4/18/2024

How and where did your stewardship journey begin? Throughout the years, I have listened with awe and reverence as church members have shared stories of grandmothers who made sure dimes and quarters were ready to be placed in church offering plates; mothers and fathers who sat down to talk about budgets, tithing, and giving as an act of gratitude. Witnesses powerful and mighty, establishing generations of faithful stewards, worthy of sharing.

3/12/2024

After all, we really can’t a expect committee to lead their congregation with stewardship efforts if they aren’t sure what the word actually means. As you may suspect, the responses to my question usually vary – some will mostly focus on the financial obligation of supporting one’s church, while others will focus more on the caring of all of God’s creation. [Spoiler alert – I tend to prefer definitions that are more similar to the latter, tending to all that God has placed in our care – time, talent, and treasure]

3/8/2024

Giving our time, talent and treasure are basics to church stewardship, but we often focus on writing a check or donating money online when the “Stewardship Committee” puts out the call.

2/12/2024

Our faith tells us that God’s grace is free and unmerited and that our call is to respond with gratitude that overflows with generosity. Generosity that doesn’t keep score.

2/9/2024

Cutting back the veil of mystery and making stewardship campaigns do-able for even the smallest churches helped drive creation of the Stewardship Navigator website five years ago.

1/31/2024

We find three women in our story bound by a common purpose, a common devotion and a shared love, all of which are linked to Jesus. These women, who had determined that they would make their way to the tomb to properly anoint the body of Jesus, start out early Sunday morning, most likely before sunrise. As they are on their way, a very peculiar question is raised, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” They realized at that moment that there was an obstacle in their way that was beyond their ability to remove. But one must notice they kept moving towards the tomb.

1/18/2024

A new parishioner, who was in a new member class on Zoom, asked the pastor, “Why does it seem that the church is always asking for money? That seems like all I hear, money, money, money.”

1/17/2024

When Joseph Moore was a pastor, during Lent he rarely spoke about enduring temptation or trivial, once-in-awhile sacrificing. Instead, he focused on the giving side of sacrifice, the generosity of spirit and gifts.

1/16/2024

God was as present with the prophets along the ways as God was present in the whirlwind. God was as present beyond the river as God was in the biblically memorable places where they stopped along the way.

So, too, God is as present between us as God would be present to us in some form of a divine whirlwind. Our most sacred places are made holy not by name or fame or even by mysterious chariots of fire; but made holy by the presence of God. Unexpected, ordinary places, are made holy by God’s transforming presence in our lives.

1/5/2024

Competing claims about what is true inundated us in 2020. Both message and messenger were doubted. The sheer volume and velocity of information overwhelm. This new year will, doubtless, be the same. We pray things will be better, but we are realists, and knowing human hearts and human nature, words and motives are weaponized. Yet, again and again, God’s people seek a word from the Lord. Whenever and wherever God speaks, powerful things happen – sometimes seen, oftentimes, not; sometimes immediate, oftentimes, not. Nevertheless, when we dare utter, “The Lord says. . .” or in the old King James Version, “Thus saith the Lord. . .” we had better do so sparingly and humbly and we had better double-check and triple-check that, indeed, “Thus saith the Lord” and then pay careful attention to what exactly the Lord saith. And we would do well to urge and encourage all those who are with us to, likewise, pay attention to what the Lord saith. Many a person have claimed “Thus saith the Lord” and used that as a bludgeon to lord over others some nefarious intent or unwittingly (and wittingly) claimed “Thus saith the Lord” when the Lord neither saith nor was it thus so.

12/12/2023

Was it the walking? Was it the location? Was it the thin space of Celtic lands, graveyards and abbey ruins? Was it the company?

All of these restored my soul and renewed my hope for navigating each day remembering we are not alone, naming Immanuel, God is with us along with a great cloud of witnesses. Restoration was found for me as an individual, a parent, a Minister of Word and Sacrement and Ministry Relations Officer for the Presbyterian Foundation.

12/11/2023

At Light Street Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, Maryland, reaching out to people who aren’t members of the church to ask for a one-time gift brings annual donations up to $10,000.

The approach differs from most Presbyterian churches because it intentionally identifies people with an arms-length relationship with Light Street Church, people who aren’t included in other stewardship efforts.