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Stewardship:       Everything we do after we say we believe. 

Stewardship:       The main work of the church.

Stewardship:      That time when the church asks people who don’t want to be asked, to give money they don’t want to give.

 

We could treat the affirmations above like a test, the kind we used to take when we were in school: Which of these statements is true? Is it the first one? the second? the third? some of the above? all of the above? or none of the above?

 

You may have heard of me and the work I once did in stewardship formation.  But for those of you who have not, allow me to introduce myself:

 

I was a banker for many years and was not known for my generosity.  I believed in the old adage, give until it hurts, and I had a very low pain threshold. I am also an example of how God’s Holy Spirit works with us in strange and wonderful ways. 

 

Years ago, a person whom I respected a great deal asked if I would chair a diocesan stewardship team in another diocese. You can imagine my first reaction! Me?! Penurious old me?! But somehow the Holy Spirit was at work, and I accepted the invitation. 

 

After having accepted, I knew I had to do some research about stewardship. And, to make a long story short, what I learned about stewardship led to a radical transformation in my life. I learned that stewardship is not just about giving money to the Church. Stewardship begins with a recognition that everything we have, everything we are, everything we call ours, … all are gifts from God. And we are called to be stewards, caretakers, of those gifts. This is why, I believe, stewardship is indeed everything we do after we say, “I believe.”

 

How can stewardship be the main work of the church?  The Church can only be the church when it works with and through its members doing the work to which God calls us. This involves using our God-given gifts to do the mission and ministry to which every Christian is called. For this reason, I believe stewardship is the main work of the church.

 

And now September is upon us. The time of the year when the Church invites its members to make tangible signs of their intention to support the ministry of the church in the coming year. To support this ministry, not only with offerings of time and talent, but also with their offerings of money. And for many of us, this is hard. It was for me, until the Holy Spirit broke through, and I learned the true joy of giving.

 

Whereas I used to believe we should give until it hurts, I now believe we should give until it feels good. We should give until we feel that our giving represents our thanksgiving for all God has entrusted to us. 

 

And so, it is autumn again.  How can we encourage people to generously support the mission and ministry of the church in the coming year? 

 

From my experience, it really helps to offer parishioners a review of what has been accomplished in the past year using all of their gifts; whether by a written review with photographs, a slide show, or a video presentation. To offer a picture of where the parish has been in the past year and to offer a vision of what the future could look like when we live fully into the future God has in mind for us. Using these methods, we can invite each and every member of the parish to be a part of that ministry through their offerings of time, talent and of their money.  

 

Another significant way to encourage others is by offering them our own personal witness, of how we have learned to be generous people. Personal witness can be done in a parish newsletter, during a sermon, or perhaps at a parish dinner. Or, best of all, through personal visits where parishioners invite others to join in support of the mission and ministry of the church. 

 

While it may be too late to plan and organize home visits for this year, I would suggest that the work of stewardship education and transformation is so important to parish life that you can begin training visitors early next year.  Send them out as Jesus sent out his disciples. This practice of home visits can be done by individuals, in small groups and/or in cottage meetings to witness to their own practice of stewardship and to speak about how the offerings we make support the work God gives us to do as the Church.

 

And by all means, if you are not taking advantages of the resources TENS (The Episcopal Network for Stewardship) offers, I encourage you to do that.  The Diocese belongs to TENS so that all the parishes in the diocese can use its services free of charge. One of the best of those services is a set of weekly bulletin inserts that call attention to our lives as stewards of creation and give concrete examples of how others have found they have been transformed in their understanding of stewardship.

 

To access the TENS resources, go to www.TENS.org,

The password to sign in is: Jeremiah17:8 (Please note that the password is case sensitive and there are no spaces.) .The resources include the following:

 

A friend once told me that after we make our commitment to God through the parish by completing our commitment or pledge card, we should look in the mirror. If we are not smiling, my friend said, we should rip the card up, get a new one, and begin again.

 

By looking honestly at ourselves, we discover the generous stewardship of God’s divine love, energy, light, and grace, which are poured out upon and within us. We can then be inspired to engage the world around us with God-like stewardship.

 

Finally, as we become the generous stewards God creates us to be, when we make sacrificial offerings that truly represent our thanksgiving to God, our faces will show forth God’s transforming Spirit to others. And similarly, we will see God’s transforming Spirit in the faces of the generous stewards we meet in God’s kingdom here on earth. 

 

The Gospel of John tells us that Jesus is the Light of the World who shares his light and life with us in our Baptism. This light is found within us and within others, and is manifested through our thanks-offerings. They are a manifestation of the stewardship of love we ourselves have received. 

 

All that we have and all that we have become are God’s gifts to us How can we possibly thank God for all these incredible gifts?  One important way to do this is to make generous offerings that will acknowledge our thanksgiving to God. 

 

May we be blessed in this endeavor.