Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

I’m not sure who coined the term love is a verb. But it seems to me it offers one of the most succinct summations of the Gospel. I remember quite vividly sitting in my ethics class in seminary and my professor The Rev. Dr. John Kater lectured on the New Testament understanding of agape, the Greek word for love, as one of the chief characteristics of the Reign of God.

You remember the Greek language has several words for love. Eros is the cupid sense of being in love. Philos represents the bond of love between friends. Philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love. Agape is the love not born out of emotions or feelings; rather it is about behavior. Agape, Dr. Kater told the class, is best translated as respect. It is about how you honor the other person.

Agape involves choice. How do we choose to show agape, a way of acting toward the well-being of another person? Agape lies at the heart of Jesus' ethical teachings. Jesus seemed to know that the more we behave a certain way the more we become that person. Ethics is the practical consequences for what we believe.

One of the many working definitions of stewardship--and this one has been around for the last sixty years---is everything we do after we say we believe. My sense is this definition has its staying power because it begs the question: What do we believe? And how do our actions, our behavior align with our beliefs? Holistic and ethical in its approach, this definition asks us to consider how we connect our faith and action. How do we show agape?

The Office of Communications of The Episcopal Church recently launched a campaign series titled, Faith and Action Year Round Stewardship Campaign. Each month, the ad highlights an active verb such as resolve, prepare, examine. January reads Resolve: To be faithful in little. To be faithful in much. Each ad includes the tagline Give to your Episcopal Church. 

Here are some of the ways your congregation can highlight and use this series, including on or as part of your: 

• Website
• Weekly Worship Bulletin
• Newsletter (both electronic and print)
• Minute for Mission Theme Topic
• Small Group Study Theme Topic
• Sermon Series
• Monthly Stewardship Articles/Blogs
• Video Blog Topics
• Explore themes of giving of prayer, time, gifts of ministry, leadership, creativity, proportional giving—to your Episcopal Church

These ads prompt us to widen the lens of stewardship by encompassing a broader understanding of stewardship as in everything we do after we say we believe. The series invites us to see stewardship more as verb than a noun.

The ad series also serves to remind one another that giving is a spiritual practice and expresses the value we place on the role of our worshiping communities. Remember Jesus' command to love can be translated by what we do to respect and honor the well being of the other. Embracing a practice of giving, especially proportional giving, cultivates a deeper trust in God, deepens faith, and is one of the most concrete ways we honor God, honors our worshiping community and our neighbor—both locally and globally. Giving is agape, it is love in action. 

The Faith in Action Year Round Stewardship Ads are available English and in Spanish. 

The Rev. Laurel Johnston is Program Officer for Stewardship of the Episcopal Church. Sign up for her office's e-newsletter, The Steward's Well, here.