DISCIPLESHIP AND GENEROSITY WOVEN THROUGHOUT EVERYTHING

 

            I’ve been talking about how discipleship and generosity have to work together, which remains true, but I want to spend a little more time on generosity itself and how it doesn’t relate to just discipleship but to everything else.

            Generosity needs to be woven into everything in the life of the church! That includes children and youth ministry, women’s ministry, men’s ministry, adult discipleship, missions, outreach, everything.

            When planning worship, generosity needs to be taken into account as well, planning the offering, including how and when giving is mentioned and talking about the impact of people’s giving. I know that offering is often something that “just happens” during worship, but it is a very important part of worship. If giving is an act of worship (and it is), why don’t we spend as much time planning that act of worship, as we do prayer, music, scripture and message?

            How often have you sat in a worship service or viewed an online worship service and heard the same words, the same phrase, over and over introducing the offering. If that’s your experience, can you imagine how people who sit in the same church each week, and hear the same words at offering time respond? They probably stop listening, and, since their experience is the same old, same old, then they can make the same old offering as well!

            We have many seasons in our Christian year: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, Ordinary Time, and the seasons leading into and out of all of them, but one common denominator is Giving Time! It happens every week, and it should be an integral part of worship.

            So don’t silo generosity out into one or two people who are “in charge” of stewardship, don’t make offering time a throw-away moment in service; let’s give it focus and attention and plan it in such a way that it has an impact—on worship, on generosity, on people, on the church, and on those whose lives are changed by the generosity of folks in your church!

 

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you’d like to talk about this and how stewardship at your church can work together with discipleship and the intentionality of it everything!

 

                                         DISCIPLESHIP AND GENEROSITY

 

            I’m continuing my conversation on discipleship, by talking about how interwoven it has to be in generosity and in the lives of pastors.

            When we talk about intentional discipleship plans or pathways, doesn’t the focus always seem to be on the congregation. We have to intentionally lay out how we disciple others. We leave the pastor out of the discipleship pathway, other than as the person who helps create the plan.

            Last week, I talked about how stewardship and discipleship are intertwined. More important than that, though, is that generosity and discipleship are intertwined. So…here’s where the pastor is going to come into it. “Pastors must have a passion for giving and believe in developing a generosity journey as an important statement about discipleship.”[1]

            While we talk about preaching and teaching about stewardship and generosity, being an example of generosity and modeling it genuinely is more powerful than the best series of sermons could ever hope to be.

            But the pastor can’t do it alone. Staff need to be involved. Leadership needs to be involved. Both staff and leadership also need to cultivate their own giving journey, just as we are asking our congregation to do the same. The pastor also needs to cultivate his or her own giving journey and be able to articulate it and model it.

            Sometimes it’s difficult to have the conversations about it, but we can avoid them. If we have our own giving journey cultivated, we have something to talk about.

            What is your giving journey? How would you talk about generosity in your own life?

 

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you’d like to talk about this and how stewardship at your church can work together with discipleship and the intentionality of it all!

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[1] Fund the Vision: Short-Term Tactics vs. Longer-Term Planning, Generis Partners LLC (2019)

 

                DO WE LIMIT OUR DISCIPLESHIP AND STEWARDSHIP?

 

            I’ve blogged before about the relationship of discipleship with stewardship, but I wanted to talk about this again.

            How often has your church come to the end of the year, and there’s a rush to raise a chunk of money to meet the payment of ministry shares and other year-end costs. You and the finance team and leadership spend a lot of time during Advent talking and planning for this, and then come January…you did it! Enough money came in through people’s generosity that everything was able to be paid. Big sigh of relief, right? But it’s a cycle that repeats year after year after year.

 What if we did it differently, not waiting until the end of the year, but throughout the year?

            I know, I know, I hear you.

• ·         We can’t talk about money more than once or twice a year. People don’t like it.
• ·         Stewardship campaigns have to happen in the fall.
• ·         People are giving all they can.
• ·         Etc., etc.

What if we approached discipleship the same way?

• ·         We aren’t going to create and follow a clear and compelling mission statement, because people don’t like it.
• ·         The only thing that’s important is the number of people sitting in the pews.
• ·         We can’t encourage people to join small groups or serve in the neighborhood because people don’t have any more time.

Of course, discipleship should be woven into everything that is done at the church. Jesus said to go and make disciples. If we are Christians and follow Jesus, that is what we must do. Our mission statement compels us to do that. We are disciples and we should be discipling others. That is done year-round.

Just as discipleship is year-round, stewardship must be as well. Stewardship should be woven into the fabric of everything the church does and is.

       So…is discipleship a priority for you?

       So…what is the answer to “We believe God has called our church to _____”?

 

 

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you’d like to talk about this and how stewardship at your church can work together with discipleship and the intentionality of it all!

 

                    QUESTIONS FOR CLERGY AT NEW APPOINTMENTS                                                (AND THOSE AT CONTINUING APPOINTMENTS)

 

            As I am writing this blog, most United Methodist clergy who received new appointments have preached their first sermon at their new church, and are unpacking boxes, setting up their offices, meeting folks, and attending meetings!

            Now is the time to start learning and asking questions. While some of the questions might seem like “easy” questions, you have a good honeymoon period where you can ask these questions, and no one will think bad things about you.

• ·         How do you “do” the offering during worship?
• ·         How often is generosity usually preached on?
• ·         When do you usually “do” a stewardship campaign? What are they like?
• ·         How do you thank folks when they give and when they pledge?

And ask for a copy of the list of pledgers and givers in your church (with the amounts they give/pledge). I know this is uncomfortable for many, but our Book of Discipline tells us that clergy leading churches need to know this.

 It’s not because you are going to treat the big givers better, but wouldn’t you like to know why they are so generous? What is it about your new church that inspires that generosity?

And here’s something else; if you are in a continuing appointment, answer those bulleted questions above for your church yourself. I also encourage you to work with your leadership and do a generosity “audit”. If you aren’t aware of one, and would like a list of questions to use, please contact me at my information below, and I will send it to you. It can be an eye-opening experience!

If you’re in a continuing appointment, when was the last time you looked at your list of givers/pledgers? Do you know why people give? Do you know what it is about your church that motivates people to give?

Well, do you? Ask and learn! It could change everything.

 

Please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org