Posts by Betsy Schwarzentraub
What Do I Own and What Owns Me?
Written for Giving magazine by the Ecumenical Stewardship Center What Do I Own and What Owns Me? A Spirituality of Stewardship Daniel Conway, Twenty-Third Publications, 2008 Third Printing Stewardship is a source of deepening spirituality and grace, says Daniel Conway, when it helps us develop a lifestyle of growth in gratitude, generosity, sharing, and responsibility.…
Read MoreGrowing a Courageous Heart
Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the LORD. (Psalm 31:24) It takes courage to live a life open and vulnerable to God, especially in times of suffering, hostility, or crisis. Courage usually does not come all at once. It can grow within us even before outward deliverance from…
Read MoreMajor Donors and How to Reach Them
Written for Giving: Growing Joyful Stewards in Your Congregation, Vol. 22, No. 1, By the Ecumenical Stewardship Center The roots of generosity are in habits of the heart, not in one’s bank balance, says Herb Miller,1 recognized authority in church effectiveness. His assertion is as true related to major gift donors as it is of…
Read MoreLiving Closer to the Hub of the Wheel
Written for Giving: Growing Joyful Stewards in Your Congregation, Vol. 22, No. 1, By the Ecumenical Stewardship Center Living Closer to the Hub of the Wheel Year-round stewardship is not about repetitive, one-time church programs. It’s about helping people become more generous in many dimensions of their lives. This includes becoming more joyful and faithful…
Read MoreAs Wild Geese Fly
Stewardship is the how of living toward God – not the wheels on the bus, but the way the wild geese fly. The way the wild geese fly – not just instinct but also intention: the how of living toward God. The how of living toward God – using what I have for God’s goals:…
Read MoreInvocation Offering Resistance
Worship October 13, 2019 Foothills United Methodist Church, Cameron Park, California Theme: Faith as Resistance Invocation Dear God, thank You for being with us all year long, every day, every season, even when we forget. You are the God of miracles and possibilities, and the miracle of the seasons. Fill our hearts with Your gifts…
Read MoreAutumn: Why and Now
This is the first week of fall, and I’m beginning to see the signs. When I lived in Europe, the seasons changed dramatically from one day to the next, and they certainly do in other parts of this nation and the world. But in Northern California it’s usually a more subtle change. The night temperature…
Read MoreSignposts for Wisdom
We can grow in wisdom if we reflect on and learn from our experience. After writing the chapter on “Growing as Becoming” in Growing Generous Souls, I thought about wisdom as less of an achievement or endpoint, and more as a process of becoming the wise person each of us is meant to be. A…
Read MoreThe Worshipful Soul
“To worship God in truth means to worship God with our whole being,” says the pastor of the Church of the Resurrection Online Congregation. This statement fits our understanding of one’s “soul” as the whole of who we authentically are in relationship to God. Worship is our whole-person response to God’s grace. The Greek word…
Read MoreStewarding Our Story
Our regional writers group had a booth this past weekend at the Gold Country Fair in Auburn, California. It was an engaging time, as fifteen of us took shifts talking with people about reading and writing and inviting them to join us and to buy our books. What surprised me most was how involved members…
Read MoreWhat We Need Is Here by L. Roger Owens
L. Roger Owens’ book What We Need Is Here (Upper Room Books, 2015) is not what my longtime-pastor side might call a “spiritual self-help” book. Its subtitle points to this: Practicing the Heart of Christian Spirituality. Not content to settle for surface religious “how-to”s, Owens seeks to reach the heart of Christian spiritual life, by…
Read MoreLenten Study on Spiritual Disciplines
Lenten Study on Spiritual Disciplines Text: Growing Generous Souls by Betsy Schwarzentraub Growing Generous Souls can offer an excellent small-group study and themes for the six weeks of Lent. This Lenten study focuses on five basic spiritual disciplines while encouraging six core attitudes in our Christian journey of faith. It can fit various formats…
Read MoreGGS Study With a Financial Commitment Program
Using the Growing Generous Souls Study With a Financial Commitment Program The Growing Generous Souls study can offer a substantive exploration of stewardship within which to place your church’s financial commitment program this year. Instead of isolating and emphasizing financial giving by itself, church members can explore generosity as a way of living with their…
Read MoreAttitude, Cancer and Prayer
There’s no more stark realization than hearing cancer has attacked your body and you must defeat it to live. That happened to me four years and five months ago. So it’s a very moving experience every year when I attend the Relay for Life, celebrating that I’m a survivor/thriver, and joining hundreds of people from…
Read MoreFreedom from Fear
Freedom from fear is not an esoteric neverland. Some of us – maybe most of us – have seen it in a person’s action or life at some time. A rescuer saves a child from a fire or flood. A wartime buddy aids a soldier, or a stranger helps someone stranded by the road. A…
Read More