One of the blessings that arrived in my life long before I knew what it meant was the gift of generosity. I didn’t plan it, it just happened, and I find myself deeply grateful every day.

I grew up around generous people. My Mom and Dad were givers. She was an Avon salesperson and he worked in a factory and we lived close to the edge financially, but they found ways to give. There were always strangers at our table, she baked and cooked for others and showed up to volunteer. They supported the church and they shared with other organizations because they had heard Jesus say that the only thing we would ever have was what we were willing to give. We never had much, but we always had enough. To this day, I don’t know how they pulled it off, but because of their love, I grew to believe that being generous was the right way to live. 

Over the years with the love and support of my spouse, I have developed my own pattern of generosity. Several years ago, we made the decision to become tithers. We set aside a percentage of our income each year to support the work of organizations that reflect our personal beliefs. Our churches are at the top of the list. We belong to two congregations—full members of one and associate members of the other. We pledge to both. We also support the congregations where I have been honored to serve since retirement. Then we support the work of our UCC Conference and make annual gifts to several parts of the national United Church of Christ. We support the colleges we attended and the two seminaries I attended and a dozen or so organizations working to make this world a better place: like the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity. We have an estate plan which means that after we make our journey into the love of God, we will continue to support the things that have been so important to us in this life.

Each year we make a couple of gifts to organizations that we believe represent an attempt to address systemic racism and offer reparations for past injustices. These gifts have helped us support the historic Black Colleges related to the United Church of Christ and the Franklinton Center at Bricks, NC, a center in the struggle for Racial justice. We support the American Indian College Fund as well. 
Am I bragging about how generous we are? If you want to read it that way, go ahead, but then what do you do with the words of Jesus about not hiding your light under a bushel? 

What I want you to know is that proportional giving that makes a difference in your life and enables you to discover the joy of generosity, makes sense in my life and the life that I share with my beloved. Our lifetime of work has enabled us to have a better retirement than either of us thought possible. We both know that circumstances beyond our control could change that at any time and that no matter how we might fool ourselves, we can’t take any of what we have with us except what we have shared. That is a central part of our faith.

So dear Plymouth friends, please hear me when I say: God is good and God is calling us all to the simple joy of generosity! 

With love,  
Ron

P.S. I will be with you for about another month and would love to get together. Just give me a call. I work Sunday-Wednesday but am always available other times as needed. Let me know. 
 

I thought a lot about Going Deeper, our Plymouth annual theme, as I met with colleagues and delegates at the Rocky Mountain Conference Annual Meeting (now called Annual Celebration) in Grand Junction last Thursday through Saturday. And I thought about the Conference’s idea that all of our churches, which span Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah are radically connected. “Radical” comes from the Latin radix, which means root, so radical connection means that our roots are intertwined. And we’re even more than connected…like a clone of aspen trees, we share the same DNA. We are all part of the church universal, the UCC, and the Rocky Mountain Conference.

Our congregations include a rural church with a handful of members and is lay-led because they cannot afford to pay a part-time pastor, a Samoan immigrant church, and a Japanese-American Church … all in Utah, a church in Wyoming with 100 members that still manages to send more than 10 percent of its annual operating expenses for Our Church’s Wider Mission – which is how we support the mission and ministry of the Rocky Mountain Conference and the UCC both domestically and abroad. It is tough work to do ministry in these churches!

One of the things that thrilled me most (beside hearing our keynote speaker, John Dominic Crossan) was our two amazing conference clergy: Sue Artt, our conference minister, and Erin Gilmore, our associate conference minister (who grew up here at Plymouth and is Sally and Terry Gilmore’s daughter). Sue and Erin provide phenomenal conference leadership! They are gifted and grace-filled clergy leaders, and we are blessed to have them! They are not afraid to think outside the box, to try new things, and to step back and ask what God is doing in the midst of our churches. And if that wasn’t enough, our wonderful conference and retreat center in the Black Forest, La Foret, is not only out of debt, but has new energy and new programs thanks in large part to Larry McCulloch (one of our members at Plymouth), who serves as executive director.

