Tag Archives: Generosity & Giving

Stewardship as Ministry

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Stewardship does indeed deal with money, but it must be far bigger, far more holistic than that. For money is the symbol, the powerful symbol, of our ongoing need for control. But as we begin to think of life in terms of what we have instead of what we lack, then we can dare to let go of the things that hold us back and strategize together as faithful stewards instead of fearful owners.  

                                                                      ~Rev. C. K. Robertson, Transforming Stewardship

Stewardship is the responsible management of the resources entrusted to one’s care. In the context of a religious community, stewardship is a ministry.  Abundance can be found when all engage as stewards of the faith community and its resources.

This can be accomplished through intentional ministry and religious leadership in the following areas:

Spiritual Development—

-Religious leaders must first engage in their own inward spiritual and religious journey.

-Examine their own attitudes toward giving and generosity and the spiritual basis for developing them.

Pastoral Care & Support–

–Individuals and families often have complex and stressful dynamics around money and personal finance.

-Each contact that involves the topic of money is potentially pastoral in nature and must be treated with sensitivity.

-Ministers and lay leaders benefit from understanding their own relationships to money when relating with others about theirs.

Worship & Preaching—

-These are unique opportunities to convey the importance of stewardship, generosity, and giving through compelling sermons, prayers, inspiring stories, and music.

-Worship leaders can help the engage the congregation by inviting the expression of gratitude, through prayer, the offering, and personal testimony.

Prophetic Leadership—

-Sharpening the focus on the positive and worthy aspects of the faith principles and religious values that inspire generosity.

-Revealing and articulating the connections between the congregation’s mission, religious values, and stewardship.

Teaching & Coaching—

-Understand stewardship and generosity as developmental learning processes with learned behaviors.

-Ongoing education and support of the congregation’s staff, lay leaders, and stewardship leaders are necessary.

-Leaders stay abreast of the trends and best practices for stewardship and fundraising in order to create and sustain a culture of generosity in the congregation.

Modeling Generous Behavior

-Model giving as a spiritual practice and lead by example.

-Actively cultivate stewardship through explicit and positive messaging through multiple channels of communication:  worship, in print, online, and interpersonal.

-Explicitly and enthusiastically asking for financial support is essential, and is most effective when done face-to-face.

Before you write an amount, please ask yourself, what is the most generous pledge you believe you can make. Then add something to that. Find out what might happen if you turn out to be even more generous than you think you are.                                                        

~Rich Fritzon, Main Line Unitarian, Devon, PA

NOTE:  The content for this Stewardship as Ministry post is based on the UUA General Assembly 2011 workshop Breaking Through to Generosity created and presented by Rev. Terry Sweetser, Rev. Stephan Papa, and Laurel Amabile of the Stewardship and Development staff group.

Workshop Presentation Slides are found online at: http://www.uua.org/finance/fundraising/ga/185798.shtml

Recommended Reading:

The Abundance of Our Faith: Award-Winning Sermons on Giving, Plus Suggestions for Group Discussion. Terry Sweetser and Susan Milnor, editors.  2006. Skinner House Books.  $16.00

Not Your Parents’ Offering Plate: A New Vision for Financial Stewardship.  J. Clif Christopher. 2008. Abingdon Press.  $14.00  ISBN-13:  978-0-687-64853-5

Giving—the sacred art: Creating a Lifestyle of Generosity.  Lauren Tyler Wright.  2008.  Skylight Paths Publishing.  $16.99.  ISBN: 13-978-1-59473-224-9

UU Study Guide for Giving—the Sacred Art by Laurel Amabile.  Available as free downloadable pdf:  http://www.uua.org/documents/stew-dev/study_guide_giving.pdf

The New Context for Ministry:  The Impact of the New Economy on Your Church.  Lyle E. Schaller.  2002.  Abingdon Press.  ISBN: 0-687-06580-1

Money Matters in Church:  A Practical Guide for Leaders.   Aubrey Malphurs and Steve Stroope.  2007.  Baker Books.  ISBN 10:  0-8010-6627-1

Gratitude and Community–Powerful Antidotes for Materialism

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Yes, there is injustice and suffering. Yes, we are called to heal our world. Gratitude does not mean blinding ourselves to what is wrong in our world, nor does gratitude mean we do not strive to heal what is broken. Quite the opposite is true. Gratitude for all that is good in our lives leads us to compassion and generosity of spirit.

One of the most destructive things our consumer culture does is to teach us to want what we do not have. Wanting more becomes an addiction that destroys our souls and our planet. Gratitude, deep gratitude, frees us. Gratitude also links us to others.

