Several years ago, I was getting my hair cut. The woman cutting my hair was telling me about her friend who belonged to an independent and nondenominational church. (Conversations like this happen a lot when you are a pastor). She told me that her friend called her donations to her church “God dues”. She had to pay “God dues” to be in good standing with God, apparently. In response, I said something that surprised her. I said, “God doesn’t need our money, so why would we have to pay ‘dues’?” With a puzzled expression she asked, “Then how do you keep the lights on at the church?” That made me laugh. Church is so much more than paying bills and staff salaries. Church is a group of people who band together for worship, mission, ministry and community. Yet, as we enter our annual Stewardship Campaign, we do tend to focus on the financial needs of JMPC. If our calling to be salt and light in an often tasteless and dark world has associated costs, we need to provide for them. But to fund them we don’t ask the congregation to pay “dues”. We ask that we all thankfully respond to God’s great love for us in whatever concrete ways we can. What might this look like? Pastors Jeff and Matt will be preaching about it in October in their sermon series, “God doesn’t need your money, but we’re asking for it anyway.”