Being the church in the 21st century is a challenge, but you are making a palpable difference in making it possible! Because of your generosity, Plymouth’s giving to Our Church’s Wider Mission is number one in the Rocky Mountain Conference! You are enabling conference staff excellence and leadership and making it available to smaller churches who don’t have the same resources we do at Plymouth. Through OCWM Basic Support and the four special offerings of the UCC and other denominational support, last year we gave over $115,000! Way to go, Plymouth!

You may never meet a Samoan UCC family living in Utah or see the work Sue and Erin do in revitalizing small churches or see the transformed lives of campers at La Foret, but rest assured: your giving is changing lives. Thank you for your generosity and for your commitment to the vision of the progressive church in our region and in God’s world.

We are all part of the same cluster of trees, and we are interdependent not only on each other, but on the grace of God to keep us growing.

Gratefully,

​P.S. Thanks to our lay delegates: Vicki & Wendy Thompson and Nic Redavid! And thanks to the 30 Plymouth folks who demonstrated against gun violence in Old Town Square Sunday afternoon!

Each week at Plymouth we welcome children and youth in the name of Christ. This is part of our mission and ministry, our programming, our duty and our privilege. And it is an important part of our budgeting each year. We have a highly qualified and dedicated staff of nine childcare workers who welcome and care for our youngest ones during all our worship services and certain special events during the year. They are hired and trained by the Rev. Mandy Hall, our Director of Christian Formation for Children and Youth. You may occasionally see them in their sky blue childcare team t-shirts as they come and go from the north wing to the kitchen in their cleaning duties. (After every shift all the toys used are washed as well as the rooms cleaned by these staff members.) I always find them cheerful and upbeat and I am trying to learn all their names in order to welcome them personally to their workplace. They are a hidden, but VERY important part of our community and ministry. I encourage you to greet them, learn their names, make them feel welcome because they are welcoming our children in Jesus’ name! 

After a resolution by our 2017 UCC General Synod on equity in pay and minimum wage requirements, Plymouth’s Leadership Council and Budget and Finance Committee made a commitment to raise our pay for contract workers at Plymouth to the national minimum wage goal of $15/hr by 2019. This goes into effect in January. This is right and just to do. It also ensures that we get and keep the best caregivers for our children. Your pledge to Plymouth will empower this justice action of fair pay and this ministry action of welcoming and caring for our youngest children.

Please bring your pledge card to church this coming Sunday to celebrate Consecration Sunday! (You can also send it in the mail, or pledge online with a form here, or pledge using the F1Go app right on your smartphone or tablet!)

"Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven,” says Jesus. Having children is one of the most humbling experiences in this life. You are suddenly responsible for these ones who are so fragile and yet so resilient. Who soak up love and learning, yet teach us so much about ourselves.

May we remember that we are all children of God. May we treat each other as beloved children in need of love, respect and care even as we humble ourselves to receive love, respect and care from one another. May we remember to humble ourselves before God, giving back to God from the abundance we have been given. May we remember that whoever welcomes one such child in Jesus’ name welcomes Jesus who came to reveal to us the face of God.
 
Blessings on the journey, 
Jane Anne

​In her book, The Soul of Money: Reclaiming the Wealth of Our Inner Resources, author Lynne Twist, writes, “The word wealthy has its roots in well-being and is meant to connote not only large amounts of money but also a rich and satisfying life.” With this in mind, we do not have to be financially rich by the definition of our consumer culture to be wealthy. With basic needs met, we can be wealthy in friendship, in the beauty of nature, in the smells from a home-cooked meal. With basic needs met, we can be wealthy in sharing what we have with our neighbors. Our lives can be rich and satisfying. Those of us who have more than our basic needs met are wealthy as we remember that well-being is not all about money. In our sharing we discover again and again that we are part of God’s beloved people to whom God has given all creation and all manner of grace, abundance, love and forgiveness. 
 
It is easy to talk about the wealth we have been given in sunsets, in friends and loved ones, in the joy of community. It is tough to talk about the wealth we have been given in money. When we introduce the word “money,” along comes the emotions of competition, scarcity thinking, shame, not being enough. I urge you this stewardship campaign season to let these emotions go as quickly as you can when you consider money and your generosity. Let them simply drain away, knowing that is you really need them they will always return. 
 
