In Amerika ist es ein wichtiges Teil des Gemeindeleben, Stewardship, zu Deutsch „Haushalterschaft“, die im Unterschied zu Deutschland eben auch das Einwerben von Finanzmitteln umfasst, gibt es doch dort keine Kirchensteuer. Mittlerweile spricht man auch in Deutschland von Fundraising in der Kirche. Der holländische Priester Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) schreibt dazu: „As a form of ministry, fund-raising is as spiritual as giving a sermon, entering a time of prayer, visiting the sick, or feeding the hungry.“ Wer mehr über die Spiritualität des Fundraising lesen möchte, der sei auf Nouwens Schrift „The Spirituality of Fund-Raising“ verwiesen:
Fund-raising is proclaiming what we believe in such a way that we offer other people an opportunity to participate with us in our vision and mission. Fund-raising is precisely the opposite of begging. When we seek to raise funds we are not saying, “Please, could you help us out because lately it’s been hard.” Rather, we are declaring, “We have a vision that is amazing and exciting. We are inviting you to invest yourself through the resources that God has given you—your energy, your prayers, and your money—in this work to which God has called us.” Our invitation is clear and confident because we trust that our vision and mission are like “trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither” (Ps. 1:3).
Fund-raising is also always a call to conversion. And this call comes to both those who seek funds and those who have funds. Whether we are asking for money or giving money we are drawn together by God, who is about to do a new thing through our collaboration (see Isa. 43:19). To be converted means to experience a deep shift in how we see and think and act. To be converted is to be clothed in our right mind, to come to ourselves the way the younger son did when he was starving far from his true home (Luke 15:17-20). It is a shift of attention in which we set our mind on divine things (Matt. 16:23). “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). Fund-raising as ministry involves a real conversion. […]
In fund-raising as ministry we are inviting people into a new way of relating to their resources. By giving people a spiritual vision, we want them to experience that they will in fact benefit by making their resources available to us. We truly believe that if their gift is good only for us who receive, it is not fund-raising in the spiritual sense. Fund-raising from the point of view of the gospel says to people: “I will take your money and invest it in this vision only if it is good for your spiritual journey, only if it is good for your spiritual health.” In other words, we are calling them to an experience of conversion: “You won’t become poorer, you will become richer by giving.” We can confidently declare with the Apostle Paul: “You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity…” (2 Cor. 9:11).
If this confident approach and invitation are lacking, then we are disconnected from our vision and have lost the direction of our mission. We also will be cut off from our donors, because we will find ourselves begging for money and they will find themselves merely handing us a check. No real connection has been created because we have not asked them to come and be with us. We have not given them an opportunity to participate in the spirit of what we are about. We may have completed a successful transaction, but we have not entered into a successful relationship.
NAMENSgedächtnis 