The first of these is a review of two different books. These reviews were sent to us by the General Council on Finance and Administration.
“First Fruits”
edited by David Mosser & Brian Bauknight
“First Fruits” offers two very different gifts to those involved in stewardship ministries in the local church.
Fourteen Sample Stewardship Sermons — For many pastors, Stewardship Sermons are some of the most difficult sermons to prepare and preach. Here are 14 helpful examples to get them in the mood.
Ten Suggestions “for effective, faithful, biblical, and theologically appropriate stewardship preaching” — The 10 suggestions is a very understated gift offered by the book. Local church clergy could significantly advance the financial evangelism of their congregations by employing these 10 suggestions as they work to establish a “giving culture” in their local churches.
“Emma’s Gift”
written by Molly Schaar Idle
“Emma’s Gift” is a wonderful little Christmas story that involves giving. It can be used in Sunday school, children’s sermons or as a motivational devotion with adults. If used with children, some of the discussion questions that might be asked are:
Do you know of any people who are in need? …who are cold, hungry or lonely?
What things do we have that might help them? Do they need those things more than we do?
How can we celebrate Christmas by giving to others?
After Christmas, it would be great to collect stories and pictures of local churches or families who took this message to heart and how they gave to someone in need. These stories could then be shared across the connection.
We hope these reflections are helpful to you. Both books are available through Cokesbury’s on-line store at http://www.cokesbury.com. We all know that stewardship is about more than money. It is really about the faith life of our denomination.
Blessings to each of you in your important work.