Giving is Fun!

”God loves a cheerful giver.”  (2 Corinthians 9:7b)

Blake was so tired one night in the middle of the mission trip that he fell asleep at the table during supper! When he got home he was sick for a week, became dehydrated and had to spend time in the Emergency Room.

Now that he's recovered, his pastor asked him, "If you had known ahead of time that you were going to get so sick, would you have gone anyway?" Blake quickly responded, "Of course! Those people have to live like that all the time. We only had to do it for one week.  And, we were able to build some things to help make their lives a little better."

God gives us time, talents and treasures to use for God's glory.  They are not gifts given to us to store in bigger barns for ourselves.  They are like seeds, given to us to plant in good, rich soil so that they can bear the fruit of God's love for us to share with the world.

We often feel the temptation to use all the blessings that come to our own lives for our own benefit.  Our Christian faith, however, invites us to live in community.  Jesus calls us to TITHE, SHARE, and SACRIFICE from all our blessings.

How will you use your time, talents, and treasures to make a joyful difference for God this month?

-- WI Annual Conference Stewarship Message

God Is Still In Control!

Miss Lladale Carey
Web Content Producer
www.umcgiving.org
lcarey@umcom.org

Should I Give Less When I Retire?

Yes, my income is less; yes, I need to tighten my belt; but, please hear the experience of a couple from First UMC in West Allis when they reached retirement.

Introducing Sheridan and “Lou” Ellsworth.   Sheridan retired from a long career of teaching and as a Principal in the West Allis School System.  “Lou” was a homemaker and a very talented artist.   They loved this church!  When retirement came they pondered “must we reduce our giving to match our reduced income?” 

After much thought and prayer the answer was, “Heavens, No!”  They discovered that when not holding a regular job their expenses were much less, and so in retirement they actually increased their giving! 

You cannot love something and not offer your best – especially to your church, your family, your friends, and your Lord… “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also!”

-- Rev. Earl F. Lindsay, Retired,WI Annual Conference

The following was story one of many stewardship stories that we will be shared from individuals throughout the Wisconsin Annual Conference.

God Is Still In Control!

Miss Lladale Carey
Web Content Producer
www.umcgiving.org
lcarey@umcom.org

Building Church Budgets

Around this time of year, many churches are beginning to prepare ministry budgets for next year.  We get calls with leaders trying to figure out how much should go into each category to help make sure a church is sound financially.  As a very broad, general rule, we have recommended that churches consider using one third of the budget for missional giving, one third for facility and operational expenses and the other third for staff compensation.  This kind of a budget would be a goal as we know that many churches have suffered financially during the economic downturn and we have seen budgets so bare bones that 80% or more was for paying the preacher and the other 20% just to keep the lights on and doors open.  That does not leave much room for outreach and evangelism efforts.

As the economy begins to pick back up and individuals begin to come back or grow in giving to the church, we encourage you to take a look at how the budget is structured at your local church and make sure that budget reflects where your heart is as a church and helps you grow the mission of your church.  This may be a perfect time to revamp the budget and prioritize resources to the places that will help to focus the ministry most effectively.  Money and financial assets are only resources to assist ministry to get done and not barriers to ministry happening.   Give thanks to our Lord for the great abundance God has given us and do the very best you can with the resources that have been given.  If we are solely focused on God’s work, our efforts will be blessed and we will do far more than we realize can be done with what we have.  Thanks be to God for the blessings of which we are aware – and the ones we are given that we don’t even recognize!

-- Christine, North Carolina Annual Conference

God Is Still In Control

Miss Lladale Carey
Web Content Producer
www.umcgiving.org
lcarey@umcom.org

Giving is…recognizing God’s priorities

Teaching Children About Money

Learning how to handle money responsibly was a value my wife and I wanted to pass on to our three children.  Yet, where does one go for appropriate “curriculum” for such teaching?  We decided to develop our own system.  Among the values related to money management that we wanted to teach were:

1. Learning to give to God and others.
2. Learning to save.
3. Learning to spend responsibly.

As a fundamental learning experience, we provided each of our children with three banks, as soon as they were old enough to receive money of their own.  One was the “spending” bank.  One was the “saving” bank.  One bank was for “giving.”  The kids were urged to divide whatever money they receive among the banks.  And this they did without complaint.

The plan worked beautifully for a number of years, until one day my oldest son came home from Sunday school.  

Facing me, Chris declared, “Dad, you’ve been lying to me!”  I couldn’t imagine what he was talking about!

“You’ve always told me I should give away one third of my money.  Today in Sunday school, they told us to give only 10 percent!”

By: Wayne Barrett

The Abingdon Guide to Funding Ministry, Vol. 2

by Donald W. Joiner and Norma Wimberly

Copyright 1996 by Abingdon Press

God Is Still In Control!

