2011 SHPC Life Long Learning Committee
Dick Campbell (Chair), Rob Ravenscroft, Jeff States, Neil Kolder, Jim Harder, Dave Barnhouse (SHPC Treasurer)

What is Stewardship?  Giving has always been a mark of Christian commitment and discipleship. The ways in which a believer uses God’s gifts of material goods, personal abilities, and time reflect a faithful response to God’s self-giving in Jesus Christ and Christ’s call to minister to and share with others in the world.  We testify to God’s sovereignty through the stewardship of creation and of life. 

Why do we collect offerings?  In gratitude for the gifts of creation, the faithful bring material goods to God in worship as a means of expressing praise, as a symbol of their self-offering, and as a token of their commitment to share earth’s goods.  Thus, the church challenges the people of God with the privilege of responsible Christian stewardship of money and time and talents, developing effective ways for encouraging and gathering the offerings of the people and assuring that all offerings are distributed to the objects toward which they were contributed.  Tithing is a primary expression of the Christian discipline of stewardship. 

What is stewardship of creation?  Those who follow the discipline of Christian stewardship find themselves called to lives of simplicity, generosity, honesty, hospitality, compassion, receptivity, and concern for the earth and God’s creatures.  Faithful stewardship shuns ostentation and seeks proper use of the gifts of God’s creation.  As stewards of God’s creation who hold the earth in trust, the people of God are called to

a.     use the earth’s resources responsibly without plundering, polluting, or destroying,

b.     develop technological methods and processes that work together with the earth’s environment to preserve and enhance life,

c.     produce and consume in ways that make available to all people what is sufficient for life,

d.     work for responsible attitudes and practices in procreation and reproduction,

e.     use and shape earth’s goods to create beauty, order, health, and peace in ways that reflect God’s love for all creatures.

The role of the Financial Stewardship Committee is to help both the church and its members make decisions about how to use the resources with which we have been blessed to transform lives into the image of Jesus Christ to witness to God’s love in the world.  Their 2011 goals include:

(1)   Preparation and oversight of the church’s operating budget, designated accounts & investments.

(2)   Oversight of the Memorial Funds to extend the faith of the saints to new generations of believers.

(3)   Witness to God’s love to the world.