It’s difficult to avoid the long litany in the news and conversations about the latest worries about COVID, the climate crisis, violence, rising prices and on and on and on. Too often I find myself joining in the chorus. It makes one gloomy and grumpy.
These troubling and uncertain times also affect our attitudes about stewardship. We begin to be overly cautious, fearfully hoarding what threatens to become scarce; sometimes getting overcome by debilitating despair.
So I asked Dr. Lori Guenther Reesor to lift our spirits by writing something about stewardship in uncertain times. I’m hoping her message about joyful generosity will bubble up through actions and attitudes throughout our church.
If one looks carefully, there are signs that generosity has been bubbling away among us all along. As I worked with the material in this issue, I began to notice signs of such generosity in many of the articles. Please take time to look for them there.
I began to wonder if many of us may have developed a mindset about how to talk about stewardship and our use of our time and ability and resources by describing it by using words that fail to express the joy that can come from being generous.
Consider these words: obligation, responsibility, duty, disciplined, proportional …all very proper words but a very long way from Reesor’s remarks about the truest and realist kind of generosity being hilarious and maybe a little bit irrational.
I also appreciated her reminder that giving is a spiritual discipline that Christians do individually AND together. She helped me realize that I’ve become so focused on encouraging individual giving that I have been overlooking what we are giving together.
What if we reframed our budgeting process to consider how what we give through those budgets is perceived as joyful generosity by those who receive the benefits of our collective giving? Can you image a meeting where discussions about the budget became hilarious and maybe a little bit irrational? We might even realize the abundance God has blessed us with that is ours to joyfully share with others.
A house not made with hands (p. 9) might be a useful way to begin a discussion about how the use of our church buildings reflects our vision of ministry. Congregations seed hope for the future (p. 28) shows where some of those discussions are taking congregations in the Eastern Synod.
We begin a new Bible study series, Voices From Scripture (p. 31). May it prove helpful for individual and group discernment.
Hospital chaplains are among the front-line workers who deserve a word of thanks and encouragement from us. Hospital chaplaincy (p. 6) provides an idea of what they are contributing during the pandemic.
Kenn Ward, Editor
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