Tag: stewardship

Faith Stories: Growing Through Grace

When asked to speak on Stewardship, little did I know how the theme would make my head swim. I prayed to God and asked for help on how I should talk about Stewardship based on the theme, “Growing Through Grace.”

First of all, let’s establish what grace is in Christianity. You know there are many different meanings of the word. The Christian meaning of grace is the free and unmerited favor of God, as manifested in salvation of sins and the bestowal of blessings. After praying and pondering on the theme, “Growing Through Grace,” I heard God say, “Make it personal.”  

If a person walks through the doors of St. John’s and does not feel welcomed and loved, they just might be in need of a heart transplant! I walked through those doors about five years ago with my sons Kevin and Devin. The first person I remember greeting us with a big hug and warm smile is Kathleen Adams. (Now mind you there were many others who greeted us that day.) She stands out because on the next Sunday, she remembered all of our names. She didn’t get the boys’ names mixed up. That’s impressive in my book!

As I continued to grow through grace here at St. John’s, I stumbled into the Seekers Sunday School class while Devin was with Mrs. Marilyn and Mrs. Sarah. They invited me to visit with them until I found a class I felt comfortable, as in, I’m not a visitor anymore! I’m family! That’s right FAMILY. Carol, Don, Mr. Guy, Sally, Buffie, Larry, Fran, John, Pam, Ms. Bev, Daphne, Belinda, David, Achilla, Ms. Grace and Jane are who I go to for advice, prayer and someone to pick Devin up from school. FAMILY!  

I’ve grown through grace with the choir, thanks to a very talented and loving group of people (Carrie, Terry, Karen, Beleice, Diane, Catherine, Gay, Jimmy, Kathy, Susanna, Sally, Phil, John, Pat, Christine, Molly, Chester, Mr.Tom, Deidre, Ray, Bob (the judge), Mark and Troy). I’ve grown through grace in the puppet ministry. These are the most creative and talented people on the face of the earth! (Mr. Guy, Gay, Daphne, Bob and Jane, Devin and the other Jane) But that’s not all, St. John’s! I’ve grown through grace with my time and my money. As sure as I have grown, many of you have grown through grace too. It’s my prayer that we as a church continue to feed people both spiritually and physically by sharing our gifts through witness and service.

God bless you,
Darlene Dickson 

Faith Stories: Keep Our Vision Growing

Last week Kathy King shared some of the key points in the life of St. John’s since it was chartered in 1961. Today we are looking at keeping our vision growing.

Yes, we remember our past, we look at where we started and where we have come to today. We also do a little dreaming about where it is we want to go into the future.

Our past is history. We can’t change it. It is where it is. But we shouldn’t dwell upon it. We must remember the good part of it and learn from the bad parts of it. We shouldn’t continue to have things the way they were or are, but to get on with the life of the church in order to serve God’s call upon us.

So having said that, what does that mean? It means that for some 50+ years, almost 60, we have been doing God’s work here at the corner of Reneé Drive and Highland Road. I think you would agree with me that we have done a really good job of answering the call placed on our hearts in the beginning. By God’s Grace, we have some wonderful foundations from which to build our future.

And what is God calling us to do today in order to prepare for tomorrow? Our mission statement says that “we are a Christian community called to share our gifts through worship, witness and service so that others will know God and become disciples of Jesus Christ.”

We now have an expanded worship facility with the recent addition of the Narthex. This is a beautiful space to welcome visitors and new members to St. John’s. We have also remodeled the gymnasium and added air conditioning making a wonderful and useful Family Life Center. This gives more space to have church family functions and community events. It also adds to our mission of feeding the people by giving us more space to serve our clients at The Shepherd’s Market.

We also need to be good stewards of these new and expanded facilities, as well as the older parts of our campus, in order to represent God’s message of loving all who come into our midst. We must present a clean, well-kept location to all those who pass by our property. Being good stewards of all these facilities and keeping them in good repair must be a priority.

God calls us to serve and love our neighbors. We need to continue to service all of our missions and grow the opportunities to serve. We do a good job today of serving our various communities, and last Sunday we saw the many missions we are involved in at our Missions Fair. We do a lot to serve God, the surrounding community and the world at large.

All in all, God wants us to give our best, be our best as we present His word and be His disciples here in South Baton Rouge. To do that at the present time and to look into the future, we must continue to support the financial needs to prepare for tomorrow. God has called us here to South Baton Rouge. This is a fertile area, and there is a bountiful crop to be harvested, to grow His kingdom. We must put forth our best effort to have success.

We still have a debt to service and support, so this year we are asking for second-mile giving in addition to our regular annual budget appeal. By freeing up our debt, it gives us more opportunities to serve God in more and different ways.

