My son recently finished the requirements for the Boy Scouts’ highest honor, Eagle Scout. As part of his final project, he designed and built a Little Free Pantry and a Little Free Library, providing food and books to those in need in our community.
I’m not a big fan of seasonal stewardship campaigns, as they’re often driven by gimmicks. And neither gimmicks nor fundraising ever nurtured faithful givers.
The children practiced long and hard to sing their song on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. When the big day came, they clambered to the front of the sanctuary, listened to the first few plinks on the piano and watched for the nod to begin from their Sunday school teacher.
As a child growing up in Luverne, Minnesota, Doris Schoon learned the words to “Jesus Loves Me” in Chinese.
Doris was touched by this simple exercise led by her pastor, the Rev. Otto Braskamp, who had once been a Presbyterian missionary in China. Though she no longer remembers the Chinese lyrics, the music of mission continues to play in her. She views the service of mission co-workers as a sign of vitality in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
“Stewardship is about the joyous discipline of giving thanks,” says Robert Hay Jr. of the Presbyterian Foundation. Comparing joyous discipline with a “runner’s high” where the mind body and spirit start clicking after months or even years of disciplined training, Hay says the discipline of stewardship can bring true joy in giving.
Congregants at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Madison, Wisconsin are getting a snapshot of four countries around the world this month through the lens of Presbyterian mission work. The ministries of Presbyterian mission co-workers in Guatemala, Peru, Indonesia and South Sudan are being highlighted in worship during the first four Sundays in July.
Stewardship season was in full swing at Healdsburg (California) Community Church last fall when tragedy struck. Raging wildfires in Sonoma County wiped out vast residential areas within 20 miles of the church. Every church member — even those whose own homes were safe — knew people affected by the fires.
Giving generously is something the Rev. Kerry Slinkard makes a point of practicing as well as preaching. “It’s a response to God’s blessing,” he says, “an acknowledgment of our responsibility to those around us.”
While sorting through the papers of her late cousin Matilda Cartledge, Rebecca McClure found a couple of sentences in her recently-deceased relative’s handwriting that she says reflect Cartledge’s values. The unattributed sentences, which are a quote from President Franklin Roosevelt’s second inaugural address, read: ‘The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide for those who have too little.’
The “seed money” planted by three people at First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio, has resulted in a harvest of generosity directed toward Presbyterian mission co-workers.
Bruce Henderson and his wife, Karen, gave $2,500 in support of mission co-workers, as did their friend Nel Huck. The three then invited others to join them by making gifts of any size. After a January mission emphasis, the 110-member congregation added $8,500 to the initial $5,000.
