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Gratitude Binds Us Together
Rev. Andrew Warner
Dear Colleagues,
Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, helps me better understand gratitude.
In her reflection, "Lessons of the Serviceberry,"
(link: https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-
serviceberry/) Dr. Kimmerer noted that the Potawatomi word "berry" provides the root word of "gift." She explained, "In naming the plants who shower us with goodness, we recognize that these are gifts from our plant relatives, manifestations of their generosity, care, and creativity. When we speak of these not as things or products or commodities, but as gifts, the whole relationship changes. I can't help but gaze at them, cupped like jewels in my hand, and breathe out my gratitude."
I love Dr. Kimmerer's distinction between fruit as a gift and fruit as a commodity. I feel it when I pick the last red raspberries in my garden. Sweet gifts!
Of course, Dr. Kimmerer's words move me beyond the berries to consider how I treat others in my life. As a non-profit leader, do I see donors as a gift or as a commodity? How do I appreciate the abundance of passion, commitment, and questions that a donor brings to my organization?
Dr. Kimmerer saw gratitude expansively. "Gratitude is so much more than a polite thank you. It is the thread that connects us in a deep relationship, simultaneously physical and spiritual, as our bodies are fed and spirits nourished by the sense of belonging, which is the most vital of foods. Gratitude creates a sense of abundance, the knowing that you have what you need. In that climate of sufficiency, our hunger for more abates and we take only what we need, in respect for the generosity of the giver."
How powerful:
Gratitude is the thread that connects us.
We can get overwhelmed with the goals of a stewardship campaign or other fundraising project.
Are we going to make it? Will we raise enough? How will we meet the budget? Will there be
enough; or a deficit?
Those questions can be insistent and loud messages in our minds. What might change if we
stopped, paused to pray, and filled our hearts with gratitude for the commitment and gift that
each donation represents? How might seeing the people in our communities as gifts—each
sweeter than the last raspberries of the season—change how we speak about generosity
in our churches?
If you want to deepen your practice of gratitude this stewardship season, try:
- Praying for each individual donor, volunteer, and member in your church, naming to God the gift they bring to your congregation. Naming our gratitude to God can help us take new approaches to the people in our lives.
- Discuss these questions with your stewardship committee: "How would our donors know we appreciate their gift?"" ""Would that approach work for me with any other organization I give to?" Often, church non-profits thank donors far less frequently than secular non-profits.
- Start sending out a few handwritten thank you cards to people in your church and community who share their gifts of money, time, energy, or encouragement with others. Ensure everyone in your congregation gets at least one letter a year.
- Plan now for a donor & volunteer appreciation dinner in the first part of the new year. I find it helpful to separate the appreciation event from the stewardship ask.
Please let me know the creative and meaningful ways you thank donors and volunteers in your congregation.
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