September 2020
Stewardship and Abundance

Editor's Letter October 2020

Dear Friends,

Stewardship is challenging work every year, but things feel especially difficult for many this year. Are you trying to conduct a stewardship campaign on your own? Are you considering the people and community around you who can be partners in this collaborative work? In this issue we bring you experiences from around the Church that prove stewardship is a team activity every year, but even more so this year.

What does faithful generosity look like during a pandemic? In Stewardship and Abundance During a Pandemic, Mark McKone-Sweet and Demetreus Gregg tell the story of St Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Poway, California, where the realities of this year were no match for the grace and generosity of God’s people.

Anyone in the church can confirm that stewardship is not a solo project. How do we mobilize and inspire stewardship volunteers and encourage collaboration? In Four Ideas for Stewardship Recruitment, Linda Buskirk shares practical ideas that will help transform stewardship ministry at your parish.

Stewardship practices are often deeply rooted and inextricably linked to our culture and traditions. In A Native Sense of Stewardship, Forrest Cuch and Michael Carney give us insight into the generosity of the Utes and their powerful trust in and connection with the Creator.

Money is not the only currency your ministry requires. Are we considering what God’s currencies may be? In Creating Year-round Stewardship with Holy Currencies, Bill Cruse explains key learnings from Eric Law’s Holy Currencies: Six Blessings for Sustainable Missional Ministries and the Kaleidoscope Institute’s Stewardship365 curriculum. This article is available in English and Spanish.

FaithX in partnership with the Episcopal Church Foundation is pleased to announce the launch of a new Congregational Vitality Assessment Tool (CVA), available at no cost for immediate use. The Congregational Vitality Assessment tool is designed to provide a congregation with an assessment of its Vitality (how healthy it is) and its Sustainability (whether it has the people, financial, and contextual resources necessary to survive). The vitality section carries the bulk of the assessment, measuring ten areas of congregational functioning, such as Vision and Mission, Leadership, Lay Empowerment, Worship, Formation, Stewardship and more. The assessment can be completed by a single congregational leader, a congregational leadership group, or the entire congregation. Learn more here or go directly to the tool here.

To learn more about ECF and our programs, please visit our website.

Faithfully,

Charis Bhagianathan
Editor, ECFVP

This article is part of the September 2020 Vestry Papers issue on Stewardship and Abundance