A Stewardship Question: Who Are You?

The Christmas lights have long been put away in most homes, though some still illuminate our neighborhood in the dusk hours. The magi have made their way home, taking a different route than the way they came.

And now?

Now the church begins the hard task of hearing story after story about who this Jesus is. The magi give us a glimpse. The baptism by John in the Jordan gives us some idea. The wedding at Cana offers another piece to the puzzle. The first sermon Jesus gives, identifying him as a preacher and prophet, was heard last Sunday in many churches.

And this coming Sunday?

Well, if you follow the lectionary, you’ll hear that, after his first sermon, the people try to throw Jesus off a cliff because they don’t like what they’ve heard — which I remind early career pastors of all the time in case the same sentiment follows one of their sermons.

They are in good company.

Between the magi visiting and the transfiguration, this season in the church year is designed to give clues to one question: who is Jesus?

This should invite each of us, and each of our congregations, to ask a follow-up question: because of Jesus, who are we?

Who are you? Who is your church?

Being clear about identity is a key stewardship question, beloved. When we know who we are as a congregation, we can better identify what God is calling us to do in our particular plot of creation and how we are to steward our time and resources.

Have you worked on being crystal-clear about who you are as a congregation? Have you moved past the vague generalities to a specific identity in Christ that can guide your mission in the world?

These early days of the year, when we’re exploring through the Scriptures just who Jesus is, are a perfect time for your congregation to also identify who you are, by God.

After all, when we’re clear about who God is calling us to be, we can then be specifically clear about how God is calling us to be in this world.

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
One tap mobile
+16469313860,,86232076413# US
+16465588656,,86232076413# US (New York)

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

Due to unforeseen circumstances, January’s webinar on this topic has been rescheduled for March.

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, March 3, 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, March 3
6-7 p.m. Central time

Join the webinar here.
Meeting ID: 832 5688 2761
Passcode:87700
One tap mobile
+13052241968,,83256882761# US
+13092053325,,83256882761# US

Stewardship Conference: Stewardship Kaleidoscope — New Orleans!

In partnership with the Presbyterian Foundation of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the ELCA Stewardship and Generosity team is proud to present a three-day conference dedicated to digging deeply into stewardship and generosity, using workshops and plenaries that highlight diverse and authoritative voices from across the Presbyterian Church, the ELCA and partner church bodies. This year we’ll be in New Orleans, La., exploring how stewardship is a matter of “art and resilience” and hearing from a number of voices engaged in both the practical and the cutting-edge thoughts around fueling ministry.

Stewardship Kaleidoscope offers real tools for real ministry and is perfect for both rostered and lay leaders. The mission of the conference is to ignite generosity, give practical tools for cultivating congregational generosity, expand leadership capacity for stewardship leaders and cultivate adaptive approaches for funding Christ’s mission throughout the world. Limited partial scholarships are available! Contact the Rev. Tim Brown at Tim.Brown@elca.org if interested.

For information and registration, visit stewardshipkaleidoscope.org.

Mark your calendar:
Monday, Sept. 22–Wednesday, Sept. 24
New Orleans, La.
Registration coming soon!

STEWARDSHIP RESOURCES

Are you looking for stewardship resources to fuel your ministries and your imagination? Here are a few places to find guidance and support:

Need to make a well-used stewardship text more practical? Many church leaders and congregations have read Henri Nouwen’s A Spirituality of Fundraising, but many aren’t sure how to utilize its principles in their communities. Geared toward making the book a practical tool for communities, the Nouwen Society offers a four-week how-to guide on implementing Nouwen’s ideas in your congregation. Nathan Ball, a friend and colleague of Nouwen, developed the workbook on behalf of the society, ensuring that Nouwen’s generous spirit was paramount. Order a copy herefrom the Nouwen Society and take A Spirituality of Fundraising to a new, practical level in your community.

Stewardship Bible studies? Do they exist? They do, and we’re working on developing more! But an easy and affordable Bible study that your congregation could use this year is “Our Duty and Delight” by the Rev. Mark Allen Powell. This six-week video course utilizes online learning with small-group exercises to get both the individual and the group thinking about stewardship through a Biblical lens. It’s affordable, easy to implement and, most important, makes an intimidating topic easy and accessible.

Stewardship of space is always a tough question. There’s no “one size fits all” to any congregation’s curiosity about how to best steward its space and land. The ELCA is currently developing a resource to help communities of faith wrestle honestly with this question, but there are examples of churches doing innovative things with their spaces. One such church is St. John’s Lutheran Church in Madison, Wis., which decided to develop affordable housing on its historic site — read the story here. This step may not be the right move, or even possible, for all congregations, but St. John’s story is one example of a faith community tackling a hard question.

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 Time After Epiphany lectionary that lean into generosity.

Luke 5:1-11 | Feb. 9

We don’t often imagine that our trust in God is something that must be stewarded, but in a world where we are called to risk for the sake of the gospel and God’s calling, trust is a tool to be utilized. In this Gospel lesson, the disciples have to trust that Jesus is calling them to something worthwhile. They expend their energy and time following the call of Christ even though it doesn’t make much sense to them. How are you and your community stewarding your trust well in 2025?

Luke 6:27-38 | Feb. 23

How does your congregation practice forgiveness? How do you? Forgiveness is not just a matter of the heart; it’s a matter of the whole being. It is difficult. It is costly. It is sometimes painful. But as with a lot of pain, it can lead to a lot of healing too. Stewarding forgiveness is part of our call as followers of Jesus, and Luke’s Gospel (as well as the text from the Hebrew Scriptures for today) calls us to consider whether we are stewarding forgiveness in our lives, both individually and communally. Some communities forgive medical debt. Some hold services of repentance and healing. Some practice active forgiveness after conflict within the congregation. How do you steward forgiveness?

Luke 13:31-35 | March 16

Today’s Gospel reading is all about how Christ longs to shelter the community, even the community that doesn’t offer him shelter. It leads us to think critically about how we as a church are sheltering our community, both physically and metaphorically. How do you gather your community under your wing, the body of Christ that you are? How do individuals in the church, as the hands and feet of Christ, do this in their own lives? Using our influence and space to shelter the most vulnerable is a matter of stewardship, by God. How is this happening through you?