I must admit that when we first started talking about raising $1.5 million, I was scared to death. In fact, I stood in front of you and admitted just that. I didn’t have much faith that we could come close to this goal. You could say I was a nay sayer. But I embraced the challenge and prayed fervently that God would provide as He has done in the first 50 plus years of our life. Thanks to our friends and members we met about two-thirds of that challenge in the three years of the pledge campaign. We walked by faith and not be sight.

So I urge us to pray earnestly and sincerely and ask for God’s help as we come into this time of commitment. By the Grace of God let us be the best disciples for Jesus Christ that we can be, next year and the years after, right here in South Baton Rouge. Remember, when we walk by faith and not by sight God will and does provide.

Mike Allen

Faith Stories: For Which We are Thankful

As Lane suggested in her sermon, we would like to share some of our history and the things for which we are thankful.

When we first joined St. John’s more than 45 years ago, the sanctuary building was already here because of the faith and generosity of its early members. You may not know that there used to be walls between the posts on each side. This formed Sunday School classrooms and offices for the minister and secretary and there was a small kitchen back there. We felt the need for a preschool for the community so the St. John’s Children’s Center was formed in 1966. We worshiped in the small sanctuary on folding chairs. We would rearrange them and add tables for covered dish dinners and other events.

A pipe organ was given for the sanctuary, and much later pews replaced the folding chairs. We continued to grow and more space was needed. We purchased a white wooden building from University Presbyterian for one dollar and had it moved to our campus behind our sanctuary. This added space enabled us to sponsor Boy and Girl Scout troops, have more Sunday School rooms, and of course a nicer place, with a kitchen, for covered-dish dinners and Boy Scout Courts of Honor.

Because of the faith and generosity of St. John’s members, we were able to build the gym behind the white building in 1980. This opened up more opportunities for mission. The preschool expanded, we had basketball games, exercise classes, boy and girl scout troops, and more classroom especially for our growing number of adult Sunday School classes, and a much larger area for covered dish dinners.

The white building was removed and the Education Building was built in 1987. Its new office space allowed the minister and secretary to move out of the small offices in the back of the sanctuary. We had more space for our growing Sunday School classes, Bible Studies and community events. The beautiful parlor was designed so we could hold small meetings and receptions with food, of course. The gym with its classrooms was still important to our mission efforts. 

Eventually the preschool was closed, and God sent us a new mission. He called Theresa Sandifer to “feed my sheep.” That led to St. John’s opening The Shepherd’s Market food pantry in 2012. We even provide meals for the pantry clients as they await their turn — just another way we feed people. 

Because St. John’s family was willing to “walk by faith and not by sight,” the gym was transformed into a Family Life Center. As soon as it was completed, God called us to open it after the 2016 flood to survivors and then disaster relief workers. The Shepherd’s Market, scouts, AA, and many other groups continue to use the FLC. If you visited the Mission Fair this past Sunday, you could see how many mission projects we are involved in. And of course, the Family Life Center gives us a nicer place for shared meals, like the breakfast yesterday to celebrate the completion of The Walk campaign.

We worshiped in the Family Life Center during the construction of the narthex, bell tower and covered walkway. The renovation of the sanctuary makes this an even more beautiful place in which to worship. 

We believe St. John’s is fulfilling our vision; we are known for feeding people both spiritually and physically because we are willing to walk by faith and not by sight.

Joyce & Bill Perry

Faith Stories: Looking Back with Gratefulness

As I prepared this message, I was thankful for being given the opportunity to look back with gratitude on all that St. John’s has meant in my life these past thirty-plus years. I joined St. John’s in the early 80s, and since I was just out of college, it feels like I have grown up here as I navigated adulthood.

Looking back, not only did I grow up and mature in my life and faith these past few decades as St. John’s nurtured me, we, collectively as a church, have grown in many ways too. I don’t have time to count them all, but here are a few that resonate with me.

When I walked into this sanctuary for the very first time, it looked a bit different. The sides and back sections were enclosed and held multiple rooms where Sunday School classes met and offices were located. That was the first sanctuary renovation I witnessed – making space for more people to worship! Along the way, the building that used to stand behind us was removed and the Education Building was constructed. We didn’t yet have the beautiful lot on the side where we now enjoy the occasional fun activities. And then, as you know, more recently, renovations and additions created the spaces we now enjoy anew  We have taken our time; we’ve been intentional with our facility changes as we’ve tried to be good stewards of the resources we’ve been blessed with, all the while doing this for the purpose of expanding our ministry to the world.

I believe we’ve also grown and matured emotionally as a church family. As within our own families, there are ups and downs, turns and twists as we experience life’s positive events and storms together. With God’s help, we’ve come out stronger and better for having weathered the good times and tough times. We have grown and matured together into a strong church family. It doesn’t take long for newcomers to start hearing the word “family” around here. And we are truly joyful about welcoming new people into our family.

