Congregational Stewardship

Mike Bryant Turquoise fired wash basin and bowl

Coming Alongside

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | May 11, 2015

In the bad old days, cowboys used to “break” horses by using pain to force them into accepting a rider and multiple restraints. Some people still do that to horses. But domination does not produce trust, and horses that have been taught through pain will see the rider as a predator and will always want…

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Money Sanity Solutions

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | May 6, 2015

Written for “Live Free,” the 2015 issue of Giving: Growing Joyful Stewards in Your Congregation, by the Ecumenical Stewardship Center When it comes to money, families often go silent out of fear or taboo, or else yell in rancor, born of financial anxiety and family conflict. So how do children learn healthy money habits from…

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Cancer Lessons in Grace

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | April 30, 2015

The diagnosis of breast cancer came as a shock. It took several weeks before that wore off, and it occasionally returns at new bends in the road. But the cancer was caught very early and after surgery remained at Stage 1. Even so, there’s radiation ahead (gratefully missing out on chemo) and hormone therapy for…

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Earth Trek

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | April 15, 2015

Written for “Live Free,” the 2015 issue of Giving: Growing Joyful Stewards in Your Congregation, by the Ecumenical Stewardship Center Earth Trek: Celebrating and Sustaining God’s Creation, by Joanne Moyer (Herald Press, 2004), is a multifaceted gem that offers a variety of practices that care for the earth. Based on the seven days of creation…

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Growing and Faith

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | February 5, 2015

I’m intrigued as I write the chapter on “Growing as Becoming” for my next book, Growing a Generous Soul. People can measure growth in many different ways, but how do you measure growth in faith? Faith is not a static trait or characteristic. Neither is it a set of beliefs, as in faith in someone…

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Wesley’s Four Corners

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | January 21, 2015

What a gift it is to be part of a denomination that does not require assent to a single doctrinal statement! I love how John Wesley’s quadrilateral (Scripture, tradition, reason and experience) can work together as each person thinks through his or her personal theology. I talk about it like four tent pegs holding down…

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“Open Hands, Open Hearts”

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | January 16, 2015

Mark L. Vincent, lead partner in Design Group International, has continued to offer leaders in our different denominations some outstanding resources for growing generous stewards. One of the latest is “Open Hands Open Hearts,” a private web site for congregations from the Chicago Synod of the ELCA (Evangelical Church of America). It provides some of…

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Epiphany

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | January 7, 2015

The worship season of “Epiphany” emphasizes the ways God’s being and presence are “manifest” or revealed in our lives. We think particularly of Jesus Christ himself as showing us Who God is. But there are countless other expressions of God, as well, including the Scriptures, all of creation, and evidence of the Holy Spirit’s actions…

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“Star Child”

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | December 27, 2014

I was stunned by Carlton Young and Shirley Murray’s song, “Star Child,” in an Advent worship service this month. Hope Publishing Company brought it out in 1994, but this was the first time I’d heard it, from the songbook The Faith We Sing. It calls Jesus “Star-Child, earth-Child, go-between of God.” Then it identifies many…

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The Thin Places

By Betsy Schwarzentraub | December 27, 2014

In this past week of devotions, writer Jan Richardson1 shared a beautiful idea from the Celtic tradition: that in certain spots and at specific times, there are “thin places,” where the veil between worlds becomes permeable, and heaven and earth meet. I have a hunch that the veil between earth and heaven, time and eternity,…

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