Stewardship Moment 2019 – Joy

Stewardship is an important part of Christian life all year long, and here at St. Paul’s we make it our special focus in the month of October. It gives us a chance to look at how we have practiced stewardship in the past year, and how we plan to make it a part of our Christian practice in the coming year. At its core stewardship it is the recognition that all that we have comes from God, and it is our responsibility to use our resources faithfully through the management and sharing of our time, talent and treasure.

This year we are moving more deeply into the theme of Loving Our Neighbour. We’ll see how stewardship enables us to love our neighbour in practical ways and we’ll put some of those things into practice. Our worship services and the contents of the 2019 Stewardship Booklet will both provide opportunities for conversation and for you to reflect on how stewardship will be a part of our Christian practice in the coming year.  To learn more about the Stewardship campaign, please visit the Support St. Paul’s webpage.   

Each week throughout the month of October, Stewardship Lead Dorothy Wilkins, will be providing a Stewardship Moment.  Her October 6th message can be read in the blog post below or heard through the October 6th worship service recording at minute 17:52.  Enjoy.

Stewardship Moment

It’s October once again and a time when St Paul’s focuses on Stewardship. My theme today is Joy and I like to think that Stewardship is joy when we see love thriving and all things
managed well.

Hymn

At St Paul’s there is much joy. I hope you enjoyed the Stewardship Hymn that Lois found. I keep reading the words over and over and find new connections each time. The tune is pretty catchy too.

Booklet

The Stewardship booklet is finished and has hit the website. I need to acknowledge the excellent work and support of Susan Reed for helping me put this together and publishing it. Thank you to the on-going contributions of Rev Cordelia, Catharine Ottaway and Finance Committee: Robert Hunt, Wendy Mason and David Eagleson. There were also special
contributions by Lois Craig and the choir, Helen Dowse, Katie Cronin-Wood, Linda Westendorp and Sharon Castellarin.  Your personal copies along with a summary of your givings to date will be distributed next week. Included will be the Letter of Intention which outlines the givings that you hope for in 2020. These Letters are to be returned as soon as possible and will be dedicated to God’s Mission at St Paul’s on Nov 24th .

Checklist

On the back of the insert for “Make a joyful Noise” you will find the words “The Joy of the Lord is my Strength” and a short personal checklist. You may be able to check all of these off today but even if you don’t want to play my game, they are there as food for thought.

The Joy of the Lord is my Strength

  • I know God loves me
  • Today I will seek God and his joy
  • I will look up Philippians Chapter 3
  • I will love someone today
  • I find joy ….

There is 1 correction and 1 addition.  I meant to name Philippians Chapter 4 but chapter 3 is good and so is the whole book so enjoy.  The addition that I want to make is Today I will share some joy.

 Share my Joy

According to my Study Bible, Joy is the quiet confident assurance of God’s Love and work in our lives. Today I choose Joy and share it with you. Friday my back muscles began to hurt and spasm, and I thought “Not again!!” But if I truly believe that God knows what I feel and will give me the strength to do what I need to do in spite of the pain, then I should focus on him. So I made a decision and he provided. Focusing on the giver of joy does make a difference. The pain seemed less severe and I was able to see the goodness in the people around me and accomplished everything that needed doing. I also believe that his hand was in the organization and writing of this booklet. Otherwise it is such an overwhelming task.

So today I choose to seek God and his Joy