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Friday, January 19, 2024

 

                                          BEING CREATIVE YEAR-ROUND

 

            Last week, I read the last of the eight rules for effective church leadership laid out in the booklet put out by VANCO, titled The Complete Guide to Church Stewardship. It was to BE CREATIVE. In being creative, Vanco listed several ideas that could be creative ways to “do stewardship.”

            In looking over Vanco’s list, I realized that the creative list could be a great way to be talking about stewardship year-round.


January                            First Fruits

February                          The Gift of Love        - Our Brothers and Sisters Keeper

March                               Ministry Team Spirit

April                                  Miracles and Wonders

May                                   It’s our Anniversary (heritage Sunday)

June                                 Planting Good Seeds

July                                   Virtual Messages/Social Media Sunday/The Conversion

August                              College Alumni Day

September                       The Unexpected/ Brick Layers

October                            Financial Testimonies

November                        A Praise of Thanksgiving

December                        The Christmas Gift

The first quarter of the year would include First Fruits, The Gift of Love and Our Brothers and Sisters Keeper and Ministry Team Spirit.


First Fruits - Often in the first service of the year, we do a Wesleyan Covenant Servant, or have a Watch Night Service on New Years Eve. To use the concept of first fruits, you could use actual fruit, to show the congregation how giving can multiply over time. When we bring our first fruits as a celebration, our harvests continue to grow. The idea is that we have more than enough fruit (money) to get everything done.


The Gift of Love makes sense for February since it is the month that has Valentines Day. Ideas about love, renewals of covenants (marriage/commitment) or covenants with God or with the church (commitment cards) are a great way to celebrate the gift of love. I thought the idea of Brothers and Sisters Keeper also made sense here when we’re celebrating love. There are too often persons in the church and neighborhood that are in need. People may come to church when they need help with medical bills or utility bills or rent payments. Perhaps something relative around the idea of the pastor’s discretionary fund would be cool!


Ministry Team Spirit – Starting out early in the year to celebrate the ministries that they church is involved in, and talking about spiritual gifts would be a wonderful way to celebrate what you have and encourage people to use their gifts for the benefit of God. Assessing what ministries are best for any individual is a good way to tie all of this together. It will celebrate who and what you already have and hopefully pique the interest of those not yet involved. Talking about volunteering and what is accomplished because of volunteers.

I will consider other ways you can be creative over the next few weeks!

            If you wish more information on anything you’ve been reading about, please feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or sranousacctg@twcny.rr.com or susanranous@unyumc.org.  I’d be happy to help or answer any questions.

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