Vital Posts / Stewardship

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  • “Final Affairs” Fair Offers a Good Way Out ✓
    Our church on Saturday used the format provided on the Vital Practices website to host a “Final Affairs” Fair where members could look death in the eye and walk away smiling. The idea is have in one place information and resources about a n…
  • Show Me!
    ... let us love one another, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. (1 John 3:18) Whenever I read this week’s Epistle, Audrey Hepburn’s voice jumps into my head as Eliza Doolittle explodes at Freddie: Words, words, words I’m…
  • Caretaking
    Today the house inspector comes. If all goes well, we’re on the path to be first-time homeowners. After fifteen years in a rental apartment in New York City, two years as “resident companions” with a monastic community, and one year living as…
  • Noises Off
    One of my favorite stage devices is the unseen character, the person who has a significant role in plot and play but is never seen by the audience. Today I am thinking about the householder in the parable of the talents. Without him, there is no…
  • The Hunger Games
    The highly anticipated movie The Hunger Games opens this Friday in theaters across the nation. Based on a series of young adult novels by the same name, this movie reflects on scarcity, individualism, and an ethos of distrust. In this blog post from …
  • Aspects of Offering
    In their book Celebrating the Offering, brothers and Methodist ministers Melvin and James Amerson assert that offerings of prayer, presence, gifts, and service are all required to be good stewards. This must have been in the back of my mind whe…
  • Birds of the air, lilies of the field
    In yesterday’s blog post on ECF Vital Practices, Richelle Thompson shared an effective practice for starting a meeting. She described how one facilitator asked each person to share their favorite story from scripture. This simple practice turned ou…
  • Love is a Verb: Faith & Action Year Round Stewardship Ads
    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 …
  • Creating a Culture of Giving
    John Lennon promoted the use of the imagination as a way to change the way people thought about the world, their place in it, and what it might take to change the world. He invited us to dream and hope and invite others into imagining what life cou…
  • Beyond Three T’s
    Over the holidays I read the book Reclaiming the Great Commission by Bishop Claude Payne and Hamilton Beasley. The book describes a transformational model that Bishop Payne, clergy, and lay leaders developed and introduced during his episcopacy wit…
  • Ouch. And thank you.
    The dreaded letter finally arrived last Wednesday. It was a letter from my parish politely noting that my partner and I had only paid half of our 2011 pledge. After reading it, I handed the letter to my better half, winced at the thought of the amoun…
  • Are we being faithful as fiduciaries?
    “Fiduciary.” When I first heard the word it was a bit of a stumbling block, a mouthful of technical legalese. But in years of working with nonprofit and church groups, I eventually picked up its meaning by context. Basically, members of governi…
  • 'Tis the Season
    The letters and phone calls just keep coming in. I received five donation requests yesterday: four fundraising letters and one awkward phone call with a college-age volunteer. The majority of these are from organizations I currently donate to, hav…
  • Dream Budget
    Our finance committee held its first meeting this week to build the 2012 budget. For the third year in a row I have encouraged staff and ministry leaders to submit “dream budgets” that will let the vestry know what directions they would pursue …
  • Gratitude & The Pursuit of Happiness
  • Something to Talk About
    Following on yesterday’s posting about tithing and proportional giving, I would like to talk more specifically about the “modern tithe.” In some traditions, the expectation is that members of the congregation will give 10% of their net inc…
  • Simple Giving
    Last Saturday, during a stewardship workshop session on tithing, I made the remark that I have tithed since the age of three. How is that even possible? How much money does a three year old have? Well, this three year old had 25 cents a week, $…
  • Editor's Letter on Innovative Stewardship
    Across the Episcopal Church, congregations, dioceses, agencies, and individuals are engaged in asset based community development (ABCD) a growing movement that considers local assets as the primary building blocks of sustainable community developme…
  • Roscoe and the Widow's Mite
    Roscoe opens his hand to reveal the pair of earrings. The tarnished hoops look small in his calloused hands. I found these in one of the trash bags I was sorting through, he tells me. I cleaned ‘em up real good for you. I take t…
  • What's Your Asking Style?
    Are you getting ready to speak the question every leader eventually needs to ask? “Are you willing to join me in giving…?" In most of our congregations, we’re coming upon the time for annual pledge or giving campaigns. I consider stewards…
  • Vanity of Vanities; All Is Vanity
    In just a few days I’ll travel to Texas to visit my parents, eat Texas-styled brisket, and to talk shop. And when I say “talk shop” I mean that literally. My parents have a small shop where they sell antiques as well as old and refurbished furn…
  • Editor's Letter: September 2011
    September is a time of new beginnings. Summer vacations are over and the start of the new church program year brings a sense of optimism, a chance to try something new. For the September and October Vestry Papers, we’re sharing stories from i…
  • A Stewardship Miracle
    It’s not loaves and fishes. But considering that some Episcopalians regard coffee hour as the eighth sacrament, this is close. An entrepreneur, Jonathan Stark wasn’t planning an experiment about the kindness of strangers. He was exploring…
  • Stewardship season is just around the corner...
    How meaningful will your next annual stewardship campaign be? In the midst of bitter debates about the U.S. debt ceiling and increasing fears of rattled markets, our congregations’ annual stewardship campaigns can be about a lot more than money …
  • The Giving Connection
    Deciding where to give these days is getting tricky. I’ve been part of a wonderful Episcopal congregation in New York City for over 15 years. Week in and week out I’ve seen the incarnate love of God expressed in and through the members of t…
  • What’s Your Claim to Fame?
