There was a story one of my children had hanging in their room for many years called “All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten." I’m sure you may have seen it or read it before. I have the same feeling about Stewardship, but it wasn’t in kindergarten where I learned about Stewardship.

If you have heard me tell this story before, please indulge me. My grandparents were extremely faithful people and had what I would consider to be an intimate relationship with God. They were very involved in their church, giving graciously of their time, talent, and treasure for all the years that I can remember. They relied on their church and the people that went there for strength in their lives and I’m sure the church and the people who went there relied on my grandparents as well.

My grandmother was the money person of the household, handling all of the finances. She always did their taxes as well. It was probably when I was in my late 20’s or early 30’s when she asked me to help her with her taxes. At that time, she was in her mid to late 70’s and I think she just wanted another set of eyes to look over things. By now, if you haven’t heard this story before, you are probably wondering what this has to do with Stewardship. One of the calculations my grandmother always made when preparing her taxes was to compare the financial giving she and my grandfather did during the year, both to the church and other organizations, to the income they had during the year. If the giving was 10% or more of the income, nothing else needed to be done. If it was less than 10%, she would determine what amount of giving was needed to get to the 10% mark and write a check to the church for that amount. No questions asked. She and my grandfather knew this tithe was their obligation and I know, even though the process sounds a bit cut and dried, they did this out of gratitude for the blessings they had received and their need to give back.

What I learned from my grandparents has framed how I approach Stewardship today. It is my obligation to give back a portion of what I have been given. I have to be honest though, I don’t do the 10% calculation and certainly this story would make for better reading if I said that I went straight home from my grandparents that day and told DeAun we needed to start giving away 10% of our income. It didn’t happen that way!
We do give away 10% or more of our income to the church and other places, but it was a process of increasing our giving each year to get us where we are today.

Enclosed with this letter you will find an Estimate of Giving Form for 2012. I want to ask you to answer the same question I posed in the first letter I wrote about our Stewardship Campaign this year – What is God asking me to do with my Treasure out of gratitude for my blessings? After prayerful consideration of the answer, I would ask you to complete the form and bring it with you to church on Ingathering Sunday, November 6. If you won’t be at church that Sunday or that weekend, you can also mail the form to the church or complete the form online from the “Estimate of Giving 2012” link on the St. James homepage at www.stjameswichita.org.

Will your amount of giving be equal to 10% of your income? It may or it may not. I think it’s important for all of us to strive to get to the 10% level but, honestly, it isn’t the most important thing. The most important thing is to understand we are all “Blessed To Be A Blessing” and out of gratitude for the blessings God has given us, we can be a blessing to others by giving of our time, talent, and treasure.

In Christ,

Steve Warfield, Stewardship Chairman