Isabel's Stewardship Talk

Isabel shared this talk with the St. Thomas congregation
on November 6, 2011.

My name is Isabel Williams. I’ve been coming to St. Thomas with my parents and brother Connor since I was in the second grade. Now I’m in the sixth grade.

A few weeks ago I found a joke that I think is pretty relevant to what I’m here to talk about: A family goes to church one Sunday morning. When they come out, the father complains, “The sermon was horrible!” The mother cries, “The choir was terrible!” And the little girl says, “But you have to admit—it was a pretty good show for just a dollar.”

But seriously… When Father Lex asked me if I would talk about how our family practices stewardship at St. Thomas, my first thoughts were something along the lines of, “Um… what does ‘stewardship’ mean?” According to Dictionary.com, stewardship is “the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving.”  As soon as I heard that, I knew it was the perfect definition. Our family definitely thinks that St. Thomas – and all the gifts God gives us in this world – is something worth caring for and preserving.

After all this you must be wondering: How does my family practice stewardship at St. Thomas? What do we do? For starters, we put a check in the offering plate each week. Mom and Dad have been putting money in the offering plate for years, and Connor and I give a third of our allowance each week as well. There are other things you can do for stewardship besides just giving money – you can also give time to church. I help with church services as an acolyte, lector, and Chorister. Mom and Dad are active Sunday School teachers, and Mom is also a Eucharistic Minister and is on the Vestry. And there’s another way you can give time – you can give it to outreach.  Connor is in Kids Club and I am in Youth Group, and we participate in service projects with those groups. Our family as a whole also helps with Thanksgiving meals, the Giving Tree, and Congregations for the Homeless.

Now that you know what we do, it’s probably best if you know why we do it, so you might like to do it, too. First, it’s a way we “care for and preserve” the St. Thomas community that means so much to us. After we left our old church, for weeks we searched for a new one that would be special to us and would keep us coming back each Sunday. As soon as we came here, we knew that St. Thomas was the church we were looking for. St. Thomas is what we make it – so we all need to do our part to support it. Second, stewardship is a way to show our thanks and give back for all the wonderful gifts God gives to us. I don’t like to hear sad stories about all of the horrible things that happen in our world, but I’ve heard enough to know that we are so, so lucky. Mom and Dad both have jobs; our family is healthy; we have a nice house, warm clothes, and plenty of food; and we haven’t suffered any major natural disasters.  We want to show our thanks for that by giving back. And finally, it’s a way to follow the lessons that Jesus teaches about caring for our neighbors. What’s the point of coming to church every week and listening to the lessons from the Bible if we’re not going to learn something and follow those lessons? 

That’s just a little bit about what St. Thomas and stewardship means to our family. I hope you will think about what it means to you and your family and make a pledge on the ingathering Sunday in a few weeks.