We all know that stewardship is not something that should be practiced once a year on “Stewardship Sunday” and we all know that Stewardship is about much more than a financial commitment to the congregation or a congregation’s statement of intent to the wider church.
But who has time to sit down and plan a year long every month, every aspect of stewardship emphasis?
Our friends at Churchwide have made created a tool that 1) takes the work out of planning a year-long stewardship emphasis but at the same time 2) leaves room for the contextualization and taking advantage of the local resources.
The ELCA has produced a large colorful chart that gives a simple, adaptable, doable idea for each month of the year for each of these characteristics of Stewardship:
- A monthly overall theme/focus
- Earthkeeping
- Growth
- Giftedness
- Finances
- Lifestyle
- Planning
This resource could be easily used for planning a year of congregational actives, to guide a church council or stewardship committee. If you like committees, 7 groups could be formed to each address a stewardship characteristic each month.
I think that it is inevitable that if a congregation were to follow the suggestions on this chart at the end of a year that congregation would have grown in spiritual depth, grown in their understanding of discipleship and stewardship, and grown in financial resources. I would be surprised if they did not grow in members too.
This resource is available to your congregation for $6.00 at
And now a joke…It was Super Bowl Sunday and in the local Presbyterian church, the time for the collection of tithes and offerings was approaching. The minister, a true sports enthusiast, reached into his pocket, took out a quarter, flipped it into the air, glanced at it as it landed, then in typical referee fashion joyfully announced: “The ushers have elected to receive!”
