Learning to Think in New Ways

  

     This whole Consecration Sunday campaign has got me to thinking. (see previous post) The topic of stewardship has moved from a back burner in my mind to a front burner. As a result, I have already begun making plans for more emphasis on stewardship in 2008.

During January, I will be forming a small group that will meet for 30 days during the season of Lent to read and discuss the book Holy Smoke–Whatever Happened to Tithing. This book examines tithing from a Wesleyan perspective. Once the 30 day study is complete, the participants will be asked to continue on for another 10 weeks of study. The goal is to help persons become aware of giving and the role that it plays in their lives.

    Ideally, lives will be changed by this study and it will be offered again in the fall for a new group of persons to take. If lives and attitudes continue to be changed, the goal will be to offer this course twice a year to new groups of people. Within a few years, all of the congregation will have been given an opportunity to participate in this small group learning activity.

    I will be picking 8-12 persons to be in the first small group. If you want to be one of those persons, then please contact me sometime by mid-January 2008. We also ask that the church be in prayer for this first small group and that the group might become a blessing for the church as it meets and learns.

 

Preaching on Uncomfortable Issues

   This coming Sunday, November 4th, I will be delivering a sermon that I really don’t want to preach. As part of the New Consecration Sunday campaign, the pastor’s sermon needs to be on the topic of stewardship and the need of the giver to give. I am in my 24th year of ministry and in that time I can probably count on one (maybe both) hands the number of times I have deliberately preached on the topic of stewardship. It is just one of those topics that makes me (and many other pastors) uncomfortable.

   I hope, however, that the sermon this week will be a turning point for me. I have been doing some thinking and reading recently to prepare myself for this sermon. I believe that a new way of looking at the topic of stewardship is beginning to grow within me. I’ve already told the Administrative Board that they may be hearing more such talk from me in the year ahead. They said, “Go ahead and talk about it.” So pray for me as I prepare for this Sunday and as I begin to look at the year that lies ahead.