Tag: stewardship

Pastoral Prayer for Proper 28B/Ordinary 33B/Pentecost 26 November 18, 2018. Mark 13, Little Apocalypse.

God of change,

Empires rise and fall, rulers come and go, temples are built up and torn down, but your pervasive, sustaining love is available to us in this moment and the next throughout time and space eternally.

We rest in that love. We open ourselves to your limitless energy to change ourselves and change our world.

There is so much suffering. Give us the courage to do something. Give us the patience and wisdom to discover what that something might be.

On this Stewardship Sunday we dedicate our pledges. On this Thanksgiving Sunday we offer our gratitude. On this Sunday we honor the Transgender Day of Remembrance, Nov. 20. We remember transgender victims of violence. We pray for safety, welcome, and respect for all our transgender family, friends, loved ones, and neighbors. Amen.

Stewardship and Restart

Pastor’s Page October 2018

October brings us deeper into fall. It’s a season of turning, falling, and raking leaves. It’s the season of Halloween, pumpkins, costumes, and trick-or-treat. It’s also Season of Stewardship at FCC. As we think about church restart, it’s important for us to consider once again our stewardship practices as individuals and as a church.

Ministry requires resources. There are no two ways about it. As a church we count on gifts of time, gifts of service, and gifts of financial resources to make our organization go. In the context of church restart, those gifts become even more critical.

It takes a lot of time, talent, and treasure for the things we are considering: relocating, rebranding, reaching new people, building relationships, clarifying vision, growing, and developing ministries that truly reflect the needs of Stamford rather than the sorts of things we would prefer to do. Restart is demanding, so not only do we need to continue to grow in our giving, we need to focus the resources we have for the greatest impact for growth. This means letting go of everything that isn’t essential to the heart of our mission.

The saying is that money follows mission. The good news is that restart offers us the opportunity to refocus the bulk of our resources on mission. We are anticipating shifting a large piece of the time, talent, and treasure we have spent on our building to focusing on people: building up people, loving people, reaching people, helping people connect to God. A church is first of all people, and restart creates the opportunity to invest in people in new and significant ways. So I’m hopeful that even as our financial picture continues to evolve, every one of us will deepen our stewardship practice. Now is the time to invest in our future.