Here we are in July – the fullness of lower worship attendance, members vacationing and enjoying their weekends at the shore or the mountains – and with it, lower offerings! How do you handle the summer slump? As always, let’s begin by looking at the principal values that build strong stewardship and motivate generosity all...
Category: Stewardship
July 1, 2017
Stewardship Tip: Handling the Summer Slump
Here we are in July – the fullness of lower worship attendance, members vacationing and enjoying their weekends at the shore or the mountains – and with it, lower offerings! How do you handle the summer slump? As always, let’s begin by looking at the principal values that build strong stewardship and motivate generosity all...
June 5, 2017
Stewardship Tip: Half Empty or Half Full?
Pastor Blair Morgan, Director for Evangelical Mission in Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod, has done a good job of talking about how we look at what we have, based on a workshop he attended with The Rev. Dr. Marty Stevens of Gettysburg Seminary: One of the recurring themes that Dr. Stevens covered was the difference between God’s...
May 5, 2017
Stewardship Tip: 10-10-80
Pastor Blair Morgan, Director for Evangelical Mission in Southwestern Pennsylvania Synod had an article that can be helpful for our congregational members as they think about managing their personal finances. It has also been lifted up by Thrivent, and if you want to have a congregational program that helps teach children (and adults) about responsible...
April 4, 2017
Stewardship Tip: Quarterly Reports
The first quarter of the calendar year is over and in many congregations the Financial Secretary sends out a “quarterly report.” As you think about your congregation’s practices in this area of stewardship, consider some of the following: If you don’t send quarterly reports to your members, reconsider it. It is NOT a bill It...
March 2, 2017
Tip: Other Stewardship Topics
Year round stewardship enables us to lift up consistent themes about generosity and stewardship as a management function for the gifts and blessings entrusted to us by God. Two of the important areas of stewardship will be highlighted by our country in April and it is a good way for our congregations to be in...
February 6, 2017
Stewardship Tip: Maximize Your Mission
Lent is just around the corner and it is a perfect time to maximize your mission with a specific mission project. When people know that their generosity has made a difference they not only feel good, but are inclined to continue to support your other ministries. Here are some ideas: Use mid-week, Holy Week and...
January 6, 2017
Storytelling: Stewardship’s Bottom Line
When people know that their generosity has made a difference they not only feel good, but are inclined to continue to support those ministries.The bottom line is to tell your story Tell it creatively Succinctly (bulletin insert, short newsletter blurb, short video online or during worship) Tell it often and in a variety of ways...
November 30, 2016
Stewardship Tip: Embrace Generosity this Advent/Christmas
How do we provide practical programs that help our members embrace generosity and alert them to the dangers of our culture’s “spend, spend, spend” mentality? The Advent/Christmas season is one of the times of the year that lends itself to lifting up the economic tensions of these dual messages. Many congregations encourage generosity with multiple...
October 13, 2016
Stewardship Tip: 10-10-80 Principle
The 10-10-80 Principle of money management has been lifted up in different contexts over the years. The principle itself is pretty basic. It encourages each disciple to prayerfully embrace an approach to their incomes around these three percentages: 10% is offered to the work of God’s kingdom in the world through the church and other...
September 28, 2016
Money, Mission, and Media: ‘Generosity Is a Learned Virtue’
“We are in a (new) Pentecost moment,” the Rev. Ruth Santana Grace, executive presbyter of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, told more than 200 church leaders gathered at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia for Money, Mission, and Media, a conversation about the challenges and opportunities for 21st Century digital ministry. In changing times, the church...
May 16, 2016
Balanced 2017 Budget Approved
The Assembly approved a balanced budget for fiscal 2017 that reflects the continuing decrease in Mission Support contributions from churches. In 2015 Mission Support totaled $1.97 million, a decrease of $180,000 from 2014, reported Treasurer Janet Neff, CPA. The Synod has been responsible managing with diminishing resources, she said. Since 2010, Mission Support has declined...
June 11, 2014
Convocation Explores Generosity, Generations
For the first time in history, six generations are living and worshipping in our congregations simultaneously. To thrive congregations must find ways to relate to all of these cohorts, even though they respond to very different approaches to faith formation and institutional support. Join us at the 2014 Bishop’s Convocation as we explore the connection...
May 10, 2014
Ministry Partner: Stewardship Resource Team
“It’s all about modeling” said Rev. Larry Smoose, team leader for the Synod’s Stewardship Resource Team. To grow mission-minded stewards of finances, time, and talent, said Rev. Smoose, it’s important that congregational leaders – and congregations themselves – model what it means to be good stewards. For example, if the goal is tithing, the congregation...
January 29, 2014
Consider Your Congregation’s Mission Support
Gifts through Mission Support are a primary way that congregations live into their interdependence with the Synod and the ELCA. Congregations are encouraged to prayerfully consider their Mission Support response and to use the form posted online to indicate their 2014 intent to the Synod Office as soon as possible. The following letter...
September 6, 2011
Fall Stewardship Resources
Thinking of Stewardship? Select Learning offers several courses to enhance your stewardship ministry, including "Biblical Stewardship: Our Duty and Delight," "EarthBound: Created and Called to Care for Creation" and "Money Leadership: Your Life with Money."
May 16, 2011
Treasurer: ‘We Have Some Work to Do”
Synod Treasurer Dick Reimet offered good news and “difficult news” in his 32ndand final report to the Assembly. Partnership support from congregations to the Synod and the ELCA fell again in 2010. The nearly $86,000 decrease brought receipts to just under $2.35 million, well below the amount received in 1985. Measured as a percentage of...
May 16, 2011
Balanced 2012 Budget Approved
The Assembly approved a balanced $2.54 million budget for 2012. After completing several years with deficits that depleted the Synod’s Fund for Mission and with a continuing decline in partnership support gifts from congregations, the finance committee and Synod Council decided to present a balanced budget for 2012, said The Rev. Christopher Weidner, finance chair....
October 24, 2008
Tips for stewardship during economic downturn
"Financial downturns create uncertainty and fear," says Ed Kruse, ELCA director for stewardship. But Kruse notes that "generosity has never been a matter of how much money we have." He offers several tips for congregations who "want to grow a culture of generosity" on the ELCA website
