Stewardship Moment 2019 – Privilege

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 12th message can be read in the blog post below or heard through the October 12th worship service recording at posted on the Worship page. Enjoy.

Stewardship Moment

St Paul’s focuses on Stewardship during the month of October. My theme today is Privilege. For me Stewardship is a privilege as God has trusted us to look after all the things that he loves the most – his people and his world.

Hymn

I think you are beginning to enjoy our Stewardship Hymn. The 1st verse talks about joyful voices in harmony. What a marvellous image! In the 2nd verse we sing “with each new hand the many will pull through to help God’s will be done”.  So here’s to joyful noise and hands in harmony

Booklet

The Stewardship booklet is finished, on the website and was sent out on Wednesday to everyone who receives church correspondence by e mail. For those of you who need a hard
copy I have your package here with me today. You may pick them up here or I will mail them next week. 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 word “Privilege” and a short personal checklist.

Privilege

… what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honour, you have given them dominion over the works of your hands. Ps 8:4-5

  • Today I thank God for my life
  • Today I will thank God for my abilities
  • I will love someone today
  • I am equipped by God for good works
  • God knows my heart and hears my prayers
  • God, grant me forgiveness and renew my life
  • I will look up Hebrews 10:22-25 for the special privileges of God’s people

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.

Understanding Our Privilege

According to the dictionary, privilege means a special right, advantage, favour or immunity granted only to a particular person or group.

Our life is a privilege. We have been created by God. We have a a spiritual nature as well as a physical one. We have the privilege of searching and finding a God who exists and who has left us so many clues about himself in nature and in the bible.

It is an awesome privilege to become part of God’s kingdom and be in relationship with the creator of the universe through our faith in Jesus Christ.

You remember the Hymn: “What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer” That’s just one of our privileges.

Studying about privilege has definitely changed my attitude. Previously I had a love/hate relationship with the word ‘should’. I had a co-worker who was very good at finding problems and telling me that I should fix them. She wasn’t wrong but I neither had the energy, nor the time, nor any good idea how to fix them. I just felt frustrated or guilty and would turn off whenever I heard one of her ‘shoulds’.

Now when I hear or think a ‘should’ thought I stop and think. If God wants me to do something, he will give me the desire, energy, time and make the knowledge available for me to do it. Will this eliminate the struggle and sacrifice – probably not but I’m not alone and a lot of the stress has disappeared. Now some of my shoulds have become privileges.

We are God’s blessing to this earth, no matter our age or physical or mental ability or sexual orientation. It is a privilege to be trusted to do God’s work here on earth, to be given all the love, joy, strength, wisdom and power to make a difference and to receive the blessing and joy that comes with a job well done.