Grateful Dude

  Posted on October 7, 2024  by admin  No comments

Stewardship Testimonial
Don Parker-Burgard
October 6, 2024

I’m not the kind of person who’s comfortable wearing a T-shirt in church, but as I was thinking about what St. Paul’s means to me and why I’m excited about supporting it financially, it occurred to me that this shirt pretty much says it all. I am a grateful dude. 

I am grateful for the beauty of this place, of the art and the architecture that continue to fascinate me and draw me closer to the source of beauty. I am grateful for the rich worship—the majestic organ, the smell of incense, the heavenly singing, the moving liturgy. I am grateful for the many hospitable, generous, and interesting people I have met here. I am grateful that this church offers opportunities outside of these walls to learn and grow—at the Museum of African American History and Culture, at a Buddhist monastery, and at the home and studio of artist Brian Whelan, to give three recent examples.

I was wearing this shirt a few weeks ago when my wife, Kate, and I attended a small fundraiser for an organization that supports orphans in Mozambique. There were maybe 50 people there, and four of them—people I had never met before—came up to me independently and told me how much they liked my shirt. I was pleased that my message of gratitude touched something in them, and I’d like to think that they were moved to maybe give a little more to the organization that night than they had planned. 

I’m wearing this shirt today, on the first day of the stewardship campaign, in the hope that it can encourage you also to think about the ways you are grateful—specifically, for what this church community has meant in your life and what it means in the lives of the people sitting around you.

Our campaign theme for this year, “Belong, Be Loved, Be Generous,” captures so well my experience of St. Paul’s, and I suspect that many of you would say the same thing. The welcome I received from day 1 made me feel like I belonged here. The message communicated through liturgy, music, and sermon that I am deeply loved by God continues to come through loud and clear. My gratitude for all of that has deepened my desire to be generous in my giving, and so Kate and I have decided to increase our pledge for next year over what we pledged for this year. We are grateful for what St. Paul’s is in 2024, and we are excited about what St. Paul’s will become in 2025 through the generosity and commitment of all of us together.