What Stewardship Training Has Your Congregation Done Lately? Do you know that over two-thirds of LCMS congregations do not hold regular or intentional biblical stewardship teaching? That is 2 out of 3 congregations. In the Southeastern District’s 214 congregations, that amounts to over 141 congregations. So, I ask again—what deliberate stewardship training has your congregation done lately?
One of the reasons we tend to avoid talking stewardship is that for some reason, we don’t want to talk about money. Spoiler alert–Jesus talked about money or wealth in 11 of the 39 parables recorded in the Bible. That is nearly 30% of these important teachings. The only thing Jesus taught more about was the Kingdom of God.
Stewardship is much more than money. Money just happens to be a simple way of measuring how productive stewardship is.
Biblical Stewardship focuses on the giver’s need to give and not the church’s need to receive.
Stewardship should not be tied to church finances. Stewardship is much closer to the ministry of the church. Biblical stewardship refers to the recognition that everything we have, every aspect of life, comes from God and that we have been merely entrusted with these resources for a time as caretakers rather than owners of God’s blessings.
If you are looking for joyful biblical stewardship training from a Lutheran theological perspective, investigate LCEF’s Consecrated Stewardship Training. You can learn a bit more about it at https://lcef.org/church/ministry-solutions/stewardship or reach out to Kirk Hymes.
Congregations are using this approximately 8-week training to get a fresh look at stewardship and how important it is to live a Godly life. LCEF provides this facilitated training and supports it with great resources that you and your leaders can apply.
Kirk Hymes would look forward to discussing how Consecrated Stewards can be a great fit in your Biblical ministry.
If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to
Kirk Hymes – Khymes@se.lcms.org
LCEF Vice President of the SED & Executive Director of Stewardship