Now is a natural time for pastors to be planning their preaching topics for the year ahead. How can we approach stewardship holistically – in its fullness – over the months ahead to include giving money but not let it take over all the other dimensions of stewarding God’s gifts? One helpful way is to think from the perspective of the Trinity.

Here are some Bible texts and sample sermon titles(just to prime the pump) related to God’s gifts of creation, God’s gifts of redemption, and God’s gifts of empowerment, to invite people to consider how we “steward” these remarkable gifts:

Gifts of Creation

Time – Lk. 9:57-62; Col. 4:5; Eph. 5?16; Mt. 25:1-13; Rom. 8:24; 4:18; Heb. 11:1; 1 Cor. 13:7

Getting Out of the Rat Race   [time management]

Sabbath and Shalom               [work/rest]

The December Rose               [kairos time]

A Time for All Things

Planning Ahead                      [chronos time]

Time: Gift or Burden?

Time in a Bottle                      [priorities]

Living Between Advents        [aion time]

Talents – 1 Cor. 6:19-20; Mt. 22:23-4-; Mt. 5:3-16

Giving All We’ve Got

What We All Have to Give

Celebrating Our Salt

Money and Possessions – Lk. 10:29-37; Lk. 19:1-10; 2 Cor. 8:1-4; Acts 2:45; 6:1-6; 1 Cor. 9:3-15; Acts 5:1-11

Giving Her All                                    [widow’s mite]

Your Money and Your Life

Putting God First: The Tithe

Collection or Offering?

The Richest Person I Know               [a great giver]

Putting It All On the Line                   [Paul and the Jerusalem offering]

When What We Own Owns Us          [consumerism]

Holding Back                                         [Ananias and Sapphira]

Drawing the “Enough” Line               [personal and family financial management]

The Earth – Ps. 24:1-2; Isa. 40:12-31; Gen. 1:1-31

The Earth – Love It or Leave It?

Living with Earth’s Fullness

Earth and Earthlings                             [Adam/adamah = soil]

The Trouble with the Terminator        [dominion vs. stewardship]

Economics and Ecology: Can We Have Both?

 

Gifts of Redemption

The Gospel – Mt. 25:14-30; 1 Cor. 2:6-7; 4:1-7; 1 Tim. 1:19; 6:3,20; 2 Tim. 1:13; 4:3; Titus 1:9-11; 1 Peter 4:10-11; Rom. 3:21-26

Will the True God Stand Up?

How Wise Do We Have to Be?

The Gospel: Heritage and Hope         [past, present, future legacy]

No Secondhand Faith

Stewards of God’s Mysteries

It All Comes Down to Jesus

The Church – Rom. 12:4-8; 1 Cor. 12:12-18; Eph. 4:4-6

Warts and All: Can We Love the Church?

Strange Bedfellows: God’s Plan for Christian Community

The Body of Christ:” Replaceable Parts?

 

Gifts of Empowerment

Individual Gifts of Grace – Isa. 11:2; Gal. 5:22-23; 1 Cor. 12:1-13; Eph. 4:11-16; 2 Tim. 1:3-14; 1 Cor. 1:1-9; Rom. 12:6-8; 1 Cor. 13:1-13; Mt. 11:34-40

Use It or Lose It: Spiritual Gifts and the Church

Self-Help and God’s Design

Body-Building            [The Church as the Body of Christ]

Rekindling the Gift     [2 Tim. 1:3-14]

But I Don’t Have Any Gifts to Share!

Giftedness and Grace – Should I Ever Say No?

God’s Kaleidoscope of Gifts

Ministry of the Church – 1 Cor. 3:21-22; 4:1-2; 1 Peter 1:1-10; 1 Peter 2:1-10; Rom. 12:1-5; 2 Cor. 6:3-10; Rom. 9:20-26; 2 Cor. 5:16-19

Living Stones and Plan Old Rocks

We Have This Ministry

Is It What We Do,  or Who We Become?

Treasures and Crackpots

 

Your partner in ministry,

Betsy Schwarzentraub