"Smart Living: Let the Word of Christ Dwell in You Richly!"
(Colossians 3:16a)

What does "Smart Living" have to do with letting the Word of Christ dwell in us? Ahhh, that's the essence of our November, 1998 Stewardship Drive - that is, we will explore stewardship as it relates to the Christian who wants to have a full, abundant, and "smart" life informed and inspired by the "Word of Christ."  That's a tall order!

Each November we come to Church members asking them to help us plan and support ministries for the coming year.  On the 8th and 15th of November we have invited members to share their experiences of participation in ministry here at Trinity Lutheran in hopes that you will be able to see yourselves doing the same.  All too often the story of the church is "just a few doing it all."  This is not "smart," nor is it a good way to get the work of the Lord accomplished.  People who then over-commit get burned out or "grumpy" in their service and giving (we don't want that!), and people who aren't involved miss the opportunities for growth and satisfaction that come from serving our Lord through His church (also not good!).  All churches struggle with this balance between over-worked members and uninvolved members. In this respect, Trinity Lutheran is not much different from any other church I have served or heard about.

But Trinity is truly different from most churches in that it has a vital and growing school ministry that serves as a kind of lens which focuses our ministry efforts in much of what we do.  Not all, but quite a lot of what happens around here is some how related to the school.  Our worship life, evangelism, outreach and community life all are connected to the school in some way.  It's a wonderful gift!

Now, we have worked hard to make the school ministries financially self-supporting, and thanks to the very hard efforts of our staff and leaders, this has been largely accomplished.  That's a good thing!  But there can be so much more!  Let's begin to ask a question - a big one! What if _____?  Ok, so it's a small sentence, but the
possibilities are HUGE, and require a sense of vision about the direction of our church/school ministry, as well as some bravery as we fill in the blank.

That's what stewardship is, filling our name in the blank as someone willing and able to joyfully serve the Lord through this place.  We must first, by letting Christ's Word of forgiveness, grace and peace dwell or live inside us powerfully, allow our lives to be changed.  In our Stewardship program for this year, we will try to show how
this happens in four ways:
1.  Direction.  As we come to more fully understand that Christ lived and died for us, the direction of our lives changes toward others. We become more giving, loving, forgiving people.
2.  Trust.  As our trust in God grows through our relationship with Jesus, we become free to live confidently and joyfully with God and his people.
3.  Uniqueness.  God has created each of us as unique individuals (some more than others!). As we are rescued from alienation, sin and death, we are free to grow in grace and in the gifts that God gives us. We change!
4.  Expectancy.  We can fully expect that God will work through us to spread his kingdom of love, forgiveness, joy and salvation to all we meet.  God's holy love literally bursts from us, changing all our relationships and allowing the direction of our lives to change in positive and wonderful ways.

So be brave, fill in the blank, commit yourself to growth as a child of God, and join in the party!

Pastor Larry