{"id":7849,"date":"2023-11-17T11:34:05","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T16:34:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849"},"modified":"2023-12-08T13:24:45","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T18:24:45","slug":"stewardship-reflection-from-diane-brenneman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/2023\/11\/17\/stewardship-reflection-from-diane-brenneman\/","title":{"rendered":"Stewardship reflection from Diane Brenneman"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7743\" src=\"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Stewardship-header-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"890\" height=\"142\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Stewardship-header-2.jpg 890w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Stewardship-header-2-300x48.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Stewardship-header-2-768x123.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Stewardship-header-2-580x93.jpg 580w, https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Stewardship-header-2-860x137.jpg 860w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 890px) 100vw, 890px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><u>Stewardship Reflection from First Church Member Diane Brenneman<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sometime back in 2013, my husband Lyle and I started thinking we should find a church family.\u00a0 We were getting older and would be retiring and eventually one or the other of us would be alone. We wanted to be involved in a spiritual community that really cared for each other and believed in service for others. This was not going to be easy.\u00a0 Although Lyle was an ordained, but non practicing, minister in the Disciples of Christ and I was a non practicing Catholic, educated by the Jesuits, we had spent all of our adult lives together as free lance Christians working in International Development and Social Justice. We thought we needed to upgrade our practice of Christian values\u00a0 into something a little more institutional and formal, even though we both had a distinct bias against the institutional Church. Because we could both plausibly promise the other we would be happy in whatever choice the other made, we were immediately at a stalemate. While Lyle was out of the country, my job then was to find a few Protestant churches for us to check out.<\/p>\n<p>I hadn\u2019t started my list yet when, on my way home from Court,\u00a0 I was surprised to see Nick McConnell on the subway. We are long time friends through our bar association travels and activities. I asked him where he was going and he said choir practice! Another surprise. I then told him of Lyle\u2019s and my search and he told me to drop by First Church anytime, no pressure, just see how we like it. I took note that the full name was First Congregational United Church of Christ.<\/p>\n<p>The next week, my \u201csister in <u>the<\/u> law\u201d Ann Bushmiller and I were riding home on the subway from the Women\u2019s Bar Association annual dinner.\u00a0\u00a0 She often had mentioned the many church activities she and her family participated in. I told her about my quest and asked her what churches she might recommend. She said First Church. I asked if she knew Nick and she said yes, of course, how do I know Nick.\u00a0 And, yes, Lyle and I should just come any Sunday, no pressure. Needless to say, in my mind, the search was over.\u00a0 Two totally different friends whose judgment and kindness I had come to trust in very different scenarios were saying the same thing with great joy and enthusiasm. You are welcome to come visit First Church. So we did. Dropping in here and there starting in 2013 and then committing ourselves to membership in 2015.\u00a0 This was a big deal. My sense of the meaning of commitment is serious and solemn and perpetual, rooted in love; like Lyle\u2019s and my relationship to each other and our children.<\/p>\n<p>As part of our commitment, I was trying to figure out what tithing or pledging would mean. Is there some kind of formula, percentage of income, amount of time? No one had an answer to my questions, but almost everyone did answer \u201cGive anything you want or are able to give.\u201d That just didn\u2019t sound right to me. Very Christian, but, I mean, somebody has to keep the lights on and a roof over our community.\u00a0 At first \u201canything\u201d sounded like any loose change under the sofa pillows. Or just grab \u201canything\u201d leftover in the fridge. Now I think that if I emphasize the love behind \u201canything\u201d as in I\u2019d give \u201canything\u201d to make you well\u2026or I\u2019d do \u201canything\u201d for you because I love you. How much is that? That might be \u201ceverything\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Lyle and I found our church family here. And it was with great joy and sadness that we celebrated Lyle\u2019s life in August 2017 in our sanctuary and sang him out. And I am the one who is alone, except that I am part of this First Church family of people committed to continue to do good in the world. I love that First Church family shows up, no matter what. I am determined to be a good steward and give anything I can every year to ensure the gifts of First Church will continue into the future for this family and all who will need them.<\/p>\n<p>May our \u201canything\u201d gifts together become \u201ceverything\u201d the Church needs to change lives.<\/p>\n<p>Keep Awake, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour because the time is NOW.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stewardship Reflection from First Church Member Diane Brenneman Sometime back in 2013, my husband Lyle and I started thinking we should find a church family.