I had a professor in college who used to refer to Summer as the "Long Reading Break." It was delivered with chuckles and smiles, but most of us realized he wasn't joking when we looked at the syllabus for the fall semester. On a journey of education, there is no downtime!

It is similar with our journey to generosity. There's always something that we can be learning, a story we can share, a way we can discover to be more engaged, more generous, more grateful. We never know when an idea will be planted and take root in us, just as we never know which kind word or missional story will inspire someone else to deepen their gratitude and giving. So, we learn never to miss the opportunity to grow and to help others grow.

This summer, take advantage of the slower pace to hold some formation or education programs about generosity and stewardship. Use those great parables and healing narratives in the long season after Pentecost to highlight our discipleship and our gratitude. Hold a book study or convene a small group that wants to learn about the theology of abundance. TENS has great resources, highlighted below, to help you turn your summer slump into a stewardship bump!

All good gifts,

J. Davey Gerhard, Canon for Stewardship

Executive Director

We are proud to announce that our annual pledge campaign materials are ready for download. The complete set includes:

Log in today to download all the resources

Estamos orgullosos de anunciar que los materiales de nuestra campaña de compromiso anual están listos para descargar. El conjunto completo incluye:

Inicie sesión hoy para descargar todos los recursos.

Get ready to launch your annual pledge campaign with a free webinar on Saturday, August 27 at 9AM Pacific. We will review the 2022 More than Enough resources and provide best practices for engaging this year's virtual and in-person campaigns. Registration is free!

On May 15, I had the honor of joining the Rev. Dr. Fred Moser and his faithful flock at Trinity Episcopal Church in Shelburne, Vermont to preach and teach about stewardship. If there is a silver lining in this pandemic, it is certainly that we have made virtual participation in church possible and even normative, for I was able to preach to the good people of Trinity Church all the way in Vermont from my very own living room in California!

Together we explored the readings of the day in which Jesus reminds us that we will be known as his disciples by the way we love each other and our neighbor. This far exceeds any cross we could wear, words we could say, or church we could be seen to attend - rather we will inspire others by the way we serve our neighbors, by the way we help our siblings in Christ, and by the way we engage with the world around us.

Trinity Church is no stranger to seeking and serving Jesus in their neighbors. They have a long history of participating in local and diocesan work for the hungry, the poor, and those experiencing homelessness. Recently they have also turned their attention to environmental sustainability and racial reconciliation, participating in learning and workshops together.

But they don't want to stop there! They are always looking for new ways to improve, learn, deepen their relationship with God, Community, and each other, and so we kicked off a summer of study together, and I gave them some homework! We will be reading Henri Nouwen's beautiful book A Spirituality of Fundraising and coming back together in August to explore the ways we hear and understand the theology of Abundance. Each of us brings our own stuff to a conversation about money and meaning, but if we can learn (or be reminded of) the long history of theology about our giving and our gifts, we can inspire others to be more generous as well. Trinity Church, Shelburne is truly engaging their summer work to learn more about stewardship and giving!

TENS has a variety of single and packaged workshops and consultations to help your congregation prepare for a great annual pledge campaign. Whether you are starting new with your Stewardship program, or looking for new ideas and new growth, look to TENS for practical, theological, formational consultations.

This 90-minute virtual training is the perfect refresher course for a new or seasoned stewardship committee looking for fresh ideas. This workshop will help prepare you to ask your members to make their best gifts this year. Take advantage of discounted pricing for congregations in member dioceses. One fee includes as many participants as you would like to invite.

This package offers three 90-minute webinars for congregations ready to go deeper into year-round stewardship and the theological formation of generosity and abundance. Workshops include:

Maybe you are new to your call, or new to the work of Stewardship and Generosity. Or perhaps your church hasn't run a stewardship campaign in a few years. This package will reset your work and put you back on track for pledge campaign success! Three 90-minute virtual workshops include:

It happens to almost every church community - trends change, expenses rise, but pledges stay the same. This is a reality we can change with some intentional focus. Three 90-minute virtual workshops include:

Looking for a reading list for a virtual or in-person book group on stewardship this summer? TENS has collected a long list of the best titles to help inspire your congregation to make their best gifts and to learn about the joy of giving and the discipline of generosity. There is no shortage of great ideas for a small group or a summer forum on giving. Download the article today.

We know that our kids are paying attention to the world around them, including our spending and saving habits and our giving patterns in church. Help them to get an early start to the joy of giving with some of these great books and pamphlets. Share the joy of generosity with the youngest generation.

Summer is the perfect time for some small-group work on stewardship. There are many parables and stories in our sacred texts about money and our attachment to it. Engage with our prophetic and teaching tradition and lead a study group on a stewardship theme this summer - pick from this list, or develop your own!