Dana Reardon - Help 'A Bunch of Guys' make a difference

Help 'A Bunch of Guys' make a difference

Last week I went to a concert of "A Bunch of Guys." It was part of a whirlwind 30-day tour of a group that most people outside of Camp Calumet and the New England Synod have never heard of, but you should.

“A Bunch of Guys” is a group of amateur musicians who play for churches and camp ministries who got together and decided to make a CD and raise money for world hunger. Their first CD was titled "Take a Breath." The title itself indicates an awareness of the need outside of themselves that grew this idea. Someone dies of hunger every time you take a breath.

The first CD raised $53,000 for the Lutheran World Hunger appeal. The second CD is called "Enough" and it is a Christmas Album with which they hope to raise $30,000 in 30 days. I have hopes as maybe they do that it will be much more.

I tell you about this for two reasons. First because it is a worthy cause and two great albums that you should buy for everyone on your Christmas list and know that every time you take a breath to sing along with the CD that you will have helped to feed a hungry person. Buy the albums through their website, www.takeabreath.org.

Secondly I tell you this because this is how the most successful stewardship campaigns start. They do not start with a stewardship committee sitting around trying to figure out how to get people to give more money or what great campaign we are going to come up with. The most successful efforts start with people looking at their gifts and wanting to share them for the good of others and the kingdom of God.

So the task of steward leaders and stewardship teams is to raise awareness, encourage generosity and help to make connections that enable others to grow in the faith that causes us to want to share our gifts.

When we become more like "A Bunch of Guys" and look for ways to share our gifts, we become more like the one who sent us, who shared everything for us.

I saw the trailer for a Christmas movie in which the man says to the boy, "The spirit is in there" and he points to the boy's heart, as if it were some good feeling that we need to dredge up. I am not so convinced. The Spirit is out there in the world calling us to see the hungry and the needy and the homeless and to give what we can of our talents and our wealth to become one with that Spirit that calls us.

We become one with the Spirit, the breath of life and maybe it is "in there" when we "Take a Breath."

Lord,

Call us by your Spirit to a life beyond ourselves and a need beyond our own.

Amen

The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI. A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care. She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander. She is still trying to understand the accent. While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team. That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.