This Season of Stewardship

Friends and family of LaSalle - 

As we turn into November there is much going on all around us. Within our church there are folks navigating the impact of national elections and city-wide ICE detainment, surgeries and personal health realities, families full with child care and school and fall calendars, all ages who are job hunting and planning for the holidays, food insecurity and mental health burdens, loneliness and relationship stress, as well as many beautiful and good and life-giving things! Together as a Body of Christ we can help lift one another up in these full times - we get to encourage and celebrate the good, and help support and bear witness to the heavy that others are walking through. That is really what stewardship is at the end of the day - our response to the gifts of God, our approach in real life, how we hold the heavy and beautiful, our needs and what we already have. 

This season of stewardship at LaSalle we're taking a slightly different approach and focusing for the month of November on the question, what is our story of money? We'll be exploring together how we see money, the plot twists and characters involved, and how this impacts both our personal stories and our common, congregational story. And we'll be remembering God's story of money and how this might pull us toward trust, faith, abundance, and generosity as a whole community. 

Pastor Randall started this series and preached last week on "Remember "- how do we remember God's enough-ness throughout scripture, how even when we are in desert places, we know a God who provides manna. This coming week we'll explore Release - how we release fear, shame, and move toward freedom when it comes to thinking about money, because God encourages us not to stay tied to the love of or control of money but be free. Then we will explore Reimagine - how we might rethink the topic of money, not as a place of privilege, power, or voting for our wants, but as a resource from God, for goodness, for ourselves and for our neighbors. And finally we'll look at Restore - how resetting our story with money restores our relationships with one another, with creation, and moves us toward justice and shalom. 

We'll also be hearing video reflections each Sunday from LaSallers on how they see God at work in our midst this year, and we'll be sharing details about our budget realities. I have very encouraging news on that front too - even as so much is happening all around us, our annual church spending is under budget, our giving is right on budget, and we've gotten some additional large gifts and grants that give us even more options for what is up ahead. We're increasing our response to the neighborhood and taking action in many ways to meet this national moment as well; we'll share all this and more in the coming weeks. 

Stewardship is about how we make choices to respond to real life all around us, the good and the hard. And stewardship is about what story we tell ourselves about money. I invite you this November to take a moment to think about this for yourself, for your family, for our church - how do we see money? And its purpose? How do we connect that story to God's story of money? And in a season where so much in the world needs more goodness and justice, more belonging and healing, how might we steward whatever good gifts we have been given? I am so grateful to be doing this alongside one another, as people who are a generous community invested in God's justice. Together let's remember - release - reimagine - and restore this season! Thanks be to God. - RevLiz