Instead think of your money as soul power. Let it stand for who you are, what you believe, and what you hold most dear. Money, like water, has the power to create, sustain, and nourish when it flows freely from one to another. It stagnates when it is hoarded. As Lynne Twist writes, “Money becomes a currency of love and commitment , expressing the best of who you are, rather than a currency of consumption driven by emptiness and lack and the allure of external messages.” Money grounds us and puts power behind our commitments. It can be the great translator of intention to reality, vision to fulfillment. Jesus said it and it is still true, “Our hearts follow our money: where your treasure is there is your heart also.” 
 
No matter whether your bank account covers basic needs, just a bit more, or a whole lot more, you are wealthy in the love of God in Christ, in the beauty of creation, in the sustenance of this church community. As you consider your pledge to the 2019 budget that will fund our ministry for God in the coming year, let your money be a source of soul power for you. Give the few pennies, dollars that you can as a way to join with God in making God’s intentions reality in the world through Plymouth. Jesus treasured the widow’s mite. If you are so blessed, give the many dollars that you can to join with God and your fellow Christians in making God’s intentions reality in the world through Plymouth.

May our money not be a source of anxiety, may it be a source joyful power through which we give thanks to God by living the most generous lives of well-being possible.
 
Blessings on the journey,
Jane Anne

P.S If you missed "Grateful: A Love Song to the World" (the video Stewardship showed during worship on Sunday, October 14), or if you just want to dance to it again, you can view it here.

“If the only prayer you ever say is ‘Thank you!’ it will be enough.” ­
– Meister Eckhart, 13th c

This congregation never ceases to amaze me.

• Last week I saw a CSU University Distinguished Professor (a member of Plymouth) cleaning the bathrooms at church while our sextons are on vacation.
• This morning I read an online post of gratitude from one of our members who is nearing the end of life.
• Yesterday I learned that there are about a million cookies being baked for Geri Stutheit’s memorial service on Friday.
• Last week our Trustees Chair negotiated a contract on our behalf that will bring in $15,000 in the next year for 17 parking spaces rented during the week.
• We have a “trinity of treasurers:” three people who give more than 20 hours each week keeping Plymouth’s books.
• This week I saw a big team of deacons (and former deacons!) who took the initiative to use a creative litany for World Communion Sunday, bought different types of breads…joyfully led by the chair of the deacons who volunteered at all three services.
• Today, I’ll see a wonderfully warm and welcoming Plymouth member volunteering at our front desk to answer phones, help out, and provide hugs to staff, members, and friends.
• And at last night’s Leadership Council meeting, I saw ten people (who work assiduously to set the course for our congregation) have a really creative discussion about how we can say thanks to the enormous range of people who volunteer at Plymouth.
• This is love in action! And that’s just the beginning! There are literally hundreds of other ways –- big and small -– that our members’ generosity of time shapes lives every day…and I wish I could thank each one!
  
  

As I was musing about all the gifts given at Plymouth, it occurred to that even a small group of us could never make all of this loving ministry happen alone, and every member of this congregation is the recipient of others’ love, time, and ministry. That is what gives me pause…to be in awe…to say “Thanks be to God…and thank you!”

This coming Sunday, we are taking a page out of NPR’s book and putting our stewardship campaign into overdrive: taking just two weeks to raise the $900,000 that will help make mission and ministry possible at Plymouth in 2019. It culminates on October 28 with Baroque and Burritos…stay tuned!
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The sermon on Sunday is on one of my favorite texts when Jesus asks us to “Behold the lilies of the field…how they grow!” Have you ever marveled at the beauty of nature? How could you live in Colorado and miss that?! How can we fail to miss that wonder and awe? How can we fail to say “thanks!” to God for the glories of creation? We did nothing to deserve the beauty of the lily, to deserve a relationship with God, to be the generation that lives in such material and spiritual abundance. And so we respond…by saying “Thanks!”
 
Deep peace,