Manifesting Great Stewardship | |
- Register for free webinar: Evaluating your 2024 Campaign: 1/11, 9AM
- Year of Living Generously: Resolutions for Year-Round Stewardship
- Join us in metro Detroit for a FREE one-day conference - Feb 7!
- Read and download the Epiphany Reflection for your service bulletins
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Dear Davey,
Christmastide is a short, beautiful time of the year, and it's often over before we stop and realize that it's been all around us. I am not talking about commercialized Christmas, or the social season, or even the church services we attended last week: I am referring to the 2 quick Sundays of the Christmas season. It often gets lost in the massive effort and focus of planning pageants, seeing family and friends, and then resting after the marathon of cooking, travel, and playing that we've had. It is often over before you can say Partridge in a Pear Tree!
This year, I invite you to observe the Christmas season - the twelve days from the Incarnation to the Epiphany. Beyond planning for New Year's Eve, or picking your favorite Bowl Game to watch, or returning presents at the store, what are these days all about? The Church in its ancient and modern wisdom recognizes this short season as a time to pay attention to our gratitude for the mystery and miracle of the Nativity. God comes into our human realm and is born into our joy and our suffering and our hope and our pain and our ambition and our perseverance. In Jesus God feels our emotions and lives our experiences as we also glimpse the power of healing and love that fills us. We each -- human and Deity -- give and receive these gifts to each other at Christmas. May all the gifts we give this year be so inspirational and hope-filed.
Cn. J. Davey Gerhard III
Executive Director
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Great Lakes Regional Conference
Telling our Stories | Sharing the Good News!
Please join us for a free mini-conference!
Friday, February 7, 2025, Christ Church Cranbrook, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
Lay and clergy Stewardship practitioners are invited to join us for a free in-person conference. We will cover:
- Pledge Campaign Best Practices
- Deepening Member Engagement Skills
- Creating a Plan to Message for Mission
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2025/26 Annual Pledge Campaign Materials are ready to download!
Have you ever had news that was so important - so exciting - that you could not hold it in any longer, you just had to tell someone? What Good News we have to share about the world and the One who made it! The response to the abundance of Creation is one of generosity and sharing; sharing our time, our talent, and our treasure with the world around us.
Our theme for the annual campaign this year focuses on our storytelling, on our exuberant joy, on the excitement we feel when we follow Jesus' call to serve our neighbors and worship God.
Get a head start on the 2025 / 2026 Annual Pledge Campaign by downloading the Seasonal Reflections. The first one is ready for Advent 1, and will begin the new church year wrapped in the theme of sharing our Good News with the world. Seasonal Reflections, pledge cards, and the campaign timeline is ready today. The remainder of the materials for 2025/26 will be ready in the Spring.
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Year of Living Generously Tip of the Month: Year Round Stewardship Resolutions
As you think about the patterns and habits you want to pick up or leave behind in 2025, consider these easy-to-adopt Stewardship New Year's Resolutions:
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Ministry Recognition: Pick one ministry each month and give thanks for it in your Liturgy. Recognize the people and resources that make it possible, and pray for the beneficiaries of this ministry. Rotate through a list throughout the year: Church staff, Youth programs, Altar Guild, Food Ministry, Choir, and more. Each time is an opportunity to make the connection between the gifts we give and the mission we create.
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Evaluate your fundraising efforts: Take some time early in the year to analyze the results of your recent Pledge Campaign. Solicit feedback. Examine giving patterns and trends. What lessons can you learn so that your next campaign is even better?
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Budget Updates: Adopt a pattern of frequently reporting budget vs. actuals to your congregation. This could be done in a monthly newsletter, in your service bulletin. And while you're at it, remember to send out pledge statements quarterly to help people remember that every gift counts.
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Offertory Makeover: The Offertory is an important moment in our liturgy to connect the gifts we make to the gifts we receive. Shine a spotlight with music, movement, and procession on the sharing of gifts that happens as we gather, bless, break, and share our gifts.
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Attend some TENS Free Webinars: We have several offerings this year for free stewardship training and education. These webinars are designed to round out or deepen your understanding and implementation of campaign practices and stewardship theology.
See other suggestions for Year-Round Stewardship ideas in our past webinar on the topic or in our Resource Library.
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Bursting Forth: An Epiphany Reflection
Because of when Easter falls in 2025, we get all eight Sundays of Epiphany this year: Eight opportunities to read and learn how the spirit of the Law, the new life that Jesus came to proclaim, spreads throughout the world. This Epiphany is all about the Truth being revealed. It is a Truth that not everyone welcomes the same way - when Jesus reveals the wisdom of the scrolls, or when he tells us we must love those who wish us harm - these are hard truths to accept. It’s not all wedding wine and divine blessings in the Temple - Truth settles on each of us.
The thing about the Truth that Jesus brings is that it is so wonderful, so different, so transformative, that it needs to be shared. It can barely be contained. Our hearts, our mouths, our souls cannot hold back. “Tell out my soul,” Mary sang to the Angel. It is as if to say, I have learned something so beautiful that I simply must share it, it is impossible to keep to myself.
The Epiphany asks much of us. It asks us to reflect on an internal moment of awareness, of spiritual awakening, and find the words and ways to share it with the world. As Christ is made manifest to the whole world, unbound by social convention, religious authority, or political geography, we too are called to seek the neighbor beyond our immediate vicinity to accompany, to teach, to love.
The theological mystery of the Epiphany calls us to have one foot in the spiritual, deeply personal realm of revelation and the other foot in the world, learning how to seek and serve those who most need our help. We learn about the movement of the Spirit through Jesus and are motivated into ministering with him to the outcast, the stranger, and to those who most need to feel the warmth and light of His love.
For Reflection:
What are some ways that ministering to others has helped you leave your comfort zone?
This is the Epiphany Reflection from our 2025/26 Annual Campaign Resources. Download the Epiphany and Lent Reflections and begin setting the stage for your Stewardship work throughout the year!
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Training and Learning Opportunities for 2025
Our schedule of online trainings and webinars has been set for 2025. Across the year, whether you are new to annual pledge campaigns or a veteran campaigner, you'll find webinars that inform, educate, and inspire your Stewardship Ministry. Our next two webinars are promoted below, but you can check out our website for the complete list.
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Evaluating Your 2024/25 Campaign and Preparing for the Next One
Join us on Saturday, January 11, 2025 at 9AM Pacific via Zoom.
We'll review best practices and tips to analyze trends in your campaign and wrap up your 2024/25 fundraising program. We will introduce you to a toolkit that you can use to analyze your stewardship program trends and inspire your members for next year's giving.
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Finding Your Stewardship Love Language
Join us on Saturday, February 15, 2025 at 9AM Pacific via Zoom.
Understanding our love languages provides insights into how we think about sharing our gifts and receiving information about giving opportunities. Learn how to inspire your members with new tools and strategies for annual pledge campaigns
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Please consider supporting the work of TENS to create and share stewardship resources with churches and faith-based ministries!
TENS is a non-profit organization which receives support only from member dioceses and congregations and generous donors and supporters. With a small budget and a mighty host of dedicated volunteers we are able to produce annual campaign resources and relevant articles, webinars, teaching, and training for members and friends across the Church. Your gift of support matters, and will help us to create and maintain our resources in English and Spanish.
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