Miss Lladale Carey

Web Content Producer

www.umcgiving.org

lcarey@umcom.org

Faithful Steps with Others

"Where you go, I will go; Where you lodge, I will lodge;

your people shall be my people, and your God my God." --Ruth 1:l6b

I honestly never preached from Ruth until this past fall, It was then that the story grabbed me. Here is Ruth, a Moabite, a foreign woman, who makes the decision to stick with her mother- in-law, Naomi and journey to
Naomi's homeland. Ruth's husband is dead Naomi is without husband or son, so she decides to go to her ancestral home in Bethlehem. Naomi seeks to convince her daughter-in-law, Ruth, to stay behind with her own people, but Ruth insists on going with Naomi. Ruth steps out in faith. One faithful step at a time without knowing what is fully before her.

The story continues with Naomi guiding Ruth into a marriage with Boaz. It turns out that Ruth is the great-grandmother of King David. She is also listed in the ancestry of Jesus in the gospels. Ruth did not know this
at the time she stepped forward with Naomi. She just lived in faith that the two women could do more together than they could apart.

We are never sure about the future, but each faithful step with others can make a difference. Your dollars joined with other dollars can be the source of a scholarship for a young woman who may be the next bishop
of Mississippi. Your dollars may provide the bed net that prevents Malaria in Africa and saves the life of a child who could become the next Albert Einstein. Your dollars joined with other dollars may provide a camping experience for a child who will encounter the love of Jesus Christ for the first time and this child may be your future pastor.

We may never see the result of our next faithful steps in all of its fullness, but taking that next step with others--The Power of WE--may make all the difference.

-- Rev. Mike Hicks, Hattiesburg DS, MS Annual Conference

God Is Still In Control!

Miss Lladale Carey
Web Content Producer
www.umcgiving.org
lcarey@umcom.org

Lessons from the Kresge Kids

And the Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain. --Isaiah 25:6

They started praying weeks before the van left to pick up children who had been invited to Anna Kresge UMC in Cedartown. They weren't sure who would be waiting to get on it, but get on it they did. Kresge had an all too common problem: few children were attending their church. But a committed group, including several senior adults, decided to extend the table and reach out to children not reached by any church. The van returned loaded with children, and then went back out for even more children waiting to come. 

On a June summer evening, Kresge went from an average of 10 children to 40! The church now welcomes 65 children, and pastor Rebecca Holmes tells me adult attendance is growing too. Three vans go out each week, including the van from nearby Aragon UMC.  Has it been perfect? Hardly. Have these children increased worship attendance or giving? The jury is still out. But lives have been forever changed, including the adults who now consider Wednesdays the highlight of their week.

I offer some lessons learned from the Kresge Kids; they offer unique insights on those who are not yet at the table.    

It starts with prayer:  Prayer makes the impossible, suddenly possible. Wesley was right, God is for us. Are we praying like we believe that?

Children are important to God:  They are Jesus’ future church. Do whatever it takes to make them a priority ministry. The church they inherit will be very different from the one we know today. We are going to have to do things differently.  

Senior adults are a powerful resource and there are children in your community not being reached by anyone. It is all about the kids. Is Sunday the best day, or would Wednesday be a better day? For Kresge, it was Wednesday evening. For the unchurched, and for many in the fold, Sunday mornings are just hard. We have some work to do on why church matters.  


-- excerpt from Sharon Yancey, founder of The Matthew Initiative, a non-profit foundation that provides the seed funding and staff expertise to help new churches and churches who need to grow again, start a dynamic children's ministries program. Contact her at Yancey.Sharon@gmail.com.

North Georgia Annual Conference

God Is Still In Control!

Miss Lladale Carey
Web Content Producer
www.umcgiving.org
lcarey@umcom.org

Be faithful

“…fix your attention on God.    You’ll be changed from the inside out.”

  (Romans 12:2 The Message)

To give is to Respond Gratefully

My dad would sit down at the kitchen table on Saturday evenings, write a check, and put it in the envelope.  Then he would set it on the corner of the kitchen counter next to his car keys.   That’s it.  He never said anything to my brother and me about stewardship, about giving to God, about the importance of sharing.  He just did it.  He never missed.  He still does it every Saturday night.  It’s a powerful memory, and it continues. 

I did not inherit my dad’s organizational skills, nor more honestly, his faithfulness.  I have been known to search my purse for a pen while the ushers were coming down the aisle, or to fill out my check for the offering while the pastor was recapping the Gospel lesson.  If by some chance the plate went by before I finished – more times than I care to admit – that week’s offering never made it anywhere. 

But I still remember that envelope sitting by the car keys.  And some weeks I lay my own witness on the kitchen counter for my kids to see.  I might even write a bigger check to “catch up.”  It’s not a have-to it’s a want-to something from my past that allows me to be faithful. 

- Barbara DeGrote, from The Abingdon Guide to Funding Ministry, Vol. 3 by Donald Joiner and Norma Wimberly

God Is Still In Control!

Miss Lladale Carey
Web Content Producer
www.umcgiving.org
lcarey@umcom.org