\u00a0 We were getting older and would be retiring and eventually one or the other of us would be alone. We wanted to be involved in a spiritual community that really&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7740,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Stewardship reflection from Diane Brenneman - First Congregational United Church of Christ<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stewardship reflection from Diane Brenneman - First Congregational United Church of Christ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Stewardship Reflection from First Church Member Diane Brenneman Sometime back in 2013, my husband Lyle and I started thinking we should find a church family.\u00a0 We were getting older and would be retiring and eventually one or the other of us would be alone. We wanted to be involved in a spiritual community that really...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"First Congregational United Church of Christ\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-11-17T16:34:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-08T18:24:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Stewardship-header-2.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Church Office\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Church Office\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Church Office\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9c4ca8a47b5f4f7ab0dc729caee69441\"},\"headline\":\"Stewardship reflection from Diane Brenneman\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-17T16:34:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-08T18:24:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849\"},\"wordCount\":746,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/10\\\/2023-STM-Theme-Logo.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Archived News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849\",\"name\":\"Stewardship reflection from Diane Brenneman - First Congregational United Church of Christ\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/10\\\/2023-STM-Theme-Logo.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-11-17T16:34:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-08T18:24:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9c4ca8a47b5f4f7ab0dc729caee69441\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/10\\\/2023-STM-Theme-Logo.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/10\\\/2023-STM-Theme-Logo.jpg\",\"width\":1031,\"height\":734},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?p=7849#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stewardship reflection from Diane Brenneman\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/\",\"name\":\"First Congregational United Church of Christ\",\"description\":\"Washington DC\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/9c4ca8a47b5f4f7ab0dc729caee69441\",\"name\":\"Church Office\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.firstuccdc.org\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/churchoffice\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Stewardship reflection from Diane Brenneman - First Congregational United Church of Christ","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Stewardship reflection from Diane Brenneman - First Congregational United Church of Christ","og_description":"Stewardship Reflection from First Church Member Diane Brenneman Sometime back in 2013, my husband Lyle and I started thinking we should find a church family.\u00a0 We were getting older and would be retiring and eventually one or the other of us would be alone. We wanted to be involved in a spiritual community that really...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849","og_site_name":"First Congregational United Church of Christ","article_published_time":"2023-11-17T16:34:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-12-08T18:24:45+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Stewardship-header-2.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Church Office","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Church Office","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849"},"author":{"name":"Church Office","@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9c4ca8a47b5f4f7ab0dc729caee69441"},"headline":"Stewardship reflection from Diane Brenneman","datePublished":"2023-11-17T16:34:05+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-08T18:24:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849"},"wordCount":746,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/2023-STM-Theme-Logo.jpg","articleSection":["Archived News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849","url":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849","name":"Stewardship reflection from Diane Brenneman - First Congregational United Church of Christ","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/2023-STM-Theme-Logo.jpg","datePublished":"2023-11-17T16:34:05+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-08T18:24:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9c4ca8a47b5f4f7ab0dc729caee69441"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/2023-STM-Theme-Logo.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/2023-STM-Theme-Logo.jpg","width":1031,"height":734},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?p=7849#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Stewardship reflection from Diane Brenneman"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/","name":"First Congregational United Church of Christ","description":"Washington DC","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/#\/schema\/person\/9c4ca8a47b5f4f7ab0dc729caee69441","name":"Church Office","url":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/author\/churchoffice\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7849"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7852,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7849\/revisions\/7852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstuccdc.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}