Living Abundantly in Times of Sacristy

My first workshop at Baby Pastor School was entitled Living Abundantly in Times of Sacristy. The workshop presenter was Scott Schantzenbach who is the stewardship specialist for the New Jersey Synod.

This was one of those workshops that had so much information that we didn't even get to a quarter of it. Scott suggested many different stewardship practices that work in both periods of financial booms and busts. But first what is stewardship?

Stewardship is giving to God what belongs to God. But everything belongs to God. So in a more hands one approach it is more about giving to God (offering, tithe, whatever you want to call it) out of everything that we have and not out of what is left in our checking account at the end of the month after we have paid all of our other bills.

Scott offered twelve practical ideas. I'm not going to list all twelve but instead touch on a few.

* Remain Missional and Enjoy the Moment. It is very easy for the church to become business like and either dwell on the past or have future outlooks, but when we do so we miss the point that the business of the church is to make disciples and preach the gospel. If the church get hung up about the decor, or a social statement that doesn't greatly effect us or an annual event that only a few people attend, then we are not doing the mission of the church and therefor are not being good stewards.

* Conduct Financial Stewardship Programs Three Times This Year Many people aren't sure if they are going to have a job in year, but 4 months is a little more manageable. So instead of pledging a dollar amount for the entire year, pledge what you are going to give within the next four months, then do it again for the next four.

* Asset Mapping Asset Mapping is a process when you look at what you have and the needs of the congregation and community and then you map and match those assets with the needs. Not all needs have assets and not all assets are needed. But by doing so you see how each person's gifts can be used for mission. What needs do you see in the community? How do you have the gifts and skills to address those needs?

* 10-10-80 Ideally each person/family should share 10% of their income with the church and charity, save 10% and live off of the remaining 80%. Don't think you can do it? For a month save every single receipt and put them in three buckets, one for spending, one for saving and one for sharing. The twist? We have a hard time deciding between what we need in order to provide for ourselves and our family and what we want as consumers. At the end of the month dig through that spending bucket. Put things like the mortgage, car payments and basic groceries in the provide category and things like eating out, entertainment, and the daily coffee in the consume category. Then work on spending down your consuming in order to share and save more.

So how do you see stewardship? Do you regularly give to God? If so, do you give from all that you have or from the leftovers? How would you change the talk of stewardship at Bethlehem or at your own church?

I ended up skipping my second workshop because well, let's just say the food wasn't vegetarian friendly and a girl has to eat so the workshop time right after dinner was used for a better good. Tomorrow "Bringing Stories of Justice into the Pulpit."