Congregational Stewardship

by Barbara Fullerton

In April 2004, I led workshops on asset-based stewardship at Alberta Northwest Conference's biennial stewardship event in Kananaskis, Alberta. Mary Jo Leddy, the theme speaker, inspired us throughout the event with her understanding and experience of stewardship as grounded in gratitude. In the days before the event, I reread her book Radical Gratitude (see the review at the end of this document) and was struck by how closely it connected with what I would be sharing at the event.

What Is Asset-Based Stewardship?

Asset-based stewardship begins with gratitude for the gifts God has given us. God gave us those gifts for a reason, and we are called to use them. When we put our gifts into action we are expressing gratitude to God and offering back all that we have and all that we are. When we approach stewardship with gratitude, we begin to name and identify what we have to work with and steward-namely, our assets. These may be spiritual or physical assets, things we have always had or things we have received over time.

Asset-based stewardship planning assumes that the right time is now, the right place is here, and we are the right people to do what God is calling us to do. We have and are enough. Knowing that empowers us to take the next step toward discerning the purpose of the mission/direction for which God has gifted us. Linking our gifts with the gifts of others can lead us into exciting new ministry directions. People are more likely to give generously to support their church financially when they are excited about ministries that engage and affirm them as gifted individuals.

Asset-based thinking is not a formula to solve stewardship "problems." However, it is a way of thinking that can move us away from feeling fearful and angry about stewardship.

How Might We Identify Our Assets?

Sometimes church boards hold visioning retreats before their annual stewardship program so they can invite members to support identifiable ministries for the coming year. Occasionally these visions are just imaginary dreams based on wonderful past historical moments that no longer exist. At other times they are based on wishful thinking about churches that are thriving in other places, places other than where we are.

Asset-based planning is realistic because it is based on what we have here and now. It is solidly situated in the gifts and human resources at the present time and place. Here are some key questions to ask when identifying an asset:

• Is it useful? You may have a gold communion set or three boxes of lids to margarine tubs. Whether or not they are useful may be an answer unique to your context.
• Is it tangible? Does it really exist? A suggestion to members that they take Wednesdays off from work to attend afternoon small-group sessions is not an asset. A compassionate spirit is.
• Is it something that someone likes to do and is able to do? A skillful teacher may have the attributes but not want to use his or her training and expertise in your church school. He or she may want to be an event photographer.
• Is it available and ready to be used? A desire to learn how to play the harp is not currently an available, tangible asset, though it could become one if you take lessons and practise. However, dormancy-such as an unclaimed personal favour-does not rule out an asset. Did someone offer to babysit whenever there is a need? That is an asset.

To explore asset-based stewardship in your congregation, try offering a Bible study on the subject. I have provided a workshop outline below, adapted from the one I used at the Kananaskis stewardship event. You may want to try the asset-mapping workshop as well, which is also provided below. (It is especially useful for church boards that are looking ahead at the coming year or for groups planning specific tasks.)

Workshop 1: Biblical Clues to Asset-Based Stewardship

Feel free to adapt this workshop to reflect your particular situation and the time and resources available to you. This workshop will take approximately one hour.

Ahead of Time

Gather Bibles, paper, and pens. Read over this workshop. Prepare four different handouts. Each should have one of the biblical passages (listed below) along with the background information provided for it and the list of discussion questions.

Introduce the Study

Welcome everyone. Introduce this activity. Divide into four small groups. Assign one biblical passage to each group and give them the corresponding handout. Have a volunteer in each group read the passage out loud while the others in the group listen. Another volunteer can read aloud the background information provided. Then lead a discussion of the assigned scripture passage (roughly 15-20 minutes).

Exodus 4:1-5, 10-17: The Call of Moses

Background:Moses encounters God in the burning bush, and God tells him to lead Israel out of Egypt.

1 Samuel 17:3-11, 20-51: David and Goliath

Background: Saul's Israelite army and the Philistines stand on opposite mountains, with a valley between them. For 40 days-morning and evening-Goliath, a giant from Gath, taunts the Israelites to send a man to fight him. If Goliath wins, the Israelites will become slaves of the Philistines. David, the youngest son of Jesse from Bethlehem in Judah, is sent by his father to take food to his three oldest brothers, who are fighting in Saul's army.

1 Kings 17:7-16: Elijah and the Widow

Background: The prophet Elijah predicts a drought because of the sins of King Ahab. Elijah survives by hiding in a wadi east of the Jordan River. Ravens bring him bread and meat twice a day.

Mark 6:30-44: Feeding the Thousands

If there is time, compare with Matthew 14:13-21; Luke 9:10-17; Mark 8:1-9; and Matthew 15:32-38. Notice that Jesus does three things in each of these stories (or versions of the story): he determines the available resources, pronounces a blessing on them, and works with the blessed resources.

Background: Jesus grieves the death of his cousin, John the Baptist. The story begins as the disciples return from their first missionary journey. They have taken with them nothing to eat and no money to buy food; they are utterly dependent on the hospitality of others while on the trip. The stage is set for the feeding story in verse 31, which indicates they are so busy that there is no time to eat. Jesus is filled with compassion for all the people who follow them as he and the disciples try to get away for a bit of rest and renewal. (The Greek word splagchnizomai means literally that his guts were torn up.) So, he abandons the anticipated time off.

