Stewardship is discipleship and discipleship means giving something back to God. Our stewardship mission this year is to give every member of the congregation opportunities to give and fulfill their goal of being good disciples. It is a program called Mission In Everyone, Everyone in Mission and I wish to tell you more about it.

 

Between now and Palm Sunday you will be hearing a lot about this program. Simply, it is an invitation for members of the congregation to grow their discipleship by offering their time and talents to help out with one of our various ministries. If you attended the annual meeting on January 23rd you heard Pastor Jim speak about discipleship as a subject on which we will focus this year. And to the question how can I help? the answer will be another question, how would you like to help?

 

St Stephen’s has so many needs and in the coming weeks those needs will be communicated to the congregation in Steppingstone articles like this one, or in temple talks, or in adult forums or workshops. The message will be to highlight the many and diverse ways St Stephen’s disciples can apply their talents. And it will become apparent that when we speak of talent we’re not talking about being a musician or artist or

skilled craftsman but rather we’re referring to the gifts many of us possess without realizing how valuable they can be to the church, skills and interests like preparing meals, greeting visitors, organizing meetings and events, chaperoning youth events, or helping out with Sunday School or other things going on every Sunday.  Our gift back to God is what we do with our life.

 

Although Mission in Everyone, Everyone in Mission will be conducted in phases and steps, you don’t have to wait until Palm Sunday—the day on which Time and Talent Sheets are distributed—to find your discipleship place in the church. There are needs to fill right now. There are ministry teams that would love to hear from you at once. Stop a council member next time you see them and ask what you can do for your church.