First Presbyterian Church of Watertown

"A Celebration of Giving"

Josh Christy

October 5, 2008

You may be asking yourself why exactly am I standing in front of you, well that is a good question, I can assure you that I’m not as distinguished or well spoken as pastor Fred, not nearly as clever or dynamic as Bob Gorman, and while I may resemble pastor Matt in age and stature I promise you that I am not. With that being said let me introduce myself, my name is Josh Christy and I am a member of the stewardship committee. When Bob Gorman asked me to speak to the congregation on behalf of the stewardship committee, I quickly and gladly accepted, but then soon realized that I had some big shoes to fill and a very important message to bring to our congregation. I have to admit that I had a hard time spelling apportionment until last year, but thanks to Bob’s enlightening, inspirational, and educational campaigns I passed the requisite spelling test and have been working with the stewardship committee this summer to understand the importance of giving in the life of our congregation and how we can continue to foster the growth of stewardship in the church’s ministry. My hope is that today that you’ll learn a little about me but more importantly the power of God’s grace and the importance of stewardship in the life of our congregation.

I grew up in western Pennsylvania, halfway between Pittsburgh and Erie, in a small town called Mercer, and college only took me a few miles down the road to Grove City College, a small Presbyterian liberal arts college. While in my sophomore year at Grove City studying accounting I felt the call to serve as officer in the Army, and after exploring my options, I entered into the ROTC program at nearby Slippery Rock University. Upon graduation from Grove City and assignment as an aviation officer, I moved to Ft. Rucker Alabama where I spent a year in flight school learning to fly helicopters for the Army. Although Katie and I enjoyed the warm Alabama weather and the close proximity to the gulf coast beaches, we were excited to hear that we would be assigned to Ft. Drum for our first assignment. Western PA is similar to Upstate New York, old industry, numerous farms, and small towns that dot the countryside, but the North Country is lacking two essential ingredients inherent in all Western Pa culture, the distinct Western PA dialect and Pittsburgh, Steeler football. Despite the lack of Steeler football, ever since Katie and I moved to the North Country I have always felt at home. One of our first tasks when we arrived and were settled in the North Country was to begin the hunt for a church family. So Katie, our newly met friend and neighbor in the Ontario place hotel, Clay, and I set out on a journey to find a church home. We attended several churches in the area before making it to First Pres, but after the warm welcome, engaging message, and congregational energy and activity that we experienced on our first visit, we have called First Pres our home ever since.

I was blessed to have grown up in a church that took ownership in the development of young people and provided every opportunity to grow in the Lord. Through Sunday school, church camp, retreats, and youth group my faith grew, but until I really thought about it I never fully realized or understood the impact of stewardship on my faith. During my preparation of this message, stewardship has taken on more meaning than faithful contributions to the offering plate, and while this is an important component, as Christians we must be joyfully committed to stewardship beyond the few minutes during each Sunday’s offertory. God has blessed each and every one of us in different ways, but no matter what God has blessed you with we are called to be good stewards of these blessings. Over the next few minutes, I hope to share with you a few personal stories of stewardship that I have experienced and have strengthened my faith.

One of the main events of the summer youth program at my church in PA is a week long mission trip to rural West Virginia. The mission is to partner with a local church to organize and run a Vacation Bible School for the children of the surrounding communities. A domestic mission trip 5 hours from my home church may seem simple in concept but in practice this mission was actually quite challenging. Organizing, feeding, and housing a volunteer crew consisting of a hundred people, three quarters of which were 9^th to 12^th graders, at a campground with two showers and no kitchen can become quite the logistical challenge and is only half the battle. The other half consisted of providing transportation to over 100 children who were spread throughout one of the poorest and most rural counties in the mountains of West Virginia to the campground where we would host a full fledged Vacation Bible School in and around the campground’s lone pavilion. Amid all the excitement, fun, and occasional chaos one man’s stewardship of his faith stands out. Beardy, as he was affectionately known, was an older, wiser, and hairier (hence the nickname) team member that had the daunting task of teaching the junior high boys Bible school. Most junior high boys from the area didn’t want anything to do with school let alone Bible school, and those that did come were more interested in causing trouble than learning and enjoying the activities, and would have overrun any other team member that would have been assigned to teach them. However, the boys from the community that did come were soon won over by Beardy through his willingness to listen to their story, let them play a little rough during games of pickup basketball at the campground’s hoop, but strict enough to provide the much needed guidance and direction that they needed. By the end of the week a group of one or two young men would grow to 10 or 12 young men that became fully involved in the lessons and didn’t want to leave on the team’s last day.

In the summer after my senior year of high school, I took a 6 week job as a counselor in training at a Presbyterian summer camp in southern PA. As a counselor in training I would spend many hours mowing the camps property, washing piles of dishes, and setting up the activities for the campers. Amidst all the work I got to observe an amazing thing, children’s lives being changed. While the camp resided in the wooded hills of southern PA, it was a relatively short drive to the city of Pittsburgh. The first Sunday after the camp staff had assembled and before the campers had arrived we attended church at a Presbyterian church in the heart of Pittsburgh. This church had taken ownership of the camp and provided a majority of the funding for camp operations and a significant amount of scholarships for children that would never be able to afford a week of camp. Many congregation members had never been to the camp for one reason or another, but nonetheless you couldn’t find a person in there that didn’t talk about the campers and the camps mission like it was there own. This spoke clearly to me, this congregation understood the tremendous impact of the camping ministry on children’s lives, without ever meeting thousands of children that their faithful stewardship had supported.

