From the General Presbyter

In September I attended the Stewardship Kaleidoscope conference in New Orleans. This annual conference is sponsored by the PCUSA, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ECLA) and I would highly recommend it.

I attended several workshops, but at one seminar, I sat next to a woman who was coughing. She seemed to have it under control until she started coughing even more. I started to get nervous. “ Why is she coughing? Doesn’t she have a cough drop? Does she need water?” I asked her the latter question, and she replied, “No, I’m fine.” Then she coughed some more.

By now I have forgotten about the workshop topic and am starting to panic. “She’s got COVID! Oh no. Why doesn’t she wear a mask? Maybe it’s not COVID. Okay. No, wait, maybe it’s RSV! Dang it, I can’t be sick! Lady, please STOP COUGHING!!”

That’s right folks, a full-fledged internal meltdown. After I calmed down, I realized this must be the way folks think about Stewardship. “Oh no, it’s that time again. We’ve been operating on a deficit budget for three years. What if we don’t get the pledges? People didn’t really increase their giving last year. We can’t ask people to dig deeper, it will turn them off, but what do we do? WE CAN’T CUT ONE MORE THING!!”

Friends, a meltdown is not necessary. Our Stewardship page on our website has got some great power point resources from the 2025 conference for your reference. Some are reminders, some are innovative. All are designed to take the angst out of the season and focus on your mission and ministry!

I didn’t get COVID or RSV, but I did learn some things. I hope you will too!

– Jackie