Living the Covenant

Yesterday a guest at IHN asked me what kind of church this was. I replied, "Methodist." As we stood in the foyer chatting over a cold drink of water she said, "What do you believe?" My mind began racing, here it was, the "elevator speech" opportunity. What would you have answered? You never know when it might happen, but it's good to be prepared. I'd love to share here your suggestions.

Some of us are aural, some readers. Some of us learn best from graphs, some from symbols. For the next few weeks we're going to construct a stewardship symbol that describes my understanding of stewardship using a graphic element. For me, it helps tie things together and remember some the meaning behind some of the words. I did this first a few years ago in a series of presentations called Living the Covenant. It continues to evolve, but if anyone would like to have this shared in their small group (study group, Sunday School, whatever) let me know and we can arrange it. The title is Living the Covenant - Christian Stewards.
 

Stewardship is the word we use to describe how we live out our faith in the world. Our life as stewards is acknowledgment that all that we are and all that we have is a gift from God, given to us to be used for God’s purposes.

In the United Methodist Church, we follow a process of spiritual development that includes growth in areas of communion with God (prayer), communion with each other (presence), management of the world and its resources (gifts), management of our own time (service) and sharing with the world the good news we have learned as Christians (witness).

God’s first gift is love and all things stem from that love.