Creating a Generous Congregation

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Reading Wide

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | July 31, 2023

I read an interesting book review in the Christian Century encouraging Christians to read – and not just the Bible. It was Erik Hoeke’s review of Jessica Hooten Wilson’s new book, Reading for the Love of God: How to Read as a Spiritual Practice. It’s a good bet that readers of the Christian Century, the…

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Confessions of a Downsizer

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | April 19, 2021

Okay, I admit it: I have been obsessed with things, especially in this past year or more. For the last several years, we have looked forward to major downsizing. So we did it – moved from a rural paradise that requires constant hard work beyond our current sustained efforts, to a house half the size…

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Ten Reasons to Choose a Simpler Lifestyle

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | December 16, 2020

We can choose to live a simpler lifestyle as an act of: Personal integrity and commitment to a more equitable distribution of wealth in the world. Self-defense against the mind-numbing effects of over-consumption. Sharing with others what has been given to us, or returning what we have unequally received at the expense of others around…

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Ten Reasons to Choose a Simpler Lifestyle

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | December 16, 2020

We can choose to live a simpler lifestyle as an act of:          Personal integrity and commitment to a more equitable distribution of wealth in the world. Self-defense against the mind-numbing effects of over-consumption. Sharing with others what has been given to us, or returning what we have unequally received at the expense of others around…

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What Do I Own and What Owns Me?

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | April 13, 2020

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.…

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A Basic Financial Health Checklist

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | July 22, 2019

Managing the money and things we have can get complicated, but the basics don’t have to be. At a workshop on “The Whys and Hows of Money Leadership,” stewardship leader Mark L. Vincent1 shared three points we can take care of, as our financial health checklist:2 1. I have a spending plan or budget that…

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Prescriptions for Contentment

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | June 4, 2019

“I have learned to be content with whatever I have,” Paul wrote to the Christians in Philippi. “I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and…

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Fully Simply Enough

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | April 1, 2019

“Enough” does not have to be barely enough or just enough – it can be fully enough! Growing Generous Souls talks about “an ethic of enough” as contentment (not complacency): the sense of sufficiency that prompts people to act responsibly toward others in gratitude for all they have received. Sometimes what is fully enough is…

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The Power of Enough

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | March 19, 2019

The title of Lynn A. Miller’s little book speaks volumes: The Power of Enough: Finding Contentment by Putting Stuff In Its Place. Miller’s bottom line is this: “Contentment comes from putting stuff in the role that God gave it, and not letting it mean something God doesn’t intend it to mean.” In other words, “stuff…

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Derailing Destructive Debt

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | June 25, 2018

How easy it is to carry a little debt – it almost seems like an inevitable part of the American way of life. But most of us know how quickly that can become a runaway train! The key is to start living the new way, even as we go on a debt reduction plan, so…

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