Members and friends, welcome to October. If you are a baseball fan like I am, October means playoffs and the World Series. As I write this, the Dodgers, the Red Sox and the Cubs all seem to have the best chances to go the distance. While I admit that Cubs fans have waited the longest for a championship, and while I admit even more that their team this year has played the best all year, my sense of honesty demands that I say that I will love it when the Dodgers defeat them in the National League Championship and head to the World Series.
October in CVUUF does not, primarily, revolve around baseball. But it does concern itself with teamwork, in the sense of us all pulling together in our Stewardship campaign. Growing together in spirit, in service and generosity is the theme this year, and I think it encapsulates brilliantly what we are trying to do. We passed a forward vision budget in June, and in the real world vision takes money to execute.

If you were in church on September 25th, you heard Reverend Nica’s inspirational call to action. As you read this letter sometime in October, you will probably already have been contacted by someone from the Stewardship Team requesting a meeting with you to discuss pledging. Now let’s be honest, most people don’t really like taking about money. How you approach your family finances is quite personal, it is usually private, and especially if there have been any hardships or difficult events in the last year for you or your family it can be downright icky. Remember too we are a faith community, we seek to understand and support each other,
and we are here for you in difficult times.
So you, me, all of us, do what we can. We are a team. I am fortunate to be able, after much thought and reflection and budgeting, to increase my pledge this year. I hope you will be able to do so also. But I know that not all of you can match the budget’s 9% growth. Some people will be able to go higher, some will need to go lower. We are in this together, and as a congregation we are grateful for whatever you can do. In whatever form it takes, we appreciate your spirit, your service, and your generosity.
Our team is going to be great. I am confident we will rise to the occasion, and I believe CVUUF has a super future in front of us. So let’s start the building, and the doing, and the reaching out.
Getting back to baseball, root for whoever you want to. Root for the Rams for that matter, if baseball doesn’t do it for you. But have a great fall, and try to enjoy what life brings your way. Even if part of that is a conversation about generosity, your values, and your money.

Tom Wolf