I have seen us grow financially. And I don’t necessarily just mean how our personal giving has expanded over the years to enable us to do more for God’s Kingdom. We have seen the positives our contributions have provided. We are called to reach out to our neighbors, and even the world, through our financial giving.  We have done that!  Also, I feel blessed to be a member of a church family who has used our financial growth to resolve a challenge – to meet a need. I personally put forth one such challenge back in the day when Rev. Donald Avery was our pastor. I challenged our church family that year to give a little extra to meet a budgetary need and this church delivered! There have been other such times when we listened to our call from God to go the extra mile when needed. I believe this is evidence of how we have grown financially, but more importantly, indicates our spiritual growth and the good that comes from listening to God.

We have grown spiritually in ways too numerous to mention. We’ve studied, we’ve been spiritually nourished in small groups, we’ve attended spiritual renewal retreats, and we’ve stretched ourselves to pray in our neighborhood. One thing stands out the most to me however. We have grown spiritually in a way that allowed us to open our doors to become a place where people are fed. We feed them food to nourish their physical body and we have faith that we have been and will continue to be God’s instruments in feeding souls as well.

How have we been doing all this? How will we continue to be a place that feeds God’s people spiritually and physically? With God by our side. With God’s call on our hearts. With gratitude for all that God has blessed us with. Just look around. Look at all our blessings. Let’s look with gratitude on our own life’s blessings. We honor God as we gratefully give back a portion to Him so that His purposes may continue to be realized, right here on the corner of Renee and Highland and reaching beyond.

Kathy King

Faith Stories: Testimony of God’s Abundance

October 23, 2016 – A Testimony of Abundance from St. John’s UMC Baton Rouge on Vimeo.

A Season of Plenty

K It’s hard to see abundance when you’re right in the middle of things.

Z Well, it’s hard to see certain types of abundance, anyway.

K An abundance of stress, of student loans, of health problems, of papers to grade, of self doubt and depression and fears about the future—those are all very easy to see. My mind is drawn to them; I never forget they’re there.

Z The good things, however, seem to hide in the background like familiar scenery we just don’t notice anymore. Why do I forget these things? Why do my prayers center on my fears and not my thankfulness?

K We associate, for better or for worse, abundance with surplus and security and money. An abundant life, we’ve been told, is one where we lack nothing because we are good Christians who do good Christian acts. Trust God with his tithes and your offerings and He will take care of the rest. Have more faith and your checkbook will work itself out.

Z But then, things don’t work out. The extra $100 rebate from the electric company turns into a $500 fee bill from LSU. We finally manage to save up enough for a car repair we’ve been putting off and Kristine picks up a piece of shrapnel in the side of her tire. And scraping by month-by-month starts to feel like some sort of eternal test of character or punishment or anything but abundance.

K This sort of “Insert Prayer and Bible Study token, receive financial blessings” mantra is a self-righteous poison that equates wealth with godliness and poverty with evil. It diminishes the multitude of non-money ways that the Lord does provide for us as less important background blessings that we can only be grateful for once we’ve achieved financial abundance. I know this, and yet, I still hear it in my head. “If I just had more faith…”

Z But that’s not how it works. God’s provision is not defined by the number in our bank account or the shrinking grocery budget at the end of each month. And we are foolish to limit God to a single way to demonstrate His care for us.

K Sometimes, God’s provision looks like a steady job. Sometimes, it looks like losing that job so He can bring us to a better one.

Z Sometimes, God brings abundance in the form of extra time to spend volunteering. Sometimes, He brings it in the form of a happy, loving marriage.

K My task and great challenge is to be more faithful in actively seeking out and being grateful for the provision of the Lord in the many ways He has blessed me, instead of focusing on the ways I feel that He hasn’t.

-Kristine and Zach Isenhower

Faith Stories: Testimony of God’s Abundance

October 16, 2016 -Testimony of God’s Abundance from St. John’s UMC Baton Rouge on Vimeo.

A Season of Plenty

When Pastor Jay called me earlier in the week and asked me to speak about God’s bounty, I immediately said yes. I’m a people-pleaser, and besides, I thought, this should be easy enough. After all, I’ve experienced God’s bounty in so many ways: in the laughter of my children (the ones I was told I’d never have); in the love of my husband and family; in the satisfaction I get from working again; and in the relative security I feel in my community.

But while I could speak casually about any of those things, none in particular was really inspiring me to say anything….well….. church-talk worthy. None of these things seemed compelling or powerful, or at least, certainly not enough to be meaningful to others.

And so the week went on, and I busied myself with my usual full schedule of meeting with students and teaching classes, shuttling children to school and play dates, burning-I mean, cooking-dinners, and washing dishes and laundry. And all the while, I racked my brain for something to speak about.