    How or what is your congregation known for in your community? In my town, the two Episcopal Churches may be best known for their fundraisers. Both St. Michael’s and St. Andrew’s Episcopal churches in Marblehead, Mass have long established f…
  • Morning Musings on Giving
    I’ve been thinking about stewardship and giving all week. First, there was the announcement in the parish bulletin reminding us saintly slackers to keep up with our pledges over the summer. I admit it: I needed that reminder. Since I haven’t se…
  • Editor's Letter: Caring for Each Other
    This month Vestry Papers continues to explore the theme Caring for Each Other, with a special focus on caring for the newcomer in our midst and the ways we care for ourselves as a congregation so as to maintain – or restore – our vitality. …
  • Spirituality of Fundraising
    Can fundraising be good for your spiritual health? Henri Nouwen thinks so. Many of us have come to love Henri Nouwen – his books, wisdom, life story, and especially his ability to convey the depths of spiritual life and practice in a way that…
  • Hablando de la Mayordomía
    “Un sacerdote no puede hablar de dinero”, dijeron miembros de la feligresía del Padre Juan. Es muy probable que haya personas en su feligresía que digan cosas similares. La …
  • Stewardship: Glass half-full
    The list of expenses was long. Over the past year, this Appalachian church installed a new boiler system, purchased an industrial stove and oven, and dug up half the parking lot to repair the water and sewer pipes. Bids are out for a new roof…
  • Pass the Plate. Or not.
    Updated on January 26, 2012 - Theresa Mathes, Associate Program Director, came across the following chart of online services.  More and more churchgoers want to make their financial contributions online. Does your church website make it easy …
  • Trash or ???
    Outside, the street sweeper is making another pass. After the snowiest winter in years, the streets are full of sand – and trash. Earlier this week I had a conversation about trash with Tracey Lind and Richard Horton from Cleveland’s Trinit…
  • The Little Church That Could
    “We had an emergency building committee meeting on Thursday. The boiler is failing. But when I left the meeting, after 2 hours, I was so energized!” That isn’t the usual response from a property committee chair. But it was Liz’s respons…
  • Transition Towns...and Churches?
    The Holy Spirit is a renewable resource. It’s been fueling Christian communities for over 2000 years, since the first great unleashing at Pentecost. Fossil fuels are not.         Although they’ve been fueling our modern society for about …
  • Getting Perspective
    This isn’t the blog post I had in mind. Last night, still wrestling with words and a deadline, I took a break to join the Sisters in singing the ancient prayers of Compline. Yet when I left chapel I was overwhelmed by something more ancient: the …
  • Going Green: A Step at a Time
    Hearing the rumble outside my office window, my first thought was that the recycling truck had arrived. When the noise continued longer than expected, I looked up: it was the oil truck. Living in the northeast, I have a love/hate relationship wi…
  • La Bonne Cuisine: A Mortgage and a Mission
  • Caring for Creation
    Subtle changes happen to the earth as the spring equinox approaches. The sun is higher in the sky and days are noticeably longer. Hints of new growth appear on trees and shrubs. The drab colors of winter give way to the bright colors of new life. …
  • What’s in a Name?
    A lot. When it comes to honoring someone in a public way, people may take it personally. People in my hometown are crying ‘foul’ over a recent school committee decision related to naming the football field after a respected teac…
  • Final Affairs
    My 96 year old father-in-law passed away recently. Or, as the woman who called us at midnight said to my husband, "Your dad expired." Bob died the way he lived: on his own terms. Fiercely independent, he resisted recent attempts by family to se…
  • Make an ask this New Year's Eve
    Since there are only ten more days until Christmas Eve, it’s likely that many people and parishes are feeling the pressure. There are choir rehearsals to attend, Christmas Eve services to plan, new visitors to welcome and a children’s Christmas…
  • Busybodies or Workers?
    I’ve been thinking a lot about “work” lately. The value of work, types of work, and how people work. St. Paul got me thinking even more last weekend with his letter to the Thessalonians. Bluntly put: if you won’t work, you shouldn’t eat. …
  • And the Gold Goes to ...
    E-mail addresses are gold. By Olympic award standards, the bronze medal goes to snail mail addresses. Cell phone numbers snag the silver. But e-mail addresses rise to the top of the podium. Managing the database for a congregation…
  • The Balance Between Crazy and Amazing
    My diocese is not known to have many money problems.    But when a committee started drafting the 2011 budget, they realized we were facing a shortfall. Like every church organization, we’ve tightened our belts, frozen salaries, and made toug…
  • Three stitches. All better.
    Head wounds bleed.
 A lot.    
In Friday's contest between gate and girl, the gate won.
 When I picked up my 9-year-old, she hadn't cried yet. The tears hung on her lower lids until we left the school. Away from the sympathiz…
  • Facebook Stewardship
    If your parish has an active Facebook page, it is likely the idea of fundraising through Facebook has come up. A vestry member, for instance, pleased by the number of “likes” their parish page has received, imagines a day when a wall post yiel…
  • Going Green
    The Hope Conference (Healing Our Planet Earth (HOPE): Singing a New Song of Hope) was held in Seattle in 2008.  Featuring keynote speakers Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Bishop Stephen Charleston this event put the Episcopal Church …
  • Lost in Translation: Generosity
    Stewardship, apparently, gives off a bad smell. Or at least it does in Spanish. I’ve recently heard several Latino leaders wonder aloud whether we should continue using the Spanish word for stewardship. A steward - un mayordomo - has generall…