|
Background...
Christian stewardship provides spirituality that people can take home from church, exercise in their daily lives and express through personal involvement in the church and community. It is not project–minded or job–oriented; it is a way of life. Understanding stewardship helps us to become aware that God is the ultimate giver of the gifts we have and that we should give back to God and others. Giving back to God should be from the top ... not from what may be left over ... sharing God’s grace should be from the heart.
Educating, training and communicating with people to be better stewards...
While the gene for faithful stewardship is inside everyone, it needs to be developed and nurtured, just like learning a sport or craft. The spirit of stewardship grows within us over time; most of us just don’t wake up one day deciding to be stewards ... we need to be taught.
Educating people about stewardship is best accomplished with a steady, simmering approach like cooking a wonderful stew, rather than a quick blanching. Stewardship has very solid historical roots in the Bible and it is important to bring out these historical underpinnings. Stewardship education needs to be programmatic and continual; it is a little like putting an outboard motor on the stern of the RMS Queen Mary ... she’ll turn, but it is going to take a while!
|
Are you trying to solve the vexing problem of how to increase people’s generosity to the church and its ministries?
Download our FREE “White Paper” and share it with your leaders:
|
 |
First steps...
Christian stewardship doesn’t happen automatically; it happens by design. By creating and implementing a multi–year stewardship plan, church members will grow in their understanding of stewardship, thus becoming more involved, committed, and generous. This transformation of the heart is not just in “first fruits,” or proportionate giving, but growth in members living out their stewardship of God’s grace every day. |
|
There are many sources of information that explain what stewardship leaders need to do, and understanding stewardship, or what is needed to inspire it is not difficult. Even planning and organizing a multi–year stewardship effort is well within the ability of a well–intentioned Stewardship Committee. However, actually creating the materials to educate and communicate with a congregation on an ongoing basis, including annual stewardship commitment programs can be daunting.
Our role in helping you in both the short– and long–term...
Parish Publishing has dedicated itself to providing churches with effective stewardship resources for over 50 years and has developed practical, successful and affordable tools to help you. They have been developed with years of wisdom of what works and what doesn’t to inspire committed stewards. In general, the most effective stewardship plans include both longer–term, ongoing stewardship inspiration and education, as well as shorter–term drives to bring focus on commitment. We know your plan will be customized for your faith community, but this will help you understand the critical components of any plan. Here are just some of our resources:
- For stewardship leaders looking for a comprehensive self–assessment of their stewardship ministry with recommendations of how to improve it, a great place to start is with
| |
The Stewardship Advisor |
|
- For year–round inspiration and education about stewardship, we provide:
- Inspiring Stewardship!, our stewardship program based on 48 monthly stewardship principles.
- Monthly inserts/newsletters, including Stewardship, Graceful Generosity, Sharing God’s Bounty, and Brother Steward.
- The Stewardship Toolkit, which provides a wealth of resources for all aspects of your stewardship ministry that you can edit and customize.
- We also provide 3– to 5–week programs to emphasize commitment in the fall or spring.
If you would like a great place to start your journey, click here to order our |
