So, You Try to Get People's Money!

Sunday morning, dark and early, I left for a stewardship conference in San Diego.
I spent 4 days at the International Catholic Stewardship Conference at the convention center. 

Coming home, I was seated in the middle seat, actually I sat in the middle on each leg of the journey, but I digress. A man was sitting in the window seat and at some point he asked me about the "nook" in my lap. (Not mine, my pastor's, as he went for a walk) We chatted about electronic readers and I said I would be putting it on my Christmas list. He then asked me what I did for a living. So I told him. And that's when he said, "So, you try to get people's money." I explained that stewardship was not about money, but rather about participating in the life of a parish, taking ownership and then desiring to support it in any way you can. "Yep, you get them to give you more money." "No, I try to help people learn that all we have been given is because of God's love and generosity and that in following him, we choose to serve others and share what we have out of love." And again, "so it's about money." By now I'm wishing my pastor would say something, but he is reading his "nook!" "Well," I say "I was just at a stewardship conference and did not attend one session in which how to get more money was the focus. Truly, it is not about money. It is about discipleship, love and service." He ponders that a minute and says, "Interesting about the Anglicans and the Church, isn't it?"