The Episcopal Network for Stewardship - TENS

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TENS - Our Mission and Ministry

Who Are We?

TENS is an association of church leaders who understand, practice, and proclaim God’s call to generosity.

We are children of God, disciples of Jesus Christ who feel called to a ministry of transformation through stewardship. We are sojourners who, along with many others, have some sense that it is through an understanding of holistic stewardship and a practice of gratitude and generosity that we will grow spiritually, that we will grow more and more into the likeness of the loving, generous God in whose image we are created. We believe that it is by virtue of our baptism that we are called to this ministry of stewardship.

What is Our Mission?

The Mission of TENS is to transform lives by developing and sustaining a network of church leaders who encourage generosity.  We accomplish this mission by:

  1. Practicing holy habits of daily prayer and engaging the gospel
  2. Honoring God with all that we have and all that we are
  3. Training, Encouraging, Nurturing, and Supporting the ministry of stewardship at every level.

Our ministry of stewardship formation is carried out in witnessing to what we do and why it is so important in our own lives.  We talk about why daily prayer and regular engagement of the Gospel is so life-giving.  We witness to why the spiritual discipline of tithing draws us closer to God and reminds us that all that we are and all that we have is a gift from God.  In fact it reminds us that we are God’s.  Not only does all that we have belong to God, we ourselves belong to God, the same loving God in whose image we have been created.

What is Our Ministry?

Our ministry is one of -

  1. Training
  2. Encouraging
  3. Nurturing
  4. Supporting

Our ministry is one of training stewards.  We strive to point others to the experience of God’s generosity and to raise new stewards to continue this important, transforming ministry.  A large part of our ministry is carried out through the conferences we offer and also through consultations we can bring to dioceses, parishes and individuals.

Our ministry is of one of encouraging stewards.  We are continually bombarded with messages from our secular culture telling us to fight for what is ours, hold onto it, and hoard it lest someone take it away from us.  Just as others have encouraged us in our ministry, we reach out to the workers in the stewardship vineyard, reminding them of the importance of this ministry and reminding them that it is a ministry of conversion.  Together we can do so much through the ministry of encouragement.

Our ministry is one of nurture.  We are grateful for the nurture of others, nurture that has enabled us to develop our stewardship stories and to learn to articulate them.  We offer our witnesses as a way in which to nurture and encourage others.

Finally, our ministry is one of support. Our conferences, our various resources, and each of us who engage in stewardship ministry under the banner of TENS: all these components together are the support network that is TENS.  We are a network of people who have been supported by those who have come before us and who now engage in this ministry of support.  We are supporting each and every steward in God’s vineyard who shares this journey with us.  We are stewards of what we have learned, and we strive to support others by passing on this transforming gift of spiritual life and health.

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