Stewards Stirrings 
in the Diocese of Olympia
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4th Sunday after Pentecost 
Proper 7 Year B
Welcome to Stewards Stirrings! 
This is a lectionary resource here in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia to help point to some stewardship themes in the weekly lectionary to make it easier to preach, teach, study, pray and speak about stewardship throughout the year.

Stewardship resource links and ideas are posted in the right hand column for your stewardship ministries.  You can  send resource requests for me to post here by replying to this email. 

Refrain for Pentecost 4 Proper 7B:

Jesus said to his disciples, "Let us go across to the other side."

   They took Jesus with them in the boat, just as he was.

 

The readings for  4th Sunday after Pentecost Proper 7B include: 1 Samuel 17: (1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49 and Psalm 9:9-20, or1 Samuel 17:57-18:5, 10-16 and Psalm 133, or Job 38:1-11 and Psalm 107:1-3, 23-32; 2 Corinthians 6:1-13; and Mark 4:35-41. 

    

There are many options in the lectionary this week, and often that can produce anxiety for the preacher or the one leading a study with so many things coming at us. Barrage and anxiety are common threads running through all our texts this week except for Psalm 133. And Psalm 133 sets itself counter to anxiety, celebrating the blessing of unity. Likewise, we do hear of the source of Peace in the other texts. The Gospel sets this in the context of journey, and it is there I want to draw out a point of stewardship.

When we set out on a journey it is good to have a clear idea about where we are going. Without this, it hard to stay on course when the barrage of the waves of life come at us. Jesus has called us, the Church, to be his Body in the world establishing and proclaiming God's kingdom.  For me, as Jesus' disciples this means we are to being about doing the work that he was doing in the world in his earthly ministry, both literally and metaphorically.  This is our journey, our focus and direction.  We are to be stewards of fulfilling the vision of God's kingdom in the world with the resources we have at hand.  It is important that we set our course clearly understanding that each of us as individuals and congregations has been given unique gifts to do this work in our particular contexts.  Without knowing our gifts and our contexts the seas of ministry can be pretty rough, and it is easy to miss our mark, having spent all our resources in the process.

In our Gospel text Jesus sets the direction for the journey,"Let us go across to the other side." They all took an inventory of their resources, "They took him with them in the boat" and "Other boats were with him." Notice they did not go by land, which was a option. The anxiety of the disciples appeared when the storms arose, partly because they were not considering all their resources and partly because they were not fully understanding their context. Jesus, their greatest resource, was with them in the boat affecting their context! 

To be good stewards we need to be clear about how we can best express and live-out our mission in our context with the resources we have at our disposal.  There will be options to "go across to the other side" but our context and resources will influence the way we will journey with Christ.  Expressing our misson clearly will help us to keep our eyes on where we are headed and it will lower anxiety.  This helps us to be more efficient with our resources shielding us from wasting energy and resources being tossed to and fro by external forces.   

  

We are in an age in the church where clarity and efficiently are deeply needed.  We need to stay on course and utilize all our resources to do the work we have been given to do.  And most importantly to remember who is in the boat with us! This is just good stewardship!

 

Grace,

Lance


The Rev. Canon Lance Ousley 
Canon for Stewardship and Development
The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia
1551 10th Ave E.
Seattle, WA  98102


The Rev. Canon Lance Ousley
STEWARDSHIP
RESOURCES and
QUICK LINKS

Begin Planning your 
Annual Pledge Campaign Now:
Part 1 in a Series

Now is the time to begin planning your Annual Pledge Campaign to be most effective and to include more people in the process.  

Like a Capital Campaign, the more people you have that participate in the leadership and process of the Annual Campaign the better.  

It is important to 
set your Campaign  calendar well in advance to frame the open and close of your campaign to give people time to enter into the planning process and scheduling.  

It is good to start by choosing an Ingathering date and work backwards to the start date creating the appropriate length for your Campaign plan.  Four to eight weeks are a normal timeframe for most Annual Campaigns, but most are not longer than 6 weeks.  

The length of the Campaign can determine how many speakers, mailings, and Campaign events you will have.

Make sure to choose a Campaign theme now, too.  This will give you time to create your Campaign Promotional materials and help set a framework for your speakers.  

People are more likely to say "yes" to an invitation to speak if they have plenty of time to prepare.  
So set your theme and 
begin inviting your members who you would like to speak

  To be continued...


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