There’s another way besides a line-item budget to present your congregation’s proposed annual spending plan. A Narrative Budget tells the story of how your church practices good stewardship of the gifts entrusted to it. It provides a vision of where the church hopes to be in the coming budget cycle. It reflects how the congregation spends its time, talent, and treasure rather than paying the bills.Check out this free 12-page resource. (Photo: Rob Nguyen, Creative Commons)
There’s a real art to writing an effective stewardship letter, and most people are not trained in it. This workshop outline from ELCA Stewardship Resources will help your team to craft letters that will help give you the results you want.
The breadth and depth of stewardship theology leads us to appeal to one another to discover lives of meaning and purpose, stewardship lives. This happens as we engage in worship of God and as we honor God’s plan; as we gather to encourage and support one another in a living organism, the Body of Christ; as we make a difference in the world through service to people and care of creation; and as we teach behaviors that free us from bondage to money. [Check out this powerful 17-page essay from ELCA Stewardship Resources.] (Photo by the US Bureau of Land Management, used by Creative Commons license)
From ELCA Stewardship comes a set of sermon helps keyed to the Lectionary readings for all the Sundays in October. Written by Michael Meier, Stewardship Key Leader. Thought provoking ideas to help get those creative juices flowing. (Photo by Sumos, via Bigstockphoto.com)
