STEWARDSHIP FOR TODAY’S WOMAN – THE MOTHER

            I’m continuing to share something from the book, Stewardship for Today’s Woman written by Helen Kingsbury-Wallace. As a reminder, it was written in 1960.

            In my last two blogs, I spent time discussing the chapter titles, The Career Woman and The Wife. Today’s chapter is titled The Mother.

             This was another one of those chapters that I was not looking forward to. As someone who was never able to have children, I assumed that this chapter would spend its time explaining that the purpose of all women is to be a mother and…I was right. It did, on the face of it spend its time explaining the importance of the mother in a child’s life and the importance of the child in the mother’s life.

            However, when I let the discomfort fade a little, I did pick up on a few other things.

1.    The book talks about how stewardship in a family changes when someone new (a child) joins the family. I like that concept, not just as it relates to a family when a child is born, but what if we look at it as stewardship changing when someone new joins a church or community?

2.    “Children are influenced by actions rather than by exhortation.”[1] Of course, this book is spending time explaining how children learn by seeing what their parents do, not just what they say. The walking the walk concept. I think people in our churches learn from what our leadership, lay and clergy, are doing.

3.    “As the child grows, so do the opportunities for teaching Christian stewardship. In all too short a time the child has left the charmed circle of the Christian home and is finding that school, friends and the outside world…”[2] I think our churches need to take this thought seriously. Children are learning at home, of course, but they are learning at church. Sunday School is important, but, for many of our churches, if there are children, and Sunday School exists, after a few years, the child grows and no longer is “learning” from us. What if we found ways to connect with children, whether it’s official Sunday school, or packets of information, or Bibles, or mentors, or prayer partners? There are many opportunities that our churches should consider.

I have served and worked with churches that are focused on getting more children/ youth into church but are not focused on providing anything for them. “We’ll worry about youth group later”. “We’ll start Sunday School when kids come and stay.” But if someone comes into your church and there’s nothing, why would they come back? Think about it!

            We need to focus on how, why, where and when children are learning. It’s not JUST left up to the parents; ALL of us need to participate!

I will continue my review of this book in next month’s blog.

           

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you found this interesting.

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[1] Stewardship for Today’s Woman, by Helen Kingsbury Wallace (1960), pg. 46

[2] Stewardship for Today’s Woman, by Helen Kingsbury Wallace (1960), pg. 48

 

                 STEWARDSHIP FOR TODAY’S WOMAN – THE WIFE

            I’m continuing to share something from the book, Stewardship for Today’s Woman written by Helen Kingsbury-Wallace. As a reminder, it was written in 1960.

            In my last blog, I spent time discussing the first chapter titled The Career Woman. In this blog, I’m going to discuss the next chapter, The Wife.

            I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started this chapter. Perhaps I was dreading the thought of the “proper” sequence of events: a single career woman becoming married and becoming “the wife” that every woman should. To be fair, it didn’t read quite like that. It does spent the majority of the chapter talking about how a married woman is a steward, of her husband, of her family, of her home, of her life and of her time. If she does “her job” properly, then her husband will grow and become happier. It does have one line (on page 36) “it is true that the right kind of wife has great influence over her husband, shares her possessions with him, merges her life with his. But it is also true that she is also an individual and has a separate life which, in order to maintain the integrity of her personality, she must keep inviolate.” [1] 

            Th chapter does spent time talking about the “tools” that the woman has, including her vacuum cleaner and freezer, and then devolves right into a discussion about not wasting precious leisure time because her tools help her housekeeping tasks become less time consuming. (sigh)

            The chapter spent a great deal of time helping the reader understand that become a good neighbor, a good churchgoer, Bible reader, Bible study leader. I believe that the author views this as the wife’s job as a steward.

            “A wife, a homemaker, can serve in her home and in her neighborhood. If she is alert and, in the best sense, aggressive, she can find a thousand opportunities.” “She can render the best service.” “She will use some of her newly-won leisure to think about the challenging opportunities presented by her particular resources and her community. She will “face up” to her stewardship responsibilities.”[2]

            All of these sentences appear at the end of the chapter on the same page.

            What I gleaned from this chapter, after I got over my focus on the housewife thoughts, was that we are all stewards of what we have been given. Utilizing the “assets” we have will enable us to steward those assets and ourselves to better the world, and to serve God. And I don’t think it has a whole lot do with whether we have a vacuum cleaner or an electronic dishwasher!

           

I will continue my review of this book in next month’s blog.

           

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you found this interesting.

 

 

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[1] Stewardship for Today’s Woman, by Helen Kingsbury Wallace (Fleming H. Revell Company, 1960)

[2] Stewardship for Today’s Woman, by Helen Kingsbury Wallace (Fleming H. Revell Company, 1960)

 

           STEWARDSHIP FOR TODAY’S WOMAN – THE CAREER WOMAN

            I want to share something from a book that was just recently given to me. The title is Stewardship for Today’s Woman written by Helen Kingsbury-Wallace. For context of the book, I want to note that it was written in 1960.

