From the Desk of Our Executive Director

Welcome to another edition of the Stewardship Journal.

Is there such a thing as the theology of gratitude? That is the question our lead post deals with, entitled The Theology of Gratitude. For the last few editions of the Journal, we have focused on planning for your Easter offering. In this Journal, we want to give you practical tools on how to thank those who give this Easter. Mark Brooks writes the lead post on how we can first establish a theology of gratitude in our lives. This post will help you find your grateful place.

Mark Brooks’ Stewardship Coach column is titled Building a Culture of Gratitude. This post lays out why thanking donors is so important. Mark writes, “Churches teach gratefulness by how they respond to givers.” If you want to build a culture of gratitude, you must show gratitude. Mark shows us why.

This week’s Bonus Section is entitled Gratitude Idea Section. Here you will find practical ideas and ways to begin showing thankfulness and gratitude to your donors. Don’t be guilty of taking your donors for granted.

This week’s Mission and Ministry Moment talk is Are You Ready for Spring? This talk focuses on the coming of spring and how now is the time to start thinking about planting for your garden. It uses a passage from II Corinthians 9 about sowing and reaping. It ends with this line, “Your generosity today will sow seeds into the mission and ministry of our church.” Amen!

Beginning next week, we will remove all Missions and Ministry talks from the weekly Stewardship Journal site. At the start of this week’s section, there is an explanation of how to access hundreds of offering talks, all for free.

Does your church have a culture of gratitude? Building and sustaining a culture of gratitude is one easy way to increase giving and givers. It starts with us. Are you grateful?

Advancing the Gospel!