"Teaching Stewardship" 1 Chronicles 29: 1-9; Mark 12: 41-44

I am reflecting on stewardship, with this week's emphasis on how we teach stewardship.  

Questions:  What is the best way you have ever been taught a lesson about stewardship?  What is the best way you have ever been taught something about stewardship?

some collected thoughts on stewardship:

     1.  A little boy in church for the first time watched as the offering plates were passed. When it came to his family, he said loudly, “Don't pay for me, Dad.  I'm under five.”  Marj Carpenter, “Presbyterian Outlook,” 9/19/11, p. 9

     2.   Three kinds of churches:  churches that just take up offerings have people give an average of 1.5% of their income;  churches that ask members to write down pledges have people give an average of 2.9%; churches where people are asked to pledge by giving a % of their income they believe God is calling them to give have people give an average of 4.6%.  herb Miller, Consecration Sunday(5,6), taken from Money Matters

     3.  Week after Giving Tree, I gave a report about what had taken place. A member  comes up to me afterward and asks about the shortfall.  “What shortfall?  I didn’t mention a shortfall?”  “Well, I figured if you were talking about it again, we must have a shortfall”


     4.  “But the evidence leaves no room for doubt:  Religious people are far more charitable than nonreligious people.  In years of research, I have never found a measurable way in which secularists are more charitable than religious people.” Who Really Cares: America’s Charity Divide, Arthur C. Brooks, Basic Books, 2006 (34).

The Mark passage tells the story of the widow's mite.  I am using it as an example of how Jesus chose to teach stewardship.  I recently ran across a sermon by Patrick Willson on this passage, and will be guided by some of his insights.  

I Chronicles shares the story of how David teaches stewardship by his own example.  It might be interesting to note that David makes this example after being told that he will not get to be the one who builds the temple.