Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Stewardship and What It Should Mean to You

In the coming weeks we will be focusing on Stewardship at Trinity UMC in Kentland, IN. I will be focusing on preaching a message that moves people to be good stewards might be the best way to put it. So as the pastor of Trinity I am looking at scripture that can lead the congregation to a better understanding of good stewardship.
I feel that stewardship drives turn off many people because in the past it always boils down to giving more money to the church. The first thing I want to help my congregation better understand is that we do not give our money to the church but to God who asks for 10% of that which we receive. So being a good steward of the money you receive means that you budget that money accordingly. Many of us, if not all of us, struggle with budgeting our money correctly, right?
Enough said about money because what I want to focus on are the other things that God calls us to do when He calls us to be good stewards. What do you mean, you might say, "there are other things we are called to give and be good stewards of?" Yes!
One of the biggest issues in our churches and communities today is time; we don't give of our time. But why are we not giving of our time? I feel it is because first of all the church has stopped serving the community and if the church has stopped serving the community why should I support the church with my time. We often point our fingers in an attempt to accuse, lay blame, as for why our church may be lagging with finances. Well there you go I brought up finances again after I said I was going in a different direction. I do this because I want you to know, as many of you already know, that all things of stewardship are connected.
So someone like me, the pastor, could easily say, "if only they would read their Bibles they would know that God is calling them to..." and you can fill in the blank. I could easily say that if we could get people to give more time to serving the church concerning community we would grow the church and a growing church could bring in more revenue so the church could better manage it's expenses.
In the next few weeks Trinity will be talking about stewardship and I invite you to pray about how God is calling you to re-examine your stewardship. I would rather you step up a little in each area of stewardship than have you lift one and not another. So going forward God calls for your giving of your gifts, service, prayers, and I believe talents as well. This year as we all examine our stewardship let us not do the easiest of these things but make sacrifice in the name of God so that our church will prosper in these times.


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