Dear Faithful Stewards:

With the crisp winds of October and the glorious colors of fall foliage, our hearts turn with the season to thoughts of church pledge cards… Of course, they don’t; but my project here is to suggest some musing over your giving projections for the coming year.

As I’ve mentioned before, we inherited our pledging system from three perhaps obsolete forces. First was the cycle of the agrarian year. In North American fall, stewards of the land had a solid estimate of their harvest and consequent revenue. Riding the cornucopia crest, churches asked for contributions and commitments from a portion of that bounty. Understanding the time lag between