               ~Rev. Peter Morales, UUA President

 Throughout the year we are immersed in a culture designed to compel us to spend, acquire, consume, and accumulate, with an implicit message those actions will somehow bring fulfillment and happiness to our lives.   However, the heat is turned up with the onset of the season of religious holidays of light barely glimmering beneath the looming shadow of the Christmas shopping binge.  Very few of us can escape its grasp, particularly those with young children.

I remember when I was a religious educator and mother of two young daughters, living in a quiet suburban community with means, and working very hard to keep the forces of materialism at bay.  Many of my daughters’ friends received an array of the newest toys on the market each Christmas or Hanukkah.  We didn’t have the means to do as much purchasing at the time.

When my oldest daughter Christine was about to enter preschool, the director of the preschool came to interview her, to get to know this prospective student and her family.  The director asked Christine what kinds of things she liked to play.  Christine immediately said, “I like to play house and pretend to cook things.”  The preschool director asked my daughter if she had a play kitchen.  Christine immediately ran out of the room and returned with her “kitchen,” which consisted of a shoe box filled with an odd lot of aluminum pots, plastic cups and plates, and utensils.  Our visitor was surprised (pleasantly, as it turned out).  Christine was thrilled to show her amazing collection and abilities.  I remember feeling a strange mix of embarrassment, inadequacy, and pride in my daughter’s creativity and resourcefulness. I was filled with gratitude when the director quickly affirmed Christine’s “kitchen” as the best kind there is when it comes to using your imagination.

It’s easy to get sucked into thinking our holiday spending is the best thing to help our economic woes.  Some economists challenge that notion, as described in the Atlantic’s December Santanomics series by Derek Thompson( http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/12/is-christmas-bad-for-the-economy/249618/).  Referencing a 2010 Wall Street Journal survey, Thompson reports that more than two of three economists opined that if Christmas ceased to exist as a holiday, consumers would either spend more on themselves or spread their gift purchases more evenly across other events such as birthdays. That, in the view of some academics, would put more goods into the hands of people who truly value them and improve social welfare as a result.

Here are some startling statistics about the impact of our consumer culture on young people and their parents:   Did you know?        

  • Young people, newborns through age 22, represent a $1 trillion market to sellers in the American marketplace, through their own direct spending and influence over family purchases.
  • Young people under age 20 spend five times more (in inflation-adjusted dollars) than their parents did at the same age.
  • Consumer product companies spend over $230 billion annually ($2,190 per household) on marketing, much of it directed at children and teens.
  • Fifty-three percent of children have their own television in their room.  More than one-fourth of those age two to four have their own television.
  • Children and youth, ages 8 to 21 spend nearly $175 billion a year of their own money.
  • They spend approximately 17 hours a week online and spend $22 billion online.
  • A 1997 study showed children age six to twelve spent more than two and a half hours a week shopping, a full hour more than in 1981.  They spent as much time shopping as reading or going to church, and five times as much as they spend going outside.
  • More children go shopping each week (52%) than read (42%), go to church (26%), play outdoors (17%), or spend time in household conversations (32%).

Parents seeking alternatives to the pressures of excess holiday spending need affirmation and creative ideas for celebrating the holidays in meaningful, affordable ways.  Children and teens can be supported and fortified to withstand the pressure of the marketing machine by attention to relationships–enjoyable time with family and friends–and opportunities for service and sharing with others with greater needs.

Faith communities, school, and play a critical role in providing a counter-balance to the forces of the consumer culture.  We cannot underestimate the role of community in providing a context of satisfying relationships and meaningful activities.  Faith communities and schools offer opportunities for service and generosity that warm the heart and foster empathy in people of all ages.  Whether it be collecting hats, mittens, and jackets to keep people warm through the winter months, serving meals at the soup kitchen, reading to children or visiting house-bound elders, these activities help to connect people and values in positive ways.

Another powerful antidote to materialism and the ill effects of the consumer culture is GRATITUDE, simply appreciating what we have and realizing the blessing of sufficiency.  One practice is to take time each day to think of at least one thing for which we are grateful, and to write it down or share it with another person.  For nurturing gratitude in children, we can tell stories and engage them in activities that illustrate aspects of life that precipitate feelings of gratitude.

Sometimes circumstances create obstacles to gratitude:  unemployment, unanticipated car or home repairs, medical crises, depression, substance abuse, and financial hardships.  These are the times when we must go deeper, to search our souls for hope, courage, and the people in life that compel us to stay connected, be resourceful, and survive.  As isolating as life’s challenges can be, we are never truly alone.

