With the start of a new school year we feel a new start in the life of the congregation as well.  People who’ve been away for the summer, or whose lives have just been too full with the demands and opportunities of summer, are “coming home.”  Our children’s and youth’s religious education programming begins anew.  We return to two services.

This year this “new start” coincides with the ministry theme that calls on us to ask ourselves what it means to be “a community of covenant.”  One of the covenants – promises – we make to one another is to support this community in whatever way(s) we can.  No one is asked to do more than they can, but it is an expectation that each of us will do all that we can.  The root of the word “covenant” is a mutually binding legal contract, and in this sense our individual promises to support TJMC are echoed in the community’s promise to support each of us.  Both sides are important.

There are a great many ways to offer support to this beloved community.  You can volunteer to teach in RE.  You can serve on a committee.  You can sign up to bring food to someone in the congregation who’s in need (through CareNet), or someone from the wider community who is struggling to live without a home (through PACEM).  You can show up to a work party to paint or weed.  You can be a Sunday usher or greeter.  There are so many ways to support this community that supports so many of us in such powerful ways.

Although some people find it awkward or off-putting to talk about it, another important way of supporting TJMC is financially.   Not everyone in this community is able to contribute financially, of course – we are actually much more economically diverse than might be readily apparent.  But many of us can.  And while putting money in the offering plate during a Sunday sanctuary service, or in the offering can during a Sunday Children’s worship, making a pledge is a powerful act.  It can be a real spiritual practice.

Making a pledge is easy, and you don’t have to wait for an official “pledge drive” to do it.  Go to our website – uucharlottesville.org – and click on the “Giving” tab.  You’ll find a number of resources that help to explain why pledging matters, help in discerning what an appropriate pledge might be, and, of course, an online form that won’t take much time at all to fill out.

Again, financial support is not the only way to be a steward of TJMC, but it is an important way.  If you would like to be in touch with the Stewardship Team with an idea for ways we can promote a more full understanding of stewardship in our community and encourage more of our members and friends to be active stewards, send a note to RevWik (revwik@uucharlottesville.org).