In March I had the pleasure of participating in the Board of Cooperative Ministries’ virtual Leadership Focus conference. One of the sessions I attended was “Collaboratively Creating Virtual Faith Formation,” which shared how a group of Christian Education leaders worked together to create virtual Vacation Bible School and Sunday School content during the pandemic (and…
Join MMFA’s Laura Watson and a different Moravian pastor at 11:00 a.m. EDT on the fourth Tuesday of each month to explore what scripture tells us about both our identity and how we live as God’s stewards. Through a mixture of Lectio Divina and conversation, we’ll learn together and hopefully spark new ways of living…
In his book A Better Offering, Rev. Donald Smith invites us to consider our long-held practice of passing an offering plate during worship. He writes: “In today’s modern world, I believe that passing an offering receptacle during worship is a practice that no longer represents the depth and breadth of the offering. It no longer…
When I worked at Laurel Ridge, one January day it snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed. I had never seen anything like it. After the storm passed, the sky was a brilliant Carolina blue and the sun was shining, so my husband and I decided to go for a walk. I will never forget…
Spring has sprung so it’s time to wash the windows, get rid of winter clothing that hasn’t been worn in a while, and give the refrigerator a good scrubbing. What about in our communities of faith? What would it mean to “spring clean” our stewardship? How do we determine what needs a fresh coat of…
You’ve probably heard that Jesus talked about money a lot; a quick Google search yields all kinds of numbers, such as money being mentioned more than 800 times and in 11 of 39 parables. Fact-checking these is a task for another day, but one thing is certain: stewardship, and not just financial stewardship, is at…
In their article, “16 Creative Ways to Think About Stewardship and Generosity,” the ReImagine Generosity team introduces the idea of “spoon vs. ladle thinking.” By this they mean looking at our lives and asking how much we are serving ourselves (spoon) and how much we are serving others (ladle). They write: “When we give up…
Join MMFA’s Laura Watson and a different Moravian pastor at 11:00 a.m. EST on the fourth Tuesday of each month to explore what scripture tells us about both our identity and how we live as God’s stewards. Through a mixture of Lectio Divina and conversation, we’ll learn together and hopefully spark new ways of living…
Right now, many in our country are facing financial struggles. Unfortunately, we avoid the topic of money, especially in our communities of faith. Yet the Bible helps us see how what we do with money impacts our faith, and how our faith must impact what we do with money. So, what if our churches were…
“For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.” Ephesians 2:10 Stewardship is about much more than money, and it’s more than what we do through our church. It’s a way of life; it’s our identity. God created us…