I’ve been doing quite a bit of thinking about money lately. It isn’t my strong suit. I’m not much of a money person. I’ve never had a desire for more money than is needed for the basics of life. I’ve never aspired to be rich. I don’t put much value in money in the bank or in investments. I like money for what it can do - feed hungry people, provide a place to worship, educate children and adults - things like that. When we had children in college, I was aware that some of my friends were complaining about the high cost of education. I was thinking that I’d rarely gotten as much pleasure out of spending money as I did at that time.

I’m not sad that I’ve been called to a vocation that doesn’t lead to wealth. Someone with my particular interests could make a big mess out of big money. I’m more suited to the resources that I have.

We will, however, be launching a family large (for us) capital funds drive at the church. We need to raise around $650,000 for a variety of projects, mostly maintenance required of a building like ours. Our building is 55 years old and needs a new roof and a new boiler. There are other projects as well - all in the range of maintaining the church in a state that allows us to serve the community. And it is important to me that we not become distracted from our mission and outreach by the need to spend a bit of money on our church home.

What I have found is that there are many different approaches to money. We have some people in our church who appear, on the surface, to be dispassionate about money. They see financial decisions as rational decisions. They understand investments and interest rates and know the best way to grow small amounts of money into larger amounts. It would be silly to argue with their success. They really do know what they are talking about. In general, they want to be presented with a rational argument: investing now will mean lower costs in the future. That argument, by the way, happens to be true in our case. Now is a very good time to do the projects we have in mind. They increase the energy efficiency of our building and mean lower operating costs in the future. The project also contains capital investments that have long lives and decrease the need for expensive repairs in the future. I understand the rational side of the argument.

But I’ve never been very rational when it comes to money and I know that there are folks in our church for whom a purely rational appeal isn’t the best approach. Consider feeding hungry children in Costa Rica, for example. I know in my rational mind that we are incapable of solving hunger in the immediate neighborhood of our sister church there. I know that our church is totally dependent upon the leadership of a pastor who is getting older every year and that the prospects for long-term institutional maintenance are grim. I know that the children we feed go on to become parents at very young ages and that there is an endless cycle of children having children producing more hungry children. I know that investing money in feeding children will do nothing to decrease the need in the future. I know all of these things. But when I go to Costa Rica, or these days when I think of Costa Rica, I feel moved to contribute. When I look at the pictures of the children sitting on the floor with their bowls of food and smiles on their faces, I think, “I’ve been in fancy restraints where people don’t get that kind of joy out of their food.” And I know how many meals for children can be purchased with the cost of a meal in a restaurant here in the US.

It isn’t just hungry children.

I’d rather have a canoe in the water than money in the bank. If you don’t believe me, ask my wife. I’m pretty sure that she’d report that I have too many canoes for me to put them all in the water at the same time anyway. A rational person would point out that paying rent on a storage unit to keep canoes that you use only part of the year is not a rational decision - it is wasting money that could do other things. And the rational person would be right.

I keep finding myself driven by passion.

That passion probably gets in the way of prudent retirement saving. It probably means that I’ve spent too much money on books and too little money on home maintenance. It probably means that the percentage of our family’s income that goes to charitable giving is irrationally high. But I have a really good answer to that one. Any fool can see that I’m not a very good money manager. And we have some of the best money managers in the church in our Department of Stewardship and Budget. Doesn’t it make sense to give the money to the church for them to manage? They do a better job with it than I would anyway.

So raising the funds that the church needs for this particular phase of its life requires different approaches for different people. There are some very generous people who will support the project out of rational thought. They will respond to good, well-developed presentations. And there are folk who will simply be generous out of their passion. They may even be irrationally generous. While it is critical that we not take advantage of anyone in the process, it is important that we make our appeals in the right way for each donor.

I may be irrational, but this much I know: I wouldn’t trade places with people who have a lot of money and a life of luxury. I have no need to possess wealth beyond my wildest imagination. I feel no desire to purchase a lottery ticket. I may be irrational and spendthrift and a poor manager when it comes to money, but I am a very fortunate person with a joyful life. I’m still giddy about the joy of investing in our kids education. I’d rather have them in my life than money in the bank any day.

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