By Angela Ryo

I grew up in a Korean immigrant church where the offering plate was passed around on Sunday mornings, and I’d put money in it (if I had any!) when it came around. As I got older and earned more money, I tried to be more strategic about giving and did my best to tithe every month as much as possible. However, it wasn’t until I started serving in predominantly white mainline congregations that I found out about pledging. I had no idea that people pledged the amount they would give for the entire year! “Of course!” I thought, “That makes so much sense!” As I started to pledge, I was surprised by how pledging raised my level of commitment to the congregation I served.

At the church where I serve today, our annual giving team consistently does an excellent job of creating inspiring and compelling narratives for giving. They take stories of people or a testimony of one person to tell the story about our congregation. This has really made me proud of the pledge I make each year because I know I’m becoming a participant in the story God is writing in and through our congregation.

Couple years ago, we took this storytelling tool a step further and launched something called “Support the Story” for one summer. Each Sunday during worship, a story of a local organization would be told either by our mission pastor or someone from that organization. An anti-human trafficking organization, a non-profit fighting against food insecurity in low-income neighborhoods, a foster care home in the area — each organization had a story to tell. After listening to the story, our congregation would right then and there take a moment to text to give. I loved the idea that we were giving to support the story these organizations were writing and wanted to write — that we could take part in writing and shaping their story, our neighborhood’s story and ultimately, God’s story.

This made me think not only about the story my giving was telling/supporting but the story my spending was telling about my life. If my bank account could tell a story, what would it be? (I’m embarrassed to say it would most likely be a love story…with food!) What are the stories I’m writing with my money? What stories do I WANT to tell and support with my money? I desperately want to shape and write stories of justice, love, grace, generosity and forgiveness with all the time, talent and treasure I’ve been granted in this lifetime, but when I look at my bank account, it’s not always easy to find such stories. Perhaps it’s time to make a pledge to the story God wants to write in my life.

Angela Ryo currently serves as the Associate Pastor for Christian Formation at Kirk in the Hills in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. She enjoys taking long walks, reading, listening to NPR, and drinking good coffee with friends and strangers alike.