Church leaders often say they want their church to have an endowment.
And while that’s good, churches need to be prepared to dig a little deeper and answer some core questions as they establish an endowment, says Olanda Carr Jr., Senior Ministry Relations Officer for the Presbyterian Foundation.
In addition to the transitions everyone’s endured during the pandemic, the clergy team of the Rev. Mihee Kim-Kort and the Rev. Dr. Andy Kort said goodbye last year to the church he served, First Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, Indiana, and hello to the church they’re currently serving as co-pastors, First Presbyterian Church of Annapolis in Maryland.
The averted gaze when a member of the stewardship committee approaches. The neglected pledge forms. The Stewardship Sunday sermon the pastor secretly (or not so secretly) dreads giving.
The annual stewardship campaign is a rite of autumn that must be endured. Right?
Or, could stewardship be about abundance rather than scarcity? What if stewardship was a reason instead of a season?
The Rev. Dr. Katharine Rhodes Henderson has already announced her plan to transition as president of Auburn Seminary in New York City. So when she was asked this week during Leading Theologically about the work her soul must have, a famous question posed by the Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, Henderson was ready.
The “what” of estate planning can seem overwhelming to ministers, even those who regularly deal with death. Besides, serving God requires plenty of other earthly details.
Many preachers get a little antsy about preaching on and around secular holidays, among them the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Mother’s Day — and that biggest secular holiday of all, Super Bowl Sunday. In their minds, the culture and the church ought to be kept at arm’s length from one another.