Together, we’ve kept our Auckland Unitarian church community alive — hosting services, supporting each other, championing important causes and deepening our community. Now, let’s build tomorrow together by committing to a shared future: one that includes a new minister to guide, inspire, and nurture our spiritual home. This service launches our 2025 Pledge Drive.
Speaker & Worship Leader:- Ted Zorn
Video to come
Audio to come
Read below, or download the PDF – To come
Follow this shortcut to the bottom of the page for the various readings, videos, etc. shared in the service.
Ted Zorn © 10 August 2025
When Betsy first came to me to ask me to lead the pledge drive, she mentioned that part of that role was leading a service to “rally the troops” to make a pledge.
I had two immediate thoughts.
First, I really hate asking people for money. I had that responsibility as dean of Massey Business School and it always made me squirm. I suspect I’m not alone in that.
My second thought was, growing up in the deep south in the US, I had many role models for doing this sort of thing: asking a church congregation to pledge.
I imagined channelling one of the evangelical preachers I saw as a kid: “Dig deep, deep, DEEP into your pockets, brothers and sisters, and give. Give, give, GIVE till it hurts!”
But I wasn’t sure how that would go down with this congregation.
I also considered another tactic from those preachers—selling prayers: “For every $100, I’ll send a prayer heavenward on your behalf.”
But I thought… hmm, maybe not.
Humour aside, the pledge drive is a serious and important process for us. And I’m honoured to have been asked to lead it.
And what does seem the right approach is to share why this church matters to me—and, I hope, why it matters to you – and why I think it’s so important for us to pledge to help it thrive.
I first came to this church in August 2020, at a very a low point in my life. My marriage had ended, I felt like a failure, and I felt like I had no friends. My only two close friends in New Zealand were both moving overseas.
You —and our minister at the time, Clay—welcomed me with warmth and openness.
This church has been for me a source of inspiration, solace, and hope. It has also been an impetus, as it has often stirred my conscience, helped me understand the troubles of this world as well as its beauty in new, enlightening and empowering ways, and awakened in me at times the courage to live out my values.
Like many of you, I have found this to be a place where we gather to nurture our spiritual growth, to help us find our way in a complicated world, and to recognise the beauty in in each other and in our fellow human beings.
It’s also a place where we sometimes take action together and realise that we have more impact when we work together and with like-minded allies as we’re doing with Te Ohu.
In those early months, I kept coming back on Sundays largely because of Clay—his caring manner, his wit, his wisdom, and the joy, challenge and inspiration I found in his services.
I also know that many of you have been here far longer than I have, and you speak fondly of the era when Max and Linda were co-ministers and brought their own gifts to our church.
It’s crystal clear to me that having a minister matters. Not just any minister, of course—those of you with longer memories know that not all matches we’ve had were made in heaven—but the right minister makes a profound difference.
And yet, in the nearly two years since Clay’s passing, we have not stood still. We have, among other things:
- Kept our Sunday services inspiring, challenging, and engaging.
- Continued supporting peace and social justice initiatives.
- Appointed a Congregation Coordinator to keep things running smoothly.
- Transitioned to a new legal and financial structure, with a new constitution and compliance with government regulations.
- Used the Lotteries Building Restoration Grant to care for our building.
- Maintained Zoom services and online connections for wider, more convenient participation.
And much more. We’ve welcomed visitors, deepened friendships, supported each other through joy and loss, and made space for music, silence, laughter, and tears.
We have been the church—because we have built what we have together.
Now we stand at a new threshold.
As we launch this pledge drive, our goal is not just to keep the lights on – although that’s obviously important to do. It’s to build a future together—to put ourselves in a position to bring in a new minister who can work with us, guide us, and nurture our community into its next chapter.
A minister doesn’t do all the work for us. But they bring spiritual depth, training, and the ability to hold space in times of grief, to help us find and sharpen our vision, and to represent us in the wider world with integrity and care.
Hiring a new minister won’t just “fill a gap.” It will nourish our future and keep this church alive and thriving for the next generation of Auckland Unitarians.
Our treasurer, Terry Childs, has done some analysis which indicates that both the number of pledges and the total pledged grows with a minister. So this is the virtuous cycle we can create: we invest in a minister, and the minister’s presence and work help grow our congregation and resources.
Terry also says that to begin seriously recruiting a part-time minister, we need $30,000 for the ministerial fund. We already have $5,000 committed from the general fund, so we need another $25,000 in pledges. That’s a lot for a small congregation, but I believe it’s possible.
And here’s some important news: under our new legal and financial structure, money given to funds held by the Trust Board is secure and cannot be redirected. You can be confident that any gift to the ministerial fund will be used only for that purpose. In practice, it means that we have a dedicated fund to build up specifically focused on being able to hire a new minister.
The word stewardship is used a lot at the time of a pledge drive. The Unitarian Universalist Association even has an annual Stewardship Sermon Award for the best sermon in a given year that promotes financial support for a church.
Stewardship means taking responsibility to protect and enhance the value of something entrusted to one’s care for the benefit of present and future generations.
I read a short poem recently that speaks directly to this. I’d like to read it to you now. It’s simply called:
The Steward, by Aneesah Lionheart
I send my roots into the earth,
accepting the sacred duty.
The gentle, yielding, firm,
and fertile ground of the mother.
I will water her.
I will protect her.
I accept responsibility
for this ground.
I yield to this process.
Enveloped by life. By time.
I yield to the watching.
I accept what it brings.
I choose to love
what comes before me,
so that what blooms
when I wither away,
may always be love.
The Steward, by Aneesah Lionheart
This church is ours. It’s entrusted to us to nurture and care for. And I believe that an important part of that nurturing and caring is finding the right minister to work with us in our stewardship.
It’s also important to say that each of us is in a different situation and can give in different amounts and in different ways. Some of us are not in a position to support the church financially as much they might want, but we have so many who contribute in other vitally important ways.
While the pledge drive focuses primarily on financial contributions, we need to always remember that, with or without a minister, we depend on many people’s work – to lead services, to manage our technology, do Zoom hosting, manage building rentals, manage our finances, repair the building, serve on committees, bring flowers, greet us at the door, bring morning tea – and so much more.
That work is crucial and it’s important for us to keep it in mind as we talk about financial pledging: that some of us pledge our help – even if we cannot pledge dollars.
This community exists because we show up. Because we care. Because we give. In whatever ways we can.
I invite you—each of you—to reflect on what this community means to you. Not just what you receive from it, but what you help create.
Then, pledge—not just money, but commitment. Continue to be a builder of our shared future. Say: I believe in this church, and I commit to supporting it.
Let’s build tomorrow together—with open hearts, generous hands, and a clear vision of the community we are creating—for ourselves and for those yet to come.
Amen
Links
Opening Words:- an excerpt from “The Answer I Wish I’d Given” by Reverend Erika Hewitt
Reading:- “Choose to Bless the World” by Rebecca Ann Parker
Reading:- “The Steward” by Aneesah Lionheart
Closing Words:- from “Turning to One Another” by Margaret J. Wheatley