What If God Had Second Thoughts?

I grew up in a Southern Protestant home. Parables and Bible stories were very much a part of the culture. Although I long ago parted company with the theology, those parables stuck with me. Stories are a powerful way to connect theory to real life.

With that in mind, I would like to share with you my parable for how we might think about giving as a Unitarian Universalist. Whether you believe in a God or not, bear with me for this story. I have shared it with many groups and most find it a good story, theological points notwithstanding. I hope you enjoy it, and that it helps you think about the important relationship of resources and mission.

Imagine that once upon a time, God decided to create the human race. She had already created many creatures on Earth and it seemed a good time for something unique.  God decided to create something smaller than dinosaurs, but larger than mice. She gave it a really large brain (although She knew they would not use most of that brain for many eons).

Humanity would walk upright, making it possible to see danger further away and freeing their hands for development. Those hands would come with opposable thumbs so that some day the male of the species could use the remote control on his big screen TV (that is a whole other story…). All in all, a pretty nifty bit of creation.

But at the last minute, God thought: “I really don’t like working with blood. It’s messy, it has to be replenished regularly, and no one really sees what good it can do. I think I will leave out the blood.” The result was not a living body but a mannequin – an approximation of a human being. It had the form of a body, had most of the features, but had no ability to function. It was only a shell of what it purported to be.

That’s exactly what a congregation is without sufficient resources. Without the financial lifeblood you and I provide, our congregations cannot be good employers, cannot fulfill our mission, and cannot give life to the values we stand for as UUs. 

In this small but important way, we get to play God. We are the ones who breath life into our congregations and our values – no one else but us will, or can, do this. So as you start this New Year, think about the lifeblood that your commitment represents and all the good it accomplishes. However large or small our personal financial capacity, this is our congregation and we have the privilege of ensuring it’s not a mannequin. No other investment offers so great a return, so let’s do this right.

Bill Clontz is the Southern Region’s UUA stewardship consultant and a member of the Congregational Stewardship Network. You can reach Bill through the CSN, through the Southern Region staff, or at bclontz@uua.org. Learn more about the CSN at http://www.uua.org/finance/fundraising/index.shtml.