Notes from your Pastor
Thoughts on Stewardship
Each Sunday at Williams Memorial from October 19 through November 9 we will be talking about the life of the church: our worship, ministry, mission and stewardship. We will be making and dedicating our financial pledges during worship on November 9th. Our financial pledges are one aspect of our joyful response to Jesus Christ. A reflection on giving applies to others aspects of our lives together as well. Consider these questions as we move toward dedication Sunday. In addition to money, what else do you and do we as a congregation have to offer God? What else do we as a congregation have to offer a world in need? What else do we have to offer our surrounding community? Some possible answers, to which I encourage you to add your own answers...friendship, space, clothes, food, compassion, mentoring, hope, Bible study, encouragement, wisdom, support, love...and the many forms and possible ways that all of these offerings can take shape. Imagine what God can and will do with what we have! peace, Carol
Stewarship
Christians are given faith and called into the community that is called church. The church is not a building, but a living, changing, responding, needing body of members. The life of a church congregation is grounded in worship-first and foremost we respond to God's initiative of gracious redemption with praise! We confess our sins that our hearts be prepared to hear God's Word proclaimed (in song, in prayer, in the sermon, in the Bible). Having received God's Word we respond: with offerings, prayers for others, ordination of elders, commisioning of mission workers. Worship is our response to God that in turn opens up to the work of God's Spirit as he nurtures our faith, nourishes our souls, calls us into service, reveals to us his will and his ways. Worship is the ground from which our response to God grows. The life of a congregation is rooted deeply in its worship. Out of worship grows our joyful response to God in Jesus Christ: stewardship.
Stewardship is the trunk of the church. Stewardship grows out of worship as a "Yes" response to Jesus Christ. "Yes!" to Jesus' call to ministry and to mission. Stewardship is the way in which we turn our desire to serve into real, tangible service. The hope that is proclaimed in worship becomes a ministry of compassion, a ministry of justice, a ministry of presence. The justice we proclaim in worship becomes a ministry of respect, a ministry of advocacy, a ministry of dignity. The grace that God gives so freely to us becomes a shared joy, a much needed act of love, a turning point in someone's life. To move from words of hope, justice, and grace to service requires hearts, hands, time, gifts, skills, space, resources, and money. Stewardship is using our hearts, hands, time, gifts, skills, space, resources and money willingly and generously to serve God and follow Jesus Christ. When a church is a strong in stewardship then the mission and ministries of Jesus Christ flourish.
Ministry is the many ways in which we proclaim the Good News within the church and among other Christians. Ministry is service and service requires people giving of their hearts, hands, time, gifts, skills, space, resources and money. Ministries are branches in the living, growing tree that is the church. To name a few of the ministry branches on the church tree: ministries of teaching, leadership, singing, pastoral care, fellowship, learning, playing, meals, companionship, administration, encouragement, prayer, maintenance and repair, and providing for basic needs.
Mission is the many ways in which we spread the Good News to those who haven't heard it yet. Mission looks beyond the church community to people all over the world and in our own backyards who are in need and/or who haven't heard the Good News. Mission is also service and service requires hearts, hands, time, gifts, skills, space, resources and money. Mission brings the love of Jesus Christ to life for someone in need. Mission brings light to dark places, hope to the desperate, power to the powerless, respect and dignity to the excluded. The possibilities for mission branches on the church tree are endless.
It is stewardship grounded in worship that makes for a strong tree and strong branches of mission and ministry.
The tree logo represents the life of the church: grounded in worship lived out through responsible and responsive stewardship growing into ministry and mission. At the center of the life of the church? The cross of Jesus Christ.
Thanks to Ryan Drye, member of WMPC, for the logo!
Worship, Ministry, Mission, and Stewardship
Remember that the tree represents the life of the church.
The life of the church grows out of the life giving ground of WORSHIP.
(From Kennon Callahan’s Dynamic Worship, Jossey-Bass, 1994)
“Worship gives power to our life…Worship builds community in our life…Worship gives meaning to our life…Worship gives hope to our life…
Worship is dynamic when people sense the stirring, moving presence of the living God in their midst. We are lifted to our best, true selves. The future is open before us. The worst of the past is forgiven. The best of the past is treasured, and the best of the present and the future is discovered. In worship at its best, we genuinely sense our lives being touched, our destinies advanced, our hopes inspired.”
Ministry in the life of the church. Comments by Wendy Leatherwood
Ministry can take many forms...words, deeds or just presence. Ministry within the church and among other Christians is vital to the work of Jesus Christ. It is our "internal support system". Ministry between Christians revitalizes and energizes us. It provides us with the strength, knowledge and inspiration to do the work of the other cluster of branches of the church life tree...mission.
