“Stewardship in the Small Church "
Jim Sartwelle (Small Church Advisory Committee, Convocation: Eastern) is Bishop’s Warden at St. Matthew’s, Kenedy, part of the Eastern Partners in Ministry. In this article, Jim writes about the importance of stewardship season in a small church. Jim can be contacted at sartwellej@gmail.com
I’ve spent time in small churches and large during a lifetime in the Episcopal Church. The liturgy is the same, hymns are the same, milling about during the Peace is the same. One of the things that is vastly different, though, is stewardship. The larger the congregation, it seems the more structured stewardship becomes. Formal, themed campaigns, sermons on the topic, lay folks giving testimony during the announcements, and tracking down the pledge cards all seem to be fairly standard. In the small church, usually the campaign is toned down or non-existent; we may not hear explicitly about financial stewardship from the pulpit, and, often, assumptions based on last year’s giving replace pledge card completion. If that works for your church, great, but I’d like to make the case that just “working” might not be enough.
Time, talents, and treasure are the hallmarks of a good stewardship talk. Let’s be honest, most of the time in a small church we already have eyes on our fellow church folk and know who’s putting in the hours. Likewise, we know who the CPA is and they’re probably treasurer already and the landscaper is already cutting the grass. We talk about time and talents to lessen the impact of the treasure part of the talk. No matter what, it takes cold hard cash to make the world work and keep us supplied with candle oil and altar wine. And there isn’t but one place for that money to come from: the you-know-what’s on the seats. My grandmother had a saying that “discussing money in public is gauche.” One element of the definition of gauche is “socially awkward.” It’s time to lose the awkwardness.
We are so much better off when we have an intentional stewardship drive, no matter the size of the church. Instead of sitting around and worrying about how we are going to pay the bills, let’s be intentional about looking to community outreach and getting outside the church’s doors. The focus should not be placed on “here’s a budget, how are we going to pay for it.” The focus has to be “what is God calling us to do in this place in the name of Jesus Christ?” A “stewardship drive” by definition looks to the future and is an extraordinarily positive activity.
Matthew 6:21 reminds “for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” We are Episcopalians—we are well-versed in getting outside our comfort zones already. Have the talks, share your testimony, dream for your church, and, again, get outside the doors. You never know who might walk back through them with you.
Special Note: To think through stewardship in your own context, join our diocesan Zoom Stewardship Roundtable on Sept. 9. And if a more formal stewardship campaign works in your church, check out the resources offered for free or inexpensively from TENS (password is: Matthew22:4) or the SALT Project.