After my freshman year of college, I was selected to be the youth intern at the church and while I knew this would provide some extra cash to pay for pizza during the fall semester while watching Monday night football games, I didn’t know that it would be one of the most important and eye opening experiences of my life. Among the summer camps, retreats, and bible schools, one event would stand out among the rest a short term mission trip to Jamaica. Our project in Jamaica was to build a second story classroom on top of an existing one room chapel. This like many building projects on short term missions was no easy feat. Lugging 100 pound bags of cement up a rickety wooden ladder to a one hundred degree one hundred percent humidity roof where the cement was mixed and the cinder blocks were laid block was a definite challenge for our team of twelve. Following our first day of work a local man came to our worksite and began working side by side with us, no one was quite sure who he was or where he had come from, but he was willing to work and we definitely needed the help. He was amazing, he virtually ran up the stairs with two bags of cement on his shoulders, provided guidance and assistance to our novice builders, and would happily stand shoulder to shoulder with us laying cinder blocks until the end of the day. After a while my friend and I decided to strike up a conversation with the mystery man who now had a name, Cameron. Cameron was from the local village, and was excited to see that we had come to finish the building of the classroom for the children of his town, so excited that he would work all night as a security guard and come straight to the work site after he completed his shift. This not only amazed all of the team members, it inspired each of us to pour all of our hearts and energy into the success of the project, because we finally realized the importance of our mission. The only thing Cameron could give to our operation was the work of his hands and the joy of his heart, but this act of stewardship was just as or if not more valuable than the monetary support that was needed to make the mission a success. Whether it was giving and sharing of time, talents, sweat, resources, or faith the common denominator in each story is the joyful stewardship of God’s followers faithfully impacting lives.

This summer as the stewardship committee was meeting to develop our stewardship campaign I spent a lot of time enjoying one of my favorite events, the Olympics. I have endured all of the hype and waited 4 long years to watch. I think my excitement is due in large part to my past as track and field and soccer athlete in high school and college. It is amazing to see these phenomenal athletes compete on what I would call a superhuman level. As I watch the athletes, position themselves in the starting blocks I can still feel the pre race butterflies that I felt before every single race. Although my glory days are over, each time the Olympics roll around it invigorates me. The other great thing about the Olympics is that while there are winners and losers in each of the hundreds of events, it unites the nations of the world in a celebration of sport. Despite all the records that were broken by the likes of Michael Phelps and Usain “Lightening” Bolt, there is one unlikely 2008 Olympic moment that stands out to me, a Visa Commercial, and just in case you were wondering we have not signed on with Visa as a sponsor in our stewardship campaign. This particular Visa commercial told the story of Derek Redmond through a series of stirring pictures and masterful narration. For those of you that didn’t see the commercial or don’t know who Derek Redmond his story is as follows: “The story of the United Kingdom's runner Derek Redmond has earned a memorable place in Olympics history. In 1988 in Seoul, Redmond was forced to withdraw from the 400 meters just 10 minutes before the race began due to an injured Achilles tendon. So in Barcelona in 1992, he was thirsting for a medal. As always, his father, Jim, was in the stands. They had agreed earlier that no matter what happened, Derek would finish the race. But in his semifinal heat, just as it seemed certain he would cruise to the final, Derek heard a pop in his right hamstring. He collapsed on the track in tears. But then he got up, and everyone realized he meant to finish. As he hobbled down the track in agony, his father rushed down from the stands, put his arm around his boy, and helped him to the finish line. Just short of it, Jim pulled back and let Derek cross by himself. The crowd rose to give Derek a standing ovation. ” This story reminds me of one of my favorite verses Hebrews 12 verses 1 and 2 “1Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” NIV God has called to run the race set before us with perseverance, we may not always finish first but we must finish, and when we do the cloud of witnesses will rejoice with us. We need people like Derek who commit their heart and soul to the mission and are willing to sacrifice in order to finish the race, and we need people like Derek’s father that will whole heartedly support the mission and be there in time of need to help their son finish the race. Let us as a congregation commit to our mission to be a force in the community, support the mission through faithful giving, fix our eyes upon Jesus, and rejoice with the cloud of witnesses that surrounds us.

This year’s stewardship committee is about a celebration of giving, and like the Olympics I hope that in the weeks to come as we assemble our brothers, sisters, and partners in Christ you will begin to feel that “Olympic” excitement and enjoy the celebration of giving. Our congregation past and present has built a solid foundation through giving that has enabled our church to become a force for Christianity in the local and global community. We must continue to build upon that foundation by continuing the work of those gone before us and by going above and beyond where we have been before. This can only be accomplished through your stewardship and the grace of God. In a 2004 stewardship message, Rev. Garry spoke about what the real bottom line is “Helping people is good, keeping the lights on and the boilers working is good, providing a staff and receiving all the benefits of their labors is good, growing in fellowship and understanding of scripture is good, knowing what it means for Jerusalem to be a joy and sharing that with other is great. Transforming people’s lives, restoring the joy of those in despair, reaching out to the people who are lost, this is great.” The reality is that we must be good, we must pledge to investing and sustaining everything that makes that church run from the lights to the staff, and we must continue to strive to be greater, by committing the work of our hands and the fruits of our labor to transforming lives, restoring joy, and reaching out to the lost, for this is what God has done for us and called us to do. The dollar that you give or the hour that you invest in Christ’s service is worth more than anywhere else. In the coming weeks you will see and hear from the great cloud of witnesses that surrounds us, and I can assure you that it goes well beyond pews and walls of this church. Throughout the next weeks of the campaign I encourage you to think about how stewardship has impacted your faith, and how you can commit to impacting others through the giving of your time, talents, and resources. We have committed as a congregation to be a force for Christianity in the community, this can only be accomplished through our faithful stewardship and perseverance of our team. Let us run the race set before us, and celebrate in the joy that comes through our faithful giving.