{"id":1818,"date":"2021-06-29T13:02:18","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T13:02:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.presbyterianmission.org\/weekly-offerings\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2021-06-30T18:29:38","modified_gmt":"2021-06-30T18:29:38","slug":"summer-stewardship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/weekly-offerings\/2021\/06\/29\/summer-stewardship\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer Stewardship"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ren\u00e9 Myers<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In the words of Nat King Cole, \u201cRoll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Summer is upon us, typically a time of respite from normal routines and activities \u2014 school, work, church programs. This summer might not be quite so \u201clazy,\u201d as the world is emerging from pandemic isolation now that the CDC has issued relaxed guidelines. \u201cCrazy\u201d may be a better descriptor this year, as people and families rush excitedly into vacations that have been long postponed.<\/p>\n

Our churches have been challenged in ways we could scarcely have imagined just two years ago. Traditionally summer would be a more dormant time for church activities and programs. We might be planning for the upcoming fall kickoff, which would include our annual stewardship campaign. Truly this year is anything but traditional. How can we see with new eyes what God is inviting us to engage? What has the pandemic taught us? Our ministries and witness are not as tied to our buildings as we may have believed before. The realities of oppression and vulnerability of community members outside the doors of our churches have come into stark relief.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Teachers from Iglesia Hispana Presbiteriana Betel and Woodstown Church in Vineland, New Jersey, together after planning a joint Vacation Bible School week for Spanish-speaking children in the community.<\/p><\/div>\n

So, what might be helpful this summer as we look toward our stewardship campaigns this fall? Stewarding the resources that come to us is part of the work of the whole family of God for the common good of all. Using the summer to find creative ways to utilize our physical buildings for the common good of our communities \u2014 and highlighting that for our members and our communities \u2014 will demonstrate how we are living out the witness to the love and hope of Christ in our midst.<\/p>\n

I recently had an inspiring conversation with Kevin Riley, commissioned pastor of Mount Baker Presbyterian Church in Concrete, Washington. This is a small, rural congregation in a community with high rates of poverty, homelessness and addiction. The congregation engages in ministries of feeding for the community by offering \u201call the fixins for a spaghetti dinner\u201d to members of the community each Wednesday. As the school year winds down and they are seeing fewer people come for this sharing, they have \u201cflipped,\u201d Kevin\u2019s word, their ministry to a pancake breakfast in the park. This has resulted in people volunteering to help \u2014 even people who are not affiliated with the church! Their outreach to the homeless population led to a new partnership with the County Health Department, through which a medically assisted drug treatment center was established in the church building. Kevin reached out to me for ideas of how their congregation could live into their Matthew 25 identity. I did offer examples of how other churches are engaged in similar ministries, but mostly I affirmed for Kevin and his congregation that they are deeply engaged in living out the gospel.<\/p>\n

Perhaps you, too, could use this summer to highlight your congregation\u2019s engagement in your community as one way to demonstrate your church\u2019s faithful stewardship of the resources entrusted to it. Then, once those \u201clazy, hazy, crazy days of summer\u201d are in your rearview mirror, come fall you could utilize those stories of community engagement as an integral part of your annual stewardship campaign to invite increased participation in God\u2019s mission through the outreach of your church.<\/p>\n

Now isn\u2019t that good news?<\/p>\n

Ren\u00e9 Myers is the Presbyterian Mission Agency\u2019s mission engagement advisor for the West region.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Listen to a June 30 podcast featuring Kevin Riley. Hosted by Corey Schlosser-Hall, “On the Verge<\/a>” is a series of conversations with people who take great ideas and turn them into something real!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ren\u00e9 Myers In the words of Nat King Cole, \u201cRoll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.\u201d Summer is upon us, typically a time of respite from normal routines and activities \u2014 school, work, church programs. This summer might not be quite so \u201clazy,\u201d as the world is emerging from pandemic isolation now… Read more »<\/a>","protected":false},"author":593,"featured_media":1819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103,86],"tags":[1583,3157,1743,1709,3156,3158,1291,2653,59,726,3155],"class_list":["post-1818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creativity","category-giving","tag-community","tag-kevin-riley","tag-matthew-25","tag-mission","tag-mount-baker-presbyterian-church","tag-nat-cole","tag-poverty","tag-rene-myers","tag-stewardship","tag-summer","tag-summer-stewardship"],"yoast_head":"\nSummer Stewardship - Where Your Heart Is...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Use this summer to highlight your congregation\u2019s engagement in your community as one way to demonstrate your church\u2019s faithful stewardship of the resources entrusted to it.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/weekly-offerings\/2021\/06\/29\/summer-stewardship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Summer Stewardship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Use this summer to highlight your congregation\u2019s engagement in your community as one way to demonstrate your church\u2019s faithful stewardship of the resources entrusted to it.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/weekly-offerings\/2021\/06\/29\/summer-stewardship\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Where Your Heart Is...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-06-29T13:02:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-06-30T18:29:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/58-VBS-Woodstown-2019.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lauren Rogers\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lauren Rogers\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/weekly-offerings\/2021\/06\/29\/summer-stewardship\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/centernet.pcusa.org\/weekly-offerings\/2021\/06\/29\/summer-stewardship\/\",\"name\":\"Summer Stewardship - 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