I have been thinking about the value of things and putting them in the context of signal (things that have the most value) to noise (things that have lower or no value or can actually have negative value). The evaluation I have been doing started with thinking about what happens at church. So given the vast and numerous activities which of these have the greatest value and which do not? Maybe more importantly which activities diminish the value of other activities.
More specifically, I was asked to work on a policy for when the parish should allow someone or some group to solicit restricted gifts. Let’s say I want to install a statue and think I can find people to write contribute for this and so can I do this or not. When should this be allowed and who and how does this decision get made.
After some analysis I linked the solicitation of restricted gifts to fundraising activity in general. Fundraising is essentially asking for money for a specific purpose and so whether you are selling cookies or asking for a contribution for a statue, you are largely doing the same thing.
As I started to think about how fundraising decisions should be made and establishing a basis for why they should or should not be allowed, I started thinking about whether much of this activity isn’t noise. No doubt these activities benefit many groups and many people but do they represent a harmful introduction of commercial and material activity into a place that should be mostly about spirit. Shouldn’t we be a shelter for the rampant and stress inducing commerce everywhere else in our world?
Does hosting a sale or having a second collection nearly every week inhibit our mission of spiritual development? In what ways do these things add value and in what ways do the diminish the value?
As I thought about this reality, I started thinking about a very similar parallel in my life. How much of my time and energy go into commerce and detract from time spent developing relationships? What is the signal in my life and what is the noise? Maybe I need to establish some policies for my own decision-making to ensure I am not spending too much time “fundraising” at the expense of what’s most important.
Tags: church activity, commerce, Fundraising, relationships
