Topic “Stewardship at Bethlehem”
Reflections on Stewardship
by Ted Contag, Stewardship Ministry Team
My wife and I have been members at Bethlehem since before my first son was born (he will be nine years old in the fall). Nearly all of that time, I have been on the Bethlehem stewardship team. When I went to my first Tuesday night stewardship meeting, I really had no idea what the group did or even what the word “stewardship” really meant.
What Is a Good Steward?
by Judy Thompson, Stewardship Ministry Team
The true focus of our Christian life is also our greatest challenge – being more Christ-like in our daily living. And being a good steward goes hand in hand with that Christian life. The stewardship lifestyle includes not only time, talents and treasures, but also tending to our relationships, health and taking care of our environment. It’s a deliberate decision, made everyday and a lifelong journey to become like Jesus.
Believing — knowing — that “all is God’s” doesn’t provide us with a clear pla
May 23rd is Miracle Sunday
The Stewardship Ministry Team is asking you to join in an exciting event planned for Pentecost Sunday, May 23rd. As Pastor Chris points out in his recent Beacon article, "Pentecost Sunday is the day we remember the church receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, bursting into the world with the Good News of Jesus - our call exactly!"
May 23rd is "Miracle Sunday" at Bethlehem, and we are asking you to be part of the miracle by increasing your generosity in a special offering. This special miracle offering will be used to help Bethlehem retire a $60,000 deficit that has been with us since the end of last year - a deficit that takes valuable time, attention and resources away from our thriving ministries. We want to do this now, before we head into the summer "giving slump" months.
Stewardship Math and Everyday Miracles
by Gary Nelson, Stewardship Ministry Team
Many of us are impacted by budgets every single day. Whether they are budgets in our personal lives, our work lives, in our schools, in our county, state or country, at some point we all have the distinct pain or pleasure that can come from playing the budget game. The name of the game is having more come in than goes out.
Is It Safe?
by Dave Dronen, Stewardship Ministry Team
Do you ever look at a situation or opportunity and not act on it for fear of not knowing the outcome? I do it all the time...it is in my DNA to not take certain risks if I don't feel confident of how it will turn out. I guess this is not surprising given that things do not always turn out as we planned. Just look at how our economy has changed over the last 24 months.
There But For the Grace of God Go I
By Ted Contag, Stewardship Ministry Team
On a cold snowy Friday in early February my business partner and I closed our offices and took our team to St. Paul to serve meals to homeless people through a program called JESUS Delivers. Modeled after the home grocer, Simon Delivers, the ministry serves about 250 lunches 4 to 5 times per week to the St. Paul homeless community using a mobile kitchen and lay ministry volunteers.
After a quick tour of the mobile kitchen, we went to work preparing the food.
Bethlehem Responds Generously to Haiti
The January 12, 2010 earthquake in Haiti devastated their country and has affected more than three million citizens. Bethlehem members responded immediately and generously, donating over $60,000 in the span of 3 weeks. Thank you for your outpouring of support! Our gifts will go to the ELCA Disaster Response of which 100% will be sent directly to Haiti. If you'd like to see more about ways in which your dollars are at work take a look at the Haiti Earthquake Relief page on the ELCA website.
2 Corinthians 4:7
By Judy Thompson, Stewardship Ministry Team
When we build on God's generosity to us, a seed is planted and we begin to grow to a place more in line with God's orientation.
A story is told about John D. Rockefeller's younger years. The tycoon was always on-the-go and rarely able to rest. He went from meeting to meeting facing the chance of success or failure each time. Soon it became clear that Rockefeller was putting his very health at stake.
Generosity Abounds
by Gary Nelson, Stewardship Ministry Team
Just as I was getting ready to recap a fabulous year of generosity at Bethlehem Lutheran Church, I came across a news article that ranked the Minneapolis-St.Paul metro area as the sixth most generous in the U.S. Shortly after that, I saw another article that ranked Minneapolis-St. Paul as the #1 metro area in the country for volunteerism-for the third year in a row!
Then there's the story of generosity at Bethlehem. The story started generations ago, and continues today.
Share the Spirit Final Report
The Share the Spirit Capital Campaign which officially started in March of 2006 closed its books as of December 31, 2009. $2,560,733 was received from 712 contributors. This represents about 93% of our goal of $2,744,304. Add to that interest and contributions from the Bethlehem Foundation and BLCW and the total received was $2,612,531.