Finally, Saturday night came. And as I stood over a stove preparing a most unimpressive meal for the family, silently panicking that I still hadn’t found Divine inspiration in anything that had happened to me lately, Divine inspiration came to me.

Maybe this IS God’s bounty. God’s bounty is ENOUGH.

The Bible refers to God’s bounty quite a bit. The Psalms are full of references to God’s greatness, God’s overflowing riches, as His bounty. Likewise, the ancient books of Genesis and Deuteronomy refer to God’s bounty in tangible terms of great abundance; indeed, the Deuteronomist speaks of God’s bounty as the storehouse of the Heavens, of overflowing stores of grain, and carts of abundance.  

But in Jeremiah, we see a different picture of God’s bounty. This bounty is God’s goodness. In chapter 13, verse 13, God promises to turn our sorrow into joy, to replace our mourning with dancing. And in the next verse — the verse that really moves me — God promises to satisfy us with his bounty. Yes, satisfy us with His bounty, His goodness.

So for me, this satisfaction, this busy contentedness, this is the experience of God’s bounty in my life. It’s the busyness of a full life, of a soul made content by the small things (and small people). God’s bounty is present in my life in the everyday experience of dressing and bathing my children, in my grocery shopping and cooking, in working with a student to navigate the demands of public education…..

So perhaps I have no compelling testimony of God’s bounty; in my life, God’s bounty is simple. It is contentment. And it is enough. 

Heather Durham

Faith Stories: Putting God First in Giving & Living

Stewardship: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care

St. John’s community, God has given us the responsibility of sharing our gifts through worship, witness and service so that others will know God and become disciples of Jesus Christ.

News Flash! We are doing that, through all the wonderful ministries we have here at St. John’s UMC – Opening Doors, The Shepherd’s Market, Tutoring, the United Methodist Women, the Youth Ministry, the Children’s Ministry, Sunday School, Bible Study, Worship Service…and that’s just a few. I’ve seen firsthand how important all these ministries are to St. John’s and the community. 

During the first week of school, a little girl came up to me and said, “Do you remember me?” I smiled at her and said, “Of course I do!” I hoped and prayed that she wouldn’t ask me her name. I didn’t know it and still don’t. Then she hugged me and said, “Thank you for giving me food!” I thought she was talking about school breakfast. (I have cafeteria duty at Wildwood.) Of course I said, “You are so very welcome but you don’t need to thank me for that.” “Oh yes I do!” she beamed. “My family really needed that food and you helped us put food in our baskets for free!” The light bulb comes on! “Yes!” I said. “You came to the Shepherd’s Market at my church this summer!” 

St. John’s, my prayer is that we continue to give financially, share our gifts, share our talents, give our time, and share God’s love with others. 

How do you put God first in giving and living? By being good stewards of our finances, gifts, talents, time and hearts. 

Darlene Dickson

Faith Stories: Carol Gordon’s Ministry Moment

Then Jacob made a vow saying “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father’s house, then the Lord will be my God and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.” Genesis 28:20-22

I was listening to Pastor Jay’s sermon on July 27 about Jacob and his stairway to heaven. It is truly a living word, and it spoke to me again. Jacob promised to give back to God 10% of all that God gave to him. Too many times I forget that without God sharing with me I would have nothing. It is not my things nor my income, but God’s. God, who makes it all possible for me as he did for Jacob. This also applies to not just my pledge but also to giving of my time and talents in service to God.

Putting God First in Giving and Living:

Do I always give a tenth of my time and assets? No way. But I work at it. When I started my work career here after graduation from college at Oklahoma State 35 years ago, I was single and making less than $20,000 a year. So I started small and made a pledge of $10/month. The next year it was $20/month, and I made myself a promise to increase the amount each year. Some years it didn’t increase and one year it went down. But this year it will increase. Last year we started giving online so that every month our pledge would automatically be delivered just like our other important payments.

My family is very lucky to be a part of St Johns’ congregation. I am thankful for all the “God Things” we have been a part of: missions like the Shepherd’s Market and volunteer Reading Friend at Wildwood Elementary; small groups like Sunday School, Disciple Bible Study, Covenant Group, Bell Choirs, Nursery, and Youth; church committees like Administrative Council, Finance, Trustees, etc. We all have a lot to be thankful for: from the welcome you receive as you arrive to the fellowship as you participate, and from the walking with each other and God during worship and prayer.

So first: God made all this possible and everything is his.

Second: We have the opportunity to live into the mission of this church:

We are called to share our gifts through worship, witness and service so others will know God and become disciples of Jesus Christ.

(we are) Glorifying God, Feeding People, Making Disciples.

Vision – St. John’s will be known as a center for feeding people physically and spiritually within our community.

As you plan your financial and service pledge to God for this coming year, give prayerful thought about how you fit in our mission and vision.

We all know what God deserves.

Carol Gordon