Discussion Questions for Each Story

1. Who is afraid? What are they afraid of? What other fears can you identify in this passage?
2. Who is angry or could have been angry? Why or about what? (What is God angry about in the first story? What is Eliab angry about in the story about David? What about the widow? The disciples? Imagine yourself in each of their situations.)
3. What are the deficits in the story? What is lacking or what are the shortcomings? In David's story, what are his supposed deficiencies? Did he see it that way? Do we ever engage in deficiency thinking or project it onto others because we think someone else is too young, or lacking in skills or particular attributes?
4. What are the "deficiencies" that make for grumpy times in our church?
5. What are the gifts that God supplied, the assets at hand that are used in this story? Where were gifts linked so that the outcome was greater than if the gifts had been used separately?
6. What are the gifts in your life, or in the life of your church, that you have been afraid to share? (Using the image from the Moses story, what gifts are you afraid to pick up by the tail because they might bite you? Why are you afraid? What will happen if you do share them? What will happen if you do not? What may God be calling you to do with those gifts? Where might your gifts be linked with the gifts of others for something greater than you could do on your own?)

Large-Group Discussion

Gather everyone in the large group. Invite each small group to name the passage they discussed and one or two things they learned about stewardship from their discussion.

Workshop 2: Asset Mapping

This process for planning an event will take approximately 90 minutes. Congregational asset mapping for a visioning process will take two to three hours.

Use this process to plan an event such as an annual picnic, an Advent or Lent event, a fundraiser for a youth trip, a mission fair, a family retreat, shared summer services with other church(es), a parents' night out, etc. It can also be used to map a congregation's assets.

Ahead of Time

Gather

• felt-tipped markers for participants
• 8 cm x 13 cm (3" x 5") cards, sticky notes, or recycled half-sheets of paper (25-30 per person)
• tape, if using index cards or plain paper
• large work space
• flip chart paper
• long strip of banner paper

List on flip chart:

• Assets are useful, tangible, something someone likes to do or is good at, available (ready to be used).
• Assets include (apply above criteria to test each one) personal traits; experience; history; physical things such as tools and property; education or training, skills, relationships; talents; resources; wealth.
• Assumptions for this process:
• We have what we need to do this.
• We have the people we need with us to accomplish what God wants to happen.
• We will do what we are good at and like to do.
• We will work with what is possible with what we have, not with problems.
• Out-of-bounds questions include "What more do we need?" or "What problems will we encounter?"

Introduce the Workshop

Welcome participants and introduce the planning process as an asset-based strategy. Explain that they will learn how it works by doing it, rather than learning "about" it.

List Assets

Direct participants' attention to the flip chart list as you explain how to recognize assets and the assumptions for this planning process. Give each participant 25-30 sticky notes or index cards. On each note or card, ask them to list one asset and the name of the person who offers it. (Remind them to refer to the flip chart list for how to recognize an asset.)

Tape the banner paper to the wall. Have participants post their assets on the sheet of banner paper. Have the group look at the assets named. Invite questions for clarification. Write and add new asset slips as you are all reminded of additional assets.

Group the assets. Do this by consensus (but be creative; look past the obvious). Groupings may be by

• category or subcategory
• cause and effect
• similarities

Summarize and record patterns, using descriptive, positive words. Ask the group to discuss the question "What are we good at or what do we like to do?" Note especially strong patterns, or use arrows to connect similar groups.

If this process is being used for a congregational visioning process, ask participants to look for links between separate groups of assets. Draw a line between the groups. On the line, name the activity that could happen by linking these two groups of assets. This could be a new vision emerging through which God's gifts can be released in your church. Invite participants to "vote with their feet" by standing beside the named activity in which they want to participate. This will determine priorites for implementation.

Put Your Vision into Action

Determine a plan that will enable you to put your new vision into action. Explain that this part of the workshop is based on the following assumptions:

• Steps evolve, one success at a time.
• We will do what we enjoy and are good at (have skills for).
• Steps will be accomplished quickly, easily, and efficiently.

On a large sheet of flip chart paper, draw four columns with questions listed at the top of each column, like the chart at the bottom of this page.

Together list the asset-based activities you identified earlier. Fill out the other columns together. Summarize what you have agreed on and verify each person's agreement and interest in tasks.

Barbara Fullerton is the United Church staff person for Stewardship Development in the Support to Local Ministries Unit.

Review

Radical Gratitude

by Mary Jo Leddy

reviewed by Debbie Culbertson

Mary Jo Leddy is a refugee worker, writer, and theologian. In Radical Gratitude, she argues that our consumerist North American culture is suffering from "perpetual dissatisfaction." From an early age, we are taught to constantly crave material goods. As a result, we develop a profound sense of dissatisfaction with what we have and, ultimately, with who we are. This has a devastating impact on our ability to make positive change in the world.

"We are held captive by our cravings and by a sense that we are powerless to effect any fundamental change in the world about us," writes Leddy. "No amount of moralizing about the millions of starving people on this earth or self-conscious exhortations about the virtues of the simple life will break the force and direction of this craving."

The only way for us to free ourselves from the hunger for "things" is radical gratitude. This is a deep recognition that we are "from God" and must live "for God." We have not been placed on this earth to get more and earn more, but to practise gratitude-caring for others in the creative, wonderful way God cares for us.

Leddy, Mary Jo, Radical Gratitude (New York: Orbis Books, 2003). Stocked by UCRD.