This is the place to find
resources for this month's stewardship activities. These are
ideas for a stewardship activity or program for each month of the
year.
March 2010 - Earth Day 2010
April 22 is the 40th anniversary
of Earth Day. This year's theme is:
Sacred Spaces and an Abundant Life
Our
worship spaces belong to God, and in them we have the opportunity to
honor God by taking seriously our roles as stewards of the earth.
There are many ways to be good stewards of the earth through our
worship spaces, and
Sacred Spaces and an
Abundant Life offers many ideas for
congregations to improve facilities in the areas of:
- Energy
efficiency and conservation
- Reducing
toxic materials and products
- Water
conservation
- Land and
habitat conservation
Click Here to download
this resource with plenty of time to begin implementing ideas before
Earth Day, so your congregation can celebrate your successes on the
Sunday before or after Earth Day.
Disaster
Assistance to Chile
One Great Hour of Sharing is more important than ever with the
earthquake in Chile.
Click Here
to find out more about what your church is doing in response.
February 2010 - One
Great Hour of Sharing & Presbyterian Disaster Assistance to Haiti
Start
planning now for the One Great
Hour of Sharing offering that is collected on Palm Sunday (March
28th) or Easter (April 4th). This offering shares God’s love
with people experiencing need. Our gifts support ministries of
disaster response, refugee assistance & resettlement, and community
development that help people find safe refuge, start new lives and
work together to strengthen their families and communities.
For more information and resources,
Click Here.
Approximately one-third of the One
Great Hour of Sharing offering goes to
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
(PDA), which offers short and long-term disaster recovery
assistance in the United States and worldwide. PDA provided
assistance in our Presbytery after the tornado and flooding in 2008.
Right now there is an urgent need in
Haiti following the earthquake. Don't wait until the One
Great Hour of Sharing offering to contribute. If your
congregation has not already done so, plan a special offering in
February to support the PDA's work in Haiti.
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Click Here for more information on what you can do to help.
For a special report on the work being done in Haiti,
Click Here.
January 2010 - Souper Bowl of Caring & Stewardship
One-Liners
Plan on participating in the Souper
Bowl of Caring on Super Bowl Sunday, February 7, 2010. The
Souper Bowl of Caring is
fundamentally
a faith initiative, as the idea was born of a prayer. We seek
to love God by loving our neighbors, and through this, young people
will see that by God's grace, they
can make a difference in the lives of
others. The Souper Bowl of Caring is an ideal way to engage
communities in the fight against hunger and poverty. It's
simple enough to be done with limited resources and can be adapted
to meet the needs of your congregation.
Click Here for more information.
Download
the "One
Line Blurbs for Stewardship
for 2010" in Microsoft Word format. There are
one-liners for each Sunday plus a few extra. Give a copy to
whoever prepares the worship bulletins so they can insert a
"Stewardship One-Liner" every week.
December 2009 -
Stewardship Planning for 2010
The harvest is in and it's time to
start stewardship
planning for next year. Most churches have committees for worship,
Christian education, mission, personnel, facilities and finance.
Frequently stewardship is considered a part of finance.
Unfortunately, stewardship and finance are not the same thing and
the stewardship activities are overlooked. This is a major
oversight! One of the essential roles of the church is
promoting personal stewardship through teaching, preaching and by
example. Click Here for
help in putting together an annual stewardship plan for your church.
November 2009 - Christmas Joy Offering - "What Child
is This?"
A
Presbyterian tradition for almost 70 years, the Christmas Joy
Offering supports
Presbyterian-related racial ethnic education
and assistance programs that provide support to retired and active
church workers and their spouses and families.
The Christmas Joy Offering is
usually received the Sunday before Christmas. Resources are mailed
to each congregation in early September. All of the resources
are available by calling (800) 524-2612 or order online at
Presbyterian Marketplace.
You are encouraged to
support the Christmas Joy Offering with a congregational offering.
Click Here
for more resources including a PowerPoint presentation and
online video.
October 2009 - Communicate, Communicate, Communicate
There's a saying in real
estate that the three most important things are "location, location
and location". In local church
stewardship
the three most important things are "communication, communication
and communication". One of the areas that churches have the
worst communication is the church budget. Now is the time to
start working on better communication of your church budget, and the
best way to start is with a narrative budget.
Click Here for
more information on creating a narrative budget for your church this
year.
September 2009 -
Peacemaking Offering - Psalm 85:10, “Justice and peace shall kiss
each other.”
The Peacemaking Offering
supports our efforts to live out a
deeper commitment to peacemaking as part of our faithfulness to God.
Most churches receive the Peacemaking Offering on World Communion
Sunday, the first Sunday in October, which this year is October 4.
Churches may use whatever Sunday works best for them.
Each congregation is
encouraged to retain 25% of the Offering it receives to use for
ministries of peacemaking within the local church and its community.
The remainder is used by presbyteries, synods and
Presbyterian Peacemaking Program of
the PC(USA) General Assembly.
August 2009 - Begin Planning for Fall Financial
Campaign.
In
times like this, many people are asking, "How can I ask members of
my congregation to give more this year?
But the question they should be
asking is, "In times like this, how can we not ask our congregation
to give more?"
Now is the time to start planning for
your Fall Financial Campaign. If you have not done so yet,
identify the leaders of the campaign and start meeting to review
your church's resources and ministry goals for next year. To
start, click on the "Getting
Started" box on the
left. Share the "Stages
of Giving" with your
committee. How does this relate to your congregation?
Select a
Campaign Method
and a Stewardship
Theme and order the
materials needed. Finally, look in
Stewardship Resources for
additional material to help you with your Fall Stewardship Campaign.
July 2009 - Celebrate Small Churches

Celebrate the role of
small churches in the Presbyterian Church (USA) on Small Church
Sunday, July 18, 2009. Download resources for a
Celebration of Small Church Ministry
and read about a small
Presbyterian Church
in Allerton, IA.
For more info see
some
suggested activities for Small Churches.
June 2009 - Green Church
Presbyterians Today
featured the green church as the April cover story.
How "green" is your church? Click Here
to read the story.
Every church cannot install solar
panels or use only natural light in their sanctuary, but there are
many things that can be done to conserve resources, reduce our
impact on the environment and preserve scarce budget dollars.
Does your church have a "green" success story? Share it on
this web site by emailing the details to Neal Leeper (nleeper@cfu.net).
For more ideas on how to be a
green church,
click here.

Other web sites to visit are:
PC(USA) Environmental Ministries
or
Presbyterians
for Restoring Creation.
May 2009 - Pentecost Offering
The
Pentecost Offering
is traditionally received on the day of Pentecost (May 31, 2009). It
provides a direct way to meet the needs of children at risk, youth,
and young adults. Congregations are encouraged to use 40% of the
Offering to support ministry with children at risk in their
communities.
Share ways that your congregation
uses it's 40% share of the Offering on the Stewardship web site.
Email Neal Leeper (nleeper@cfu.net)
with your information.
April 2009 - Wills & Estates
May
3 is Wills Emphasis Sunday and Older Adult Week begins. Many
members have given faithfully to the church but have not thought
about giving beyond their lifetimes. Without a Will, your
church will not be included in your estate.
Click Here
for more information.

North Central Iowa Presbytery
2302 Falls Avenue, Waterloo, IA 50701
319-233-1747
319-233-2015 (fax)
www.presbynciowa.org