Today we start week four of our five-week stewardship renewal program, Sharing Our Blessings 2018. Set aside 10-20 minutes to read the scripture passage below, reflect on it, and pray with it. This Wednesday you will receive an action item via Flocknote that encourages you to make an account of your finances and consider an increased gift to the parish.

Reflection:  Read Matthew 25: 14-30. Note that the first two servants doubled what they had been given and gave back not a portion, but the entirety of the original sum and the profit. On a very basic level, what are they left with, materially? Contrast this with the third servant, who hides the money and merely returns it. How does this betray a lack of trust in his master? 

Now turn to your own life, and imagine yourself as the servant and Christ as the master. Given what you have received from God in terms of time, talent, and treasure, how have you used it? To what extent have you been faithful, working with what you have been given for God’s glory and others’ benefit? To what have you been unfaithful, either leaving your gifts unused or for less important ends?

Week 4 Action Item

This is the fourth of five action items for Sharing Our Blessings 2018. Once you have completed the Sunday reflection, considering the following: 

1. In this Sunday’s reflections, you saw the difference between the faithful servants, who took their master’s money, invested it, and returned everything to their master. Consider your time, talent, and treasure. Whose is it, ultimately? How will you be called to make an account of these things before God?
    
2. Take the time to examine your finances over the past few years. What percentage of your annual income goes toward building up the local church, especially via parish offertory? Is it 1%? 5%? 10%? More? Write it down on a sheet of paper.
    
3. Now think about the coming year. What would it look like for you to “stretch” when it comes to your offering to the parish? What if you were donating one hour's worth of your weekly income to your parish - along with one hour of your time in worship as a community and maybe one hour of volunteering? Write down that dollar amount next to the previous one. Is it a stretch? Should it be more? Only you can decide.
    
4. Now act. Visit the "WeShare" page and consider making a 12-month commitment to a new offertory level that is meaningful and sacrificial to you, that helps you orient one more area of your life toward radical trust in God.