have found a home here. With gratitude for all the ways you make First Parish what it is and with great hope for all that we are becoming together.
Pastor Carrie