At a recent meeting with a newly formed stewardship committee, one member said, “Before we get started, will someone please tell me what stewardship is?”
I appreciated his question as one of the first questions MMFA asks when we work with a church on stewardship is, “What comes to mind when you hear the word stewardship?” As you can imagine, we hear all kinds of responses!
Oftentimes our communities of faith are focused on particular trees in the “stewardship forest”, whether that’s money, time and talent, or how we care for creation. All of these are important and a part of how we live as God’s stewards.
But seeing the forest is critical as well. This starts by everyone understanding what stewardship is and why it matters. Then we look at these four fundamental pieces of a healthy stewardship ministry:
- Mission and vision
- Leadership
- Year-round steward
formation - Theology
MMFA’s free stewardship services can help you and your church consider both the forest and the trees when it comes to stewardship. We can work with you to answer those vital questions: “What is stewardship and what do we believe about it as a congregation?”
Also, our stewardship health assessment can help church leaders “see the forest” and identify areas for development. Since MMFA began offering the assessment, every congregation that’s utilized it has found that theology, i.e. how we help people understand and grow through what the Bible tells us about stewardship, is the area that needs the most attention. MMFA can share practical strategies to help.
Finally, through workshops, classes, articles and more, we can partner with you to ensure that every tree in your stewardship forest is healthy and thriving. Whether that’s by focusing on gift planning and encouraging people to include the church in their estate plans, working with stewardship leaders to develop a holistic stewardship ministry, or by inviting individuals to consider how they put God first in all things, MMFA is ready to help.
“The support of the MMFA in stewardship services has been invaluable to our church’s work over the past few years,” said the Rev. Scott Rainey, pastor of Unity Moravian Church in Lewisville, N.C., when asked how MMFA’s stewardship services have benefitted his church. “Laura Watson has guided us throughout the process of developing a stewardship team, and she continues to help facilitate our work. Her knowledge of stewardship and its practical application and scriptural foundation has been most appreciated by our church.
“MMFA helped to lay the groundwork for our board’s work in redeveloping our mission statement. They have also been instrumental in moving us to begin thinking about stewardship as a year-long activity–showing us how stewardship envelopes all of our actions as a church.”
If you’re ready to look at the stewardship forest and the trees, let’s get started together! Call or email me today, or you can visit our website at mmfa.com to view the recording of our recent stewardship webinar, explore resources and more.
Laura Watson is MMFA’s vice president/director of programs. She can be reached at [email protected].
