Faith and Generosity

My top three spiritual gifts are Administration, Faith, and Generosity. When working on committees it is always good to bring a variety of gifts to the table. In the secular world, I'm very used to this. At church, I'm learning that our differing gifts, and our different combination of gifts really does come together to make one body of Christ.

The task before us now is to break the cycle of being a self-focused, self-serving church and begin to look outward - new places for new people.

We are nearing the end of a very successful building debt reduction campaign. We couldn't have asked for better results so far. We involved lots of people in that campaign, taught specifically on stewardship, second-mile giving and the like. We taught, the congregation learned, the debt is disappearing.

We also have had 4 rotations of Financial Peace classes since the building campaign. These folks from inside and outside our congregation are learning to manage their personal finances more effectively - to pay obligations first, cut excess spending, and be good stewards with their resources.

The hope is that these practices would begin to spill over to the church as a whole. But as we look at the general funds coming in, we sense the need for some more direct intentional faith development in the practices of tithing and stewardship for our congregation.

We are talking about raising more money, but we are also evaluating how we (the church) are being good stewards with that money. Are we following the teachings of the Bible and the Discipline when it comes to our church's finances?

I feel very blessed to be able to use my spiritual gifts and professional talents to help lead this congregation. I feel like I've been called to serve in this Lay Leader role because I can help lead us where we want to go.

So what next? I will continue to advocate for paying obligations, including our connectional obligations first. I will help gather resources for intentional faith development of our committee members and the whole congregation with a long-term goal of developing extravagantly generous people. People who feel called to give and know that their gifts are being used faithfully for the transformation of the world.