RELATIONSHIP
OF STEWARDSHIP TO DISCIPLESHIP
I’ve spoken about stewardship and discipleship together
before. Have you? How many of you have participated in the “See All the People”
resources from UMC Discipleship? This is an excellent resource, so if you have
not seen that resource or used it, I encourage you to do so. One of the
excellent links and resources from that program contains examples of intentional
discipleship plans. They all seem to have a part that talks about “giving” or “generosity”.
Too many discipleship plans don’t seem to include this in their foci.
See All the People talks about determining what
your church’s mission is. I know many of us have mission statements. A good
mission statement should include a statement of what, but also a form of
action, a “so that…” moment.
In a recent article by Ken Sloane of
Discipleship Ministries[1],
he shared a quote from the book, Generosity, Stewardship and Abundance” by
Ann Michel and Lovett Weems, which said:
“Principle 1: Never talk about people’s money
apart from their discipleship
Principle 2: Never talk about the church’s
money apart from its mission.”
Reading that quote, my first gut reaction was “obviously!”
But, the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if it is obviously. Ken
had this to same about what a good mission statement is. “It comes from within
your church, built on things like scripture and what your church really values,
as well as the context in which you do ministry.”[2]
I encourage you to consider Ken’s thoughts and
look at your own church’s mission statement. Has it outlived its life? Does it
come from your church, include your church’s values, and work in
the context in which you’re doing ministry?
No comments:
Post a Comment