Here are a few short articles, I call “stewardship sound bites,” that I have written about stewardship, parish operations and development, or living your calling. Please click on the underlined BLUE TITLE in each block below to read the article. Feel free to use and reprint these in your church bulletins or communications if you find them useful or helpful. They are concise and help expand the message of stewardship in easy to understand human terms.
What do you truly believe? Everybody is talking about what they believe. Here’s what I believe. How about you?
Do you have faith? Do you have confidence in the story of Christ’s resurrection and life after death?” In this stewardship sound bite, we explore how we can believe in something without seeing it and see how our disbelief is not unique to us.
By examining the difference between the actions of the Apostles and the thief crucified with Christ, we identify the three elements necessary to be a true steward and Christian leader who lives your stewardship calling: Conviction, Courage and Choices.
A paraprosdokian is a phrase where the latter part is surprising or unexpected given the earlier part. It focuses on how we sometimes don’t understand what true stewardship is and how to live it in our lives for God’s greater glory and to assist with our journey toward theosis and salvation.
No, this isn’t the list of things to do before you die. It’s the three buckets of things we worry about: (1) things we control; (2) things we influence; and (3) things we can’t do anything about. Let’s explore how our focus on third bucket issues wastes energy and prevents us from focusing on the things we can do to better live our stewardship callings.
Greek philosopher Socrates said: “You cannot teach adults new things. You can merely create the environment where they discover the truth for themselves.” Let’s focus on John 3:16 and the promise of eternal life if we will only better live our faith and stewardship callings. Our Lord promises we will live forever, the only question is: will we will like where we are?
Many churches relegate stewardship to only Stewardship Sunday. Living your stewardship calling is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week, 365 days of the year imperative. When our faithful live their everyday stewardship callings, they live a more fulfilling life both here and now, and in the hereafter. And they invaluably help our churches better serve those who seek the kingdom of God.
Imagine you are told “you have 6 days to live.” What would you do? What would you wish you would have done differently in your life? Consider this reflection: