How easy it is to disassociate a building or renovation program from prayer, worship, repentance and fasting. Nothing else in parish life reveals quite so starkly the false dichotomy we often draw between the material and the spiritual, the profane and the sacred, or business and sacrament.

Furthermore, as we plunge into planning, meetings, design, schedules and construction we do not allow ourselves to critically reflect upon how these processes may be affecting community life. Some clergy too easily delegate the entire matter to the laity. Some laity roughly shoulder the priest aside who wants to become more involved. And what of the massive fundraising efforts that accompany these projects? Are they propitiatory to salvation? Or are they millstones that drag us under the sea?

There are many challenges to community spiritual life and also many opportunities for spiritual growth. We should not forget that philanthropy and fundraising originated in religious life. All world religions profess a humanitarian concern and teach the responsibility to care for those less fortunate. All world religions also include an element of offering gifts and sacrifices to God. However, we must also remember that present theories and methodologies of professional advancement or development, as fundraising is often called, acquired their present form outside the formal boundaries of the Church in highly secularized settings. Furthermore, the very word "stewardship" has been hijacked by practitioners of professional fundraising, and used synonymously with "fundraising". Western Christian pastoralia is filled with techniques, methods, canned sermons, and programs designed to raise giving levels in parishes. Oftentimes, these are incorporated uncritically into Orthodox Church life. This modest article seeks to explain only a few of the ways that parish or church leadership can utilize the inevitable fundraising activities that must accompany a construction or renovation project to enable community spiritual development.

Let us first examine the spiritual challenges that a capital campaign presents to a community. As a parish community begins to envision its future, questions begin to arise concerning the very mission of the parish. Is it to sustain cultural values or to preach the gospel? Where does one end and the other begin? There may be many varying understandings of what the mission of the parish should be. Should capital funds be invested only in facilities that address the internal needs of the community or should there also be consideration of the need for outreach, evangelization, and service to the needy? Will we allow the capital campaign to be wholly shaped by institutional self-reference and parochialism?

In the very process of sorting out parish future priorities we find ourselves seeking a balance between the essential mission of the parish to worship God, proclaim the gospel, and care for the needy – which in fact can be accomplished with no buildings and no bell towers whatsoever – and the legitimate need for a sanctuary, community hall, classrooms, operating budget and endowment to enable, sustain and advance the mission of the parish.

How easily arrogance and pride enter into the discussions on the size of the buildings and their public display before the community. Ethical questions arise concerning gift recognition and naming opportunities. Do we put names of donors on icons? Why should someone who gives relatively little of their means but a relatively large gift in terms of the campaign goal be praised and honored when the poor widow who gives much of her means but a relatively small gift in terms of the campaign goal remains unacknowledged? The gospel teaches that appropriate recognition is possible – "Well done good and faithful servant." How can this be applied in a parish setting in a way that is helpful to salvation?

Family or clan competition can develop in terms of gifts and leadership. When one parishioner solicits another parishioner to give, people may feel that the decision to give or not to give is personal rejection. Feelings are ruffled. The temptation to judge people according to the size of the gift is always present. Oftentimes the well-to-do want a democratic form of fundraising – "Let each family give $5,000." Conversely, those who have less want the well-to-do to finance the project – "They have more money than they know what to do with."

Increasingly, capital campaigns include a planned giving component. Endowments raise a host of questions concerning their purposes, restrictions and effects they may have upon the long-term health of the parish. Will they lull us into complacency or will they fund aggressive outreach programs such as foreign missionaries, theological education, international service programs to help the needy and support monasteries?

Now, let us consider the opportunities that a capital campaign presents for spiritual development. Once again, the approaching capital campaign presents a wonderful possibility for the community to build consensus on its future priorities and achieve community agreement on the essential mission of the parish.

A capital campaign will test leadership. It is said that stewardship is what one does after one says, "I believe…". Beyond words, action is required. Is the leadership prepared to make genuine, sacrificial gifts of financial resources and genuine, sacrificial gifts of time and talents?

When a person is asked to make a meaningful gift, a gift that requires deep reflection, planning, timing, phone calls to an accountant or to an attorney and consultations with one’s spouse, then a person briefly steps into the eschaton – the place of judgment at the end of time before God. For what purpose were these assets being accumulated? Why were we building ever-bigger barns? In what measure are we grateful to God for all the blessings bestowed upon us? Are we prepared to acknowledge that it all really belongs to God and is only on loan to us? The answers to these questions present a significant opportunity for personal spiritual growth.

As can be seen, every spiritual challenge is simultaneously an opportunity for spiritual growth. The role of the priest in this process cannot be underestimated. It is his task to frame the capital campaign according to gospel teachings. He must lead the community in prayer and praise of God in such as way as to refer the entire project to Him. The priest needs to exercise wise and compassionate pastoral judgment as people begin to feel their resources and values stretched in unaccustomed ways. He must be on guard to identify those who are nearing the limits of their time commitments. The capital campaign will test his ability to translate a rather secular process into the theology of the Orthodox Church. The ultimate purposes and meanings of campaign activities need to be articulated and explained in light of the mission of the Church. It is too easy and too dangerous and too contrary to the gospel to separate the worshiping life of the Church from the overwhelming process of conducting a capital campaign.

It is only when community physical development is integrated into theology, worship and spiritual development that a community may advance further upon the way to salvation.

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