Hinge Times: Embracing Stories of Faith and Generosity This Season

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

Hinge Times

My ancestors are Scotch Irish. I’ve been entrusted with our family Bible, passed down for generations since it was first given in 1921, the date neatly inscribed on the front endpaper. It contains the history of our family births, deaths, marriages and separations. It contains underlined verses that generations found meaningful and little tidbits that have proven historically useful. For my ancestors, for my family even as it is today, history is important not because it repeats itself but, more rightly, because “it rhymes” (as Mark Twain is reported to have noted). The Scotch Irish love the “story” part of the word “history.”

What stories are you telling, beloved? What stories are you telling in your online presence? Are they stories of life-changing action? Or are they basic information?

I truly believe this world needs more inspiration, not just plain information.

And by that I don’t mean trite moralisms or quotes pulled from so-called inspirational memes. I mean stories. Stories told briefly that rhyme with the work God is doing in your life and your ministry.

This month, November, was seen as a “hinge time” for my ancestors. It was the hinge between the bright side of the year and the shadowy side of the year. The bright center of the world, the sun, was replaced with the bright center of the home, the hearth, where the fire would encourage stories to be told. Stories of courage and bravery. Stories of love and lives changed. Stories of boldness in the face of uncertainty.

We need such stories! Jesus, in his parabolic way, told such stories, and we must too.

Sermons in these days, as we enter into Advent, must lean into stories. Social media, newsletters and communication outlets must lean into stories — stories of folks helped, stories of lives changed, stories of a God worshiped because we have been woven into the stories of old.

If you’re doing a year-end appeal, lean into stories of bravery and hope, not stories of scarcity and want. God, in these hinge times, is moving us into something new. It may be unnerving, but it is also exciting. It may be uncharted, but it is also full of divine promise.

In these hinge days of November, don’t let the stories swing toward what isn’t. Let them rhyme with what is in the divine narrative: a promise of sufficiency, of lives moved by a God who cannot be stopped and a church that leans into these stories of truth.

Pax,

The Rev. Tim Brown
Director of Congregational Stewardship Support

P.S. Congregational Stewardship has a Vimeo page! We encourage you to catch the livestreams of our webinars and presentations, but if you miss one, you might be able to find it on our ELCA Congregational Stewardship and Vimeo page. These videos are perfect for stewardship teams that want some continuing education or for councils curious about what’s happening in the realm of stewardship.

UPCOMING EVENTS

The Generosity of the Generosity Project

Have you used the Generosity Project resource in the past, and do you want to reignite it for your community? Have you adapted the curriculum, and do you want to share how it works for your context? Are you curious about the resource, and do you want to explore its potential?

On Monday, Feb. 3, at 6 p.m. Central time, folks who are associated with, practitioners of or curious about the Generosity Project will gather to discuss what has worked and what has been adapted, and to dream together about how it can be utilized in a variety of contexts for their communities. There’s no need to register — just attend!

Questions can be sent to the Rev. Tim Brown at Tim.Brown@elca.org or to Karen Kretschmann at Karen.Kretschmann@elca.org.

Mark your calendar:
The Generosity of the Generosity Project
Feb. 3, 2025
6-7:30 p.m. Central time

Join the meeting here.

Meeting ID: 862 3207 6413
Passcode: 272448

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Webinar: Introduction to “6 Weeks on Money” — A Resource for Aligning Your Pocketbook to Your Values

Are you curious about ways to align your pocketbook with your values? Do you wish there were a resource to help your community think critically about how it uses, saves and views the resources that God has given it?

We seek 12 congregations from across the ELCA to participate in a pilot project that will use a collection of digital resources called “6 Weeks on Money.” These resources will help participants to thoughtfully analyze their relationship with money, to act on those gifts and to delve deeply into the “why” behind this stewardship.

On Monday, Jan. 13, webinar participants will walk through the six-week course, see what it entails and have an opportunity to participate in the free pilot project. Participants can see how the project might encourage greater financial literacy and leadership in their congregation, and they can learn what might be needed to enhance the resources as we prepare to use them throughout the church.

For more information, contact the Rev. Tim Brown at Tim.Brown@elca.org. No registration is required to attend the introductory webinar.

Mark your calendar:
Introduction to “6 Weeks on Money”
Monday, Jan. 13
6-7 p.m. Central time
Join the webinar here.

Meeting ID: 832 5688 2761
Passcode:87700

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STEWARDSHIP RESOURCES

Are you looking for stewardship resources to fuel your ministries and your imagination? This newsletter’s offerings are geared toward thinking through year-end giving.

Over 20% of giving to nonprofits comes in the month of December. About 50% of giving to nonprofits comes between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31. Though many church members like to think of their church as different from the standard nonprofit, many of these statistics remain true. A year-end appeal is important to maintaining the mission of your congregation, and a little communication can go a long way in showing how you change lives in the name of Christ. Bloomerang is a secular organization, but it offers helpful tips for any community of faith that wants to end the year strongly and set itself up to do God’s mission in 2025.

As you prepare your mission spending plan (budget) for 2025, consider using a narrative mission spending plan, otherwise known as a narrative budget. It’s not too late! The ELCA’s narrative spending plan webinar can lead you through the process of capturing just what you do and how it’s important to the mission God has given you.

The Advent wreath used in our churches in this season can be reimagined to focus on God’s generosity. In many circles, the candles stand for hope, faith, joy and peace, but these themes are not set in stone. A cadence more fitting to the season might be “expectation, generosity, love and calm.” In this reframing, you can attune your community to our expectation of a messiah, the generosity that a community shows and asks of us, the love of a God who would enter into a broken world in this way, and the calmthat surpasses understanding when we open ourselves to the God known in the Christ child.

Have a great stewardship resource to share? Please send articles, books, movies and other media to Tim.Brown@elca.org. The best gifts are those that are shared!

STEWARDSHIP IN THE TEXT

Finding organic ways to speak about stewardship can be difficult, especially in relation to the lectionary texts. Not every sermon should be a “stewardship sermon,” but on any given Sunday, stewardship themes arise from the biblical witness and can be highlighted! Remember that stewardship is about how we live our lives, not just how we use our finances. Stewardship is a life trajectory.

Below are just a few readings for the Advent-Christmastide lectionary that lean into generosity.

Luke 3:1-6 | Dec. 8

John the Baptizer’s message comes through loud and clear for those of us in the pews in the second week of Advent. The prophet questions our profits, encouraging us to listen to the call of God coming from the wilderness — the outskirts of community — and recentering us on God’s idea of what it means to be together. As stewards of our own time and resources, how are we helping God to make the difficult places smooth for humanity? How are we making the mountains of debt and heartache level?

Luke 1:39-45 | Dec. 22

The central focus of this week’s Gospel reading is the Magnificat, which gives us the opportunity to wonder how we might steward our power. How is God calling us to live out this canticle? How is God calling us to see how it is lived out in our congregation, our city and our world? In what subversive ways is God inviting us to steward our power as we lean into 2025?

Matthew 2:1-12 | Jan. 5-6 — Epiphany of Our Lord

Today we revisit a story that has been reenacted for generations: the visitation of the magi. Though this story suffers from familiarity, a skillful preacher can craft a sermon that wonders aloud why the magi might offer their gifts to God in this way. Are these the wares of their pagan ways, given to God because of their encounter with Christ? Are these extravagant offerings, meant to match the extravagant God they have encountered? Approaching the story with curiosity can lead the community to wonder why they offer what they do at the outset of 2025.