15 September 2009

New stories project launched with AUC's stewardship focus

Yarra Valley, Victoria
Record staff

A new collection of stewardship stories is one aspect of a year focusing on stewardship for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia, launched at a meeting of stewardship directors on August 26.

"Leadership of the Adventist Church in Australia have designated 2010 as the ‘Year of Stewardship Emphasis' for the church in Australia," says Pastor Roger Govender, director of stewardship for the Adventist Church in Australia, "and these meetings were an important step in planning and preparing for this, as well as launching some of the initiatives that will be highlights of the year."

Directors of stewardship from conferences around Australia launched a new stewardship stories project at their recent planning meetings.

With the theme "Stewardship Inside Out," Pastor Govender says the year of stewardship will focus on developing the understanding of church members and leaders of "stewardship as a lifestyle lived in union and partnership with God."

"While we are concerned about changing giving patterns and members' financial support of the church," Pastor Govender explains, "our focus for next year is more toward spiritual stewardship rather than financial giving where, as a result of biblical stewardship, an increase in financial giving would be a natural consequence.

"This is an opportunity for church members to carefully consider the current issues in giving and stewardship as radical discipleship-the applied Lordship of Jesus Christ. These two areas are critical to the life and ministry of the church."

As part of the meetings, Signs Publishing Company's book editor, Nathan Brown, launched the collection of stories for a new volume of "Ordinary People" stories with stewardship directors. Mr Brown has compiled and edited two previous volumes: Ordinary People-Extraordinary God (released in 2005) and Ordinary People-Faithful God (2007).

"These two books have been well-received by many readers," says Mr Brown, "and we thought it an appropriate opportunity to work on another such collection for release early next year as a contribution to the Adventist Church in Australia's Year of Stewardship Emphasis.

"We are hoping to publish as many as 60 stories from across the South Pacific, so please send us your stories."

So what is a stewardship story? "A stewardship story"-as defined for the original collection-"is a personal experience from your life in partnership with God: the journey, the disappointments, the joy, the struggles, the blessings and the hope in Jesus."

"We are looking for stories of people choosing Jesus as Lord of their real-life situation," adds Mr Brown. "It isn't just about money but can relate to any aspect or experience in your life that involved a conscious decision to follow God and the consequences-both positive and negative-that flowed from that.

"Now that so many people have had the opportunity to read the first two books, we hope there will be many more who will be encouraged to share their experiences."

Submit your stewardship story.

Ordinary People-Faithful God is available from Adventist Book Centres.

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