Why I Give: Dustin & Christina Hite
One of our favorite movies is “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
The holiday nostalgia, the dance scene where George Bailey and Mary Hatch dance their way into a swimming pool, and, of course, the heart-warming ending where a community impacted by one man’s goodness and generosity shows up for him in the most beautiful way, at just the right time.
I (Christina) get choked up every time, and in some ways, maybe I’ve built my life looking for my own “angel getting their wings” moment. (We can dig into the motivations for pastoring, non-profit work, tiny home living, and foster parenting another time.)
Now, onto why we give to ANC.
When ANC began to share that finances have been tight in recent months, we were immediately interested in helping close the gap. Having served on staff at two churches before joining ANC four years ago, we know the delicate nature of openly sharing about money. And for churches like ours, where transparency and safety are essential parts of our communal faith experience, we wanted to see if we could help lead the way toward sustainability by sharing why we give to ANC.
Honestly there are so many reasons. We give because we love and trust our pastors. We love this church and want it to thrive. We love this city and want to work toward the common good. And we want to be people who are generous.
We started attending ANC because the reputation of this church was one of hospitality, generosity, & engagement with the marginalized people of this city and its broken systems. It’s in our collective heritage as a church to share our collective resources, and we’re honored to carry on that legacy.
We were both raised in generous households. Neither of us came from a lot, but growing up in church, we saw our parents faithfully give what they could. I was raised Catholic, and I always loved it when our priest announced it was time to pick up our new envelopes for the upcoming year in the back pew. These had our family name on them, and I saw my mom put something in that envelope every week when the basket was offered. And I can’t count the number of times I saw my dad give money from his pocket to folks who were struggling.
I don’t remember overtly being taught verses about giving or how much we were supposed to give. Instead, I just caught what my parents lived and put that into practice as soon as I had income of my own.
Even in college, when funds were super tight, I remember being committed to being generous at the churches I was part of. At a practical level, I knew the churches needed the funds to keep everything I loved going. They needed to pay their pastors, run their programs, and keep the lights on.
And when I am a part of something, attaching my giving means I’m all in - which is crucial for this responsibility-driven Enneagram 1!
When Dustin and I met in college and held the same value of generosity, we were jointly committed to taking some of what was ours and finding ways to give. We’ve continued to do this throughout our marriage. It’s always been a foundational part of the way we do life.
Giving to ANC is a tangible way for us to live out our value of generosity. As we look out for and love the marginalized and work toward equity and justice, we can make a choice to fight the systems of individualism & consumerism that can so easily entangle us.
As a faith community where many of us are figuring out which pieces of our faith to hold onto, generosity is an easy one for us. Jesus gave. And we’ll follow him in this way as we pass on a legacy to our kids of sharing our resources, knowing that’s a piece of faith that has never wavered.
When you give to ANC, you’re supporting the future of inclusive, progressive faith communities, and we’re so happy to be building this “wonderful life” together.
