Stewardship Ministry

Stewardship is a key piece to Christian life. For United Methodists, Stewardship involves four basic elements which are outlined for us in our membership vows. When we join the United Methodist Church, we vow to support the church through our gifts, our prayers, our service, and our presence. It is important for United Methodists to give not only of their financial means, but also to offer our time and talents, attend church regularly and participate in church activities, and to pray for our church family and church leaders.

Generous Living, Generous Giving

At Buford First UMC, we absolutely encourage and embrace Stewardship in all aspects of our church’s life. Recently, one of our church members shared her family’s Stewardship story during one of our Sunday worship services. Below you fill find her story on what Stewardship means to her and her family.

There is something very liberating about being at the point in your life when everyday living is so much easier. It is the time when life’s bumpy and winding road seems to have smoothed and straightened a bit. It is the time when the mortgage, car payment, monthly bills, kids’ lessons/activities, and college savings accounts are not quite so daunting. It is the time when you look at your 401K and realize, “I might just be able to go ahead and retire”. It is the time when you sit back and realize that life is good.

When do we get to this place in our life? When do we attain that great sense of security for our future? How do we get there? What needs to be done?

The answer to these questions lies in our everyday living. We work to make enough money to cover our expenses and hope that some is left over to set aside for a rainy day, to enjoy an evening out, take a trip, or even throw in the offering plate on Sunday morning.

But where does that really leave us? It simply lets us take care of our responsibilities and allow life to be good. And, I would have to agree with you. But I also recognize that achieving this well desired sense of security does not really come from simply taking care of life’s business.

I am fortunate enough to be married to a man who has an innate sense about money. He understands the necessity of it as well as the inherit power it holds. He crafted out a plan for our future pretty much as soon as we returned from our honeymoon and he revises that plan regularly. He meticulously balances our income with our expenses, has been able to save for a rainy day, plan for retirement, establish an account to fund our daughter’s college years, and allow us to have lots of fun along the way. He has enabled us to take care of life’s business. Now as good as he is with managing our finances, he will be the first to tell you that he does not do so entirely on his own. Even though I am not the one who generally helps him out, if push came to shove, I could step in and pinch hit. No, we agreed years ago that we needed a power greater than our own to guide us on this particular facet of life’s business.

About twenty years ago, we were sitting in church listening to a sermon on importance of stewardship and the Biblical practice of tithing. Though the story was familiar, the intended message was not. We were awakened to the notion that God deserved our first fruits – not what was left over. He deserved the first check we wrote each month, not the last. We also recognized that our pastor had given us a plan on how to tithe. It was simple really. Take what you are currently giving to the church, figure out what percentage of your income it represents, and raise that percentage one point each year until you reach 10%. Easy – or was it?

We went home that Sunday, sat down to look at the plan more closely and figure out whether or not we could make it work. My OCD husband quickly had it all down on paper and then we sat back and literally cringed! This would not be EASY! How could we possibly give that much to the church and still keep about the business of life? What would we have to give up in order to make this work? But more importantly, did we really want to make this overwhelming commitment?

With a leap of faith, we committed to two things that Sunday many years ago….First and the easiest to do, we would faithfully write our first check each month to God. He would get our first fruits, not what was left over. Secondly and not so easy to do, we would raise our percentage of giving to the kingdom of God by one percent a year until we were able to tithe. Seven years later we were able to honor our commitment to God to tithe the first fruits of our labor.

Tithing has made doing the business of life so much easier. Our needs have always been met and so have our wants. We have made some sacrifices along the way to keep our commitment to God and His work, but I cannot honestly remember any of them. The sacrifices and the tithing have become just a normal part of our business of life. They are just what we do.

We are at that liberating point in our life. We have attained that great sense of security. For our family, life is good. God is better!