            The background to the book is given in the introduction to the book. It states “every generation of churchwomen has to learn for itself the meaning of stewardship. The principles of stewardship have not changed since New Testament days, but the conditions of life and the status and position of women have changed greatly and are still changing.”[1]

            The book states that stewardship shouldn’t just be thought of in terms of giving money, “but it must come to be thought of in terms of the dedication of life.” The book is divided into different chapters based on different “walks” or “stages of life”. The chapters are

            The Career Woman

            The Wife

            The Mother

            The Widow

            The Retired Woman

            The Churchwoman

 

            The book starts with a discussion of the career woman. It talks about a woman who works in a travel agency, takes a bus to and from work, lives alone spends Saturdays running errands and cleaning her apartment, and Sundays sleeping late, reading the newspaper. It talks of a career woman as a lonely woman; with no real relationships. But she reads about and then sponsors a young girl in another country, sending clothing, letters and other items. She finds that she feels a connection to the girl. Then other women in her office hear about her sponsorship and start including her in conversations. She shares her story of sponsorship in a foreign country and friends book trips through the travel agency she works at. Her employer rewards her with a small raise.

            Of course, this story takes an entire chapter, but what I liked was the concept, not of a working “girl” of the 1950s/1960s, but that when she found relationship with others, her life became fuller.

            I think it’s like that for us. When we have relationships with others: friends, family, co-workers, churches, neighbors, then our lives, and we ourselves, change. Being good stewards, practicing good stewardship requires relationships.  “A stewardship-shaped life is never built on tasks alone. It grows in the quiet, ordinary moments when we choose to see people the way God sees them: as entrusted souls, not interruptions; divine assignments, not items on a list. Relational stewardship is the posture of a believer who understands that God has placed people in our path not for efficiency, but for love. It is the shift from doing to becoming, from managing responsibilities to managing trust, from completing duties to reflecting the heart of the Owner.”[2]

I will continue my review of this book in next month’s blog.

           

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you found this interesting.

 

 

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[1] Stewardship for Today’s Woman – by Helen Kingsbury-Wallace, Page 7

[2] Intentional Stewardship: How and Why We Build Biblical Relationships - By: Randy DeVaul (Biblical Christian Worldview)

                                                            CLERGY TAX

            Now that 2025 has ended, you have probably received a W-2 form, reporting your taxable wages, any housing allowances and exclusions, and any federal or state income taxes that you had withheld, as well as other tax forms and documents. What has been reported will be used to prepare your income tax returns. There’s really no chance to make any real changes that will help you at this point.

            Even if you are planning to wait until much closer to the “regular” tax due date of April 15^th, or even later in the year if you filed an extension, you should take some time with your tax preparer to see where things stand for you. Have you paid in enough taxes? Do you have copies of all of your unreimbursed business expenses and mileage? Do you have every tax document you should have? Have you calculated your actual housing costs? This will let you prepare in advance.

            But you should also work with your tax professional to do a projection for 2026, and see what you can do to minimize any payments you have to make.

·         Should you have federal and state income taxes withheld from your paychecks?

·         Should you pay quarterly estimated taxes?

·         Have you claimed enough as housing allowance/housing exclusions?

·         Have you calculated your actual housing costs?

·         What is the amount of self-employment tax you’ll have to pay, and how can you spread out the payment of those taxes?

·         Are you tracking your business expenses, submitting them to the church for reimbursement, and providing unreimbursed amounts to your tax preparer?

·         Are you tracking your “business” mileage?

            All of these questions are important to consider and answer and work on now so you can prepare yourself for the filing of your 2025 taxes and while you can make changes and decisions that will help you for 2026!

 

           

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you’d like help with projecting tax consequences based on your income, deductions, etc.!

 

                                             AM I A STEWARD?

            As many (or some) of you may know, I am the Christian Stewardship Specialist at the Upper New York Conference of the United Methodist Church. What does that mean?

            I thought I’d start by defining what a steward is. Merriam Webster says that a steward is “one employed in a large household or estate to manage domestic concerns (such as the supervision of servants, collection of rents, and keeping of accounts); a shop steward; a fiscal agent; an employee on a ship, airplane, bus, or train who manages the provisioning of food and attends passengers; one appointed to supervise the provision and distribution of food and drink in an institution; one who actively directs affairs : manager.”

            To steward is “to act as a steward for: manage; or to perform the duties of a steward.”

            So I think what this means, in its simplest form, is that we are stewards of and for God. That means that because “God created” (Genesis 1:1), we are tasked with caring for and managing those items that are of God for God.

            So, taking those definitions and that understanding, what is a Christian Stewardship Specialist? I think that means that I am tasked with interpreting, teaching and learning about Christian stewardship, and guiding others in the Conference and in the connection in that understanding. I create and lead workshops, writing blogs and articles, and teach classes. I am working on a booklet on ministry shares and have created a curriculum for training stewardship coaches around the conference.

            This is work that I enjoy, and a calling that I must answer to and follow?

            So, are you a steward too?

 

 

 

Feel free to contact me at sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com or susanranous@unyumc.org with any thoughts or questions.