Stewardship Resource Page

Stewardship is about our love for what God has done for us that expresses itself through generous hearts, minds and hands as respond to God’s love in Jesus Christ.

On this page, you can find links to stewardship resources and tools for use in local congregations.

For resources from the ELCA Churchwide Organization, go to: ELCA Stewardship Resource Page

For more information on stewardship in the Virginia Synod, contact Pastor John Wertz, Jr. at: wertz@vasynod.org.

Stewardship Resources for Congregations

To assist congregations, the Virginia Synod has helped develop Generosity Matters. This approach to stewardship development provide step-by-step guides for how to develop and implement a stewardship emphasis around the theme. You can access the available resources. If you scroll down, you will see additional resources on Legacy giving, Narrative Spending Plans, and Council Devotions.

Generosity Matters is a set of web-based financial and stewardship emphasis originally developed for use in congregations by the Virginia Synod, Pastor David Derrick and St. Philip Lutheran Church. The updated version has been modified for use by congregations to talk about stewardship in our world which was reshaped by COVID-19.  Download the “Start Here” document to get an overview of the resources that are available: Start Here for Generosity Matters March 2020 Update

Additional Resources

If you are looking for additional resources around stewardship, check out the resources listed in the tabs below.

  • Send five Giving Statements per year  during April/May, June/July, September, December and January.  Put a thank you note in each giving statement.  Use pictures.  Tell a Story.  Sending a simple thank you note that that connects gifts given to ministry being accomplished can make a powerful statement .  Download a sample “Giving Statement Thank You Note” template here.
  • Say “Thank You!” for all the ways that people share their gifts, not just for financial stewardship.  Each week, make five personal contacts, five phone calls, write five handwritten thank you notes or send five personal emails saying “Thank you” to individuals in the congregation or community who have used their gifts to make ministry happen.    
  • Hold a “Thank You Brunch” in connection with your next Annual Meeting. Invite everyone who supports the ministry of the congregation to the “Thank You Brunch” provided by the congregation. Consider working with a local restaurant to provide biscuits or other breakfast foods. At the brunch, recognized volunteers who share their time and talents to make ministry happen. If you are worried about the cost of the brunch, consider applying for a $250 Thrivent Action Team grant to pay for the food and supplies.
  • Invite a ministry leader to say “Thank You” at a worship service. Individuals in worship rarely see all the ministry being accomplished at a congregation. Invite a leader, other than the pastor, from one of your ministries (for example, faith formation ministry, helping ministry, etc) to take 60 seconds to thank the congregation for supporting the ministry.
  • Write a Thank You letter or Create an ‘Infographic” telling the story of the congregation’s ministry and include it in your “Year-End” giving statement. When writing a letter, be sure to mention specific ministries accomplished during the past year. Infographics are visual representations of information. Invite an artist or creative person in your congregation to create an infographic telling the story of your ministry. Free online tools like canva.com can be used to produce simple, impactful infographics.
  • Give a handwritten thank you note to each of your key staff and volunteers thanking them for their help during the holidays.  The Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter seasons can create tremendous stress for staff and volunteers. Write a personal thank you note to each individual telling them how much you appreciate their support during these busy times.

Use a Narrative Spending Plan to present your Spending Plan to the congregation.  Instead of presenting a spreadsheet of numbers at your congregational meeting, use the numbers to tell the story of ministry being accomplished.  Download an explanation and example of a Narrative Spending Plan here.

The Narrative Spending Plan format can also be used for reporting ministry spending from the previous year at a congregational meeting.

Mission Support

Did you know that ELCA members in more than 8,900 congregations in the United States and Caribbean give approximately $1.7 billion in regular offerings annually to support ELCA ministries in their local communities and worldwide? When members give through their congregations, