Posted: Mar 17
Money is Not the Only Currency
Year Round & Holistic Stewardship
By Eric Law
During the 2009 Diocesan Convention in Los Angeles, I surveyed 37 congregations. The majority of the congregations struggled with money issues. Where do we find the money to finance our ministries or how can we raise money to start a needed ministry? The result of the survey started me on a journey – if I were to find and/or create resources that assist our local congregations to address the money issue, where do I begin? I am not an economist. I am not an accountant. I am not a businessman. I am not a stewardship officer of the church. What authority do I have to even begin to address this issue? continue reading...
Posted: Mar 17
2012 Apostles in Stewardship Awards: First Fruits, More of the Best
Best Practices
By JR Lander
The Episcopal Network for Stewardship (TENS), in partnership with the Office of Stewardship of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, is thrilled to be accepting nominations for the Apostles in Transformational Stewardship Awards: First Fruits, More of the Best. There are so many amazing stories of transformational stewardship across the Episcopal Church. TENS seeks to lift up at least a few of these stories, share them with the broader church, and hope that they will serve as invitations to others in their stewardship work and journeys. continue reading...
Posted: Mar 16
Celebrating Earth Day and Having Fun
Environmental Stewardship
By Lance Ousley
This is a basic lineup for Earth Sunday. Some of these are initiatives that can be kicked-off this Sunday to be followed throughout the year. Others are awareness actions.
WEAR GREEN - Encouraging everyone to wear something green for Earth Sunday! In one parish a lady bought a "bug" shirt to wear each Earth Sunday!
RECYCLED GROCERY BAGS – Most grocers have reusable grocery bags for sale for $.99. Consider purchasing some to hand out and ask for a trade-in of plastic grocery bags in return. One small parish collected several hundred bags doing this. Check your local grocer for Earth Day promotions on reusable bags and recycling plastic ones.
FLOWER SEEDS - Hand out a packet of flower seeds to every household that shows up this Sunday. Place a computer printed label on them that reads: The Episcopal Church - Good Stewards of God's Creation! We made 5 of these packets with an "X" marked on them for a special Earth Day gift of garden gloves.
PLANT a TREE - The youth group can plant an oak tree in the church lawn. This helps reduce CO2 and it will provide shade for the building for years to come - reducing energy consumption in the process!
PLANT a BEAN – The younger children will plant a bean in a small clay pot and hear a lesson on Stewardship of Creation. They will take the bean pot home with them to care for it and watch it grow.
RECYCLE BINS - Purchase recycle bins from recyclingbins.com. Place one in your Parish Hall and one in your Youth Room for Cans and Plastics. We chose the one with a mountain photo laminated on the sides for an even deeper message that this is about Creation.
GO CERAMIC - Put Styrofoam cups to rest – replace them with ceramic coffee mugs with the church name and motto. Yes, you will have to wash them, but that is part of the cost of authentically proclaiming the fullness of the Gospel message. It also uses less energy and water than producing paper and/or compostable cups. If you have a high speed commercial dishwasher in your kitchen that can do it in about 3 minutes, so for 100 cups it won't take too long.
GREEN CORNER – Put a Green Info spot in our monthly newsletter that gives tips on how you can live greener lives at home. We plan to have an info sheet available with these on Sunday.
GREEN LIVING – Many newspapers publish a pull-out section on Earth Sunday on how to live greener lives at home and work. Order extra copies of this section to be delivered Sunday morning to the church and pass those out. We, also, will receive all of the local neighborhood extras that are not sold that Sunday, from your distributor on next Monday to have available for those who miss the Sunday event.
RECYCLE INFO - Have information available about what can be recycled locally and what we are willing to collect to facilitate the ease of recycling for our members.
SERMON FOCUS – This is an issue which needs to be addressed from the pulpit. It is part of the Gospel imperative to love one’s neighbor as ourselves and taking care of Creation is a ministry to which we are called in the first chapter of Genesis. What we do as a church makes a statement about what we believe in our faith. If we don’t take care of God’s creation what does that say to the world what we think about God? continue reading...
Posted: Mar 16
Happy Days Are Here Again
Personal Financial Planning
By Herb Berl
In the summer of 1932 the national unemployment rate was 23.6% for all workers and 37% for farm laborers. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was nominated to be his party’s standard bearer at the Democratic National Convention and the theme song was “Happy Days Are Here Again.” How odd a choice of songs, for it was the Great Depression. continue reading...
Posted: Mar 16
Connecting Stewardship with Thanks
Best Practices, Year Round & Holistic Stewardship
By Hunt Priest
Emmanuel Episcopal Church is a well-established, stable congregation in an affluent island community on Lake Washington between Seattle and Bellevue. And like many mainline congregations, we are a congregation that needs to be more responsive to the spiritual needs of a new generation of children and their parents. Sometimes that simply means reminding people of why it is we gather and why it is we support our congregation with offerings of money, time and talents. continue reading...
Posted: Mar 16
The Toughest Topic: Talking About Money
Congregational Leadership, Discipleship & Generosity
By Harold Percy
There was a couple who were having serious issues in their marriage, mostly because of financial difficulties. After a stewardship sermon at church, they went home and had a huge discussion. They decided to sell their house and buy a smaller one. They did just that, and saved their marriage. In fact, their whole lives were changed. continue reading...
Posted: Jan 13
Jesus Couldn't Be Bought
Discipleship & Generosity, Stewardship Formation
By Mark Beckwith
Jesus couldn’t be bought. Even when he was at his most vulnerable, which is how Satan found him after spending nearly forty days in the wilderness. Satan tried to buy Jesus with three temptations. Jesus said no each time (Luke 4:12) Jesus’ refusal to be bought – either by Satan at the beginning of his ministry or by Pilate at the very end – or by the many attempted purchases in between, helped to create a pathway to freedom – for him and for us. Instead of being bought, he gave. continue reading...
Posted: Jan 13
Stewardship in a Time of De-Creation
Environmental Stewardship, Stewardship Formation
By Michael Schut
The tithe is an ancient custom of giving a tenth of our income for some holy use. In his book Whistling in the Dark, Frederick Buechner points out that observing the forty days of Lent is "to do the same thing with roughly a tenth of each year's days." He suggests that Jesus, during his forty days in the wilderness, asked himself the question "what it meant to be Jesus" and that during Lent we are to ask what it means to be ourselves. continue reading...
Posted: Jan 13
Resolve to Focus on Stewardship Year-Round
Stewardship Formation, Year Round & Holistic Stewardship
By The Rev. Laurel Johnston
One of the many working definitions of stewardship--and this one has been around for the last sixty years---is everything we do after we say we believe. My sense is this definition has its staying power because it begs the question: What do we believe? And how do our choices and actions align with our beliefs? Holistic and ethical in its approach, this definition asks us to consider how we connect our faith and action. How do we bear the light of Christ in our faith communities and in our world? continue reading...
Posted: Jan 13
Intentional Hospitality: A Lenten Discipline
Discipleship & Generosity, Year Round & Holistic Stewardship
By Charles K. Robertson
Each year at the beginning of Lent, we Christians hear the tale of Jesus’ heroic self-control During his temptations in the desert, and we heed the call to give up something or take something on as a sign of our own devotion to God. It is a time of self-discipline and intentionality, when we take nothing for granted, especially our own mortality, and rather make good use—the best use—of our time and resources. continue reading...