For those of us who are active in faith communities, we have the privilege and responsibility to open our hearts and our hands to offer the gift of community to all those who seek it.  We can practice true hospitality by inviting and welcoming newcomers.  We  can focus our energy on giving of ourselves and our resources, inspired by hope that springs from awareness of our abundance, and fortified by the gratitude that comes from being held in the caring arms of community.

Gratitude Circle:  Beliefnet Community:   http://community.beliefnet.com/gratitude_circle

Books for nurturing gratitude among all ages:

You’ll Thank Me Later – A Guide to Nurturing Gratitude in Our Children (And Why That Matters)  by Annie M Zirkel

Gratitude Soup: Create Your Own by Olivia Rosewood

The first installment of the Atlantic’s Santanomics series by Derek Thompson:

“The Heart of Our Faith” by Galen Guengerich. http://www.uuworld.org/ideas/articles/11144.shtml

The Loaves and Fishes: A Story of Stewardship and Generosity

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UPDATED POST!  Sharing the Offering Plate Findings August 2011–check out the success stories and links from congregations.

NOTE OF GRATITUDE TO LUTHER K. SNOW:  This reading was adapted and used with permission from Luther K. Snow, congregational consultant and “Good Groups Guru,” who can be reached thru www.luthersnow.com.  A version of this reading was first published in his book, The Power of Asset Mapping:  How Your Congregation Can Act on Its Gifts,  available from the Alban Institute.  This  adaptation by Laurel Amabile, UUA, Stewardship and Development.

The Story:

Jesus went to  the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias.
A large crowd kept following him, because they saw the signs that he was doing
for the sick.  Jesus went up the mountain and sat down there with his disciples.
Now the Passover, the festival of the Jews, was near.  When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming toward him, Jesus said to Philip, “Where are we to buy bread for these
people to eat?”  He said that to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do.  Philip answered him, “Six months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each of them to get a little.”  (John 6:1-7)

When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.”  Jesus said to them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”  (Matthew 14:15-16)

They said to him, “Are we to go and buy two hundred denarii worth of bread, and give it to them to eat?”  And he said to them, “How many loaves have you?  Go and see.”             (Mark 6:37-38)

One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish.  But what are they among so many people?”             (John 6:8-9)

And [Jesus] said to his disciples, “Make them sit down in groups of about fifty each.”  (Luke 9:14)

Now there was a great deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in all.      (John 6:10)

Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before the people; and he divided the two fish among them all.   (Mark 6:41)

And all ate and were filled.   (Luke 9:17)

When they were satisfied, [Jesus] told his disciples, “Gather up the fragments left over,
so that nothing may be lost.”  So they gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves, left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets.  (John 6:12-13)

Those who had eaten the loaves numbered five thousand.  (Mark 6:44)

When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the
prophet who is to come into the world.”    (John 6:14)

The story of the loaves and fishes is known to be the only miracle included in all four
books of the Gospel.  In both Matthew and Mark, as second, similar story is told again, with seven loaves and 4,000 people.  And in both Matthew and Mark the story comes up a third time, when the disciples say they have no bread, and Jesus reminds them of the first two incidences, saying “Do you not understand?”

Clearly the great teacher wanted to emphasize the importance of leadership and
understanding of stewardship as an essential part of building and providing for  a community.   The stewardship leader knows the resources are present among the people and must help the community recognize and tap their abundance in responsible ways.

The disciples begin with a half-empty mindset.  They are in a deserted place with thousands of needy people and immediately the conversation goes to money:  not having
enough to buy what is needed; send them away to buy their own; how can this be done?  Much hand-wringing and gnashing of  teeth, whining and complaining goes on among
the disciples in trying to address the problem.  Confidence wavers and anxiety levels spike.  Sound familiar?

Each time the disciples come to Jesus, he calmly tells them, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.”   They come back expressing more doubts, and Jesus asks, “How many loaves have you?  Go and see.

In the story, Jesus wisely instructs his disciples to organize the people into smaller groups
of 50 people.  The leader must also have a vision and system to help the community meet its needs, effectively manage their resources, and take care of one another.

In John’s telling, it is a child who makes the personal transformation.  A child has a supper of five loaves and two fish and offers it to Jesus and the disciples.  Could it be possible that young boy was the only one among the 5,000 who brought food with them?  Perhaps the boy was the only one who looked into his own basket and saw what he had, instead of  what he didn’t have and was willing to take action.  The boy saw the need and knew that he had something to share.

And, so all ate and were filled.

May it be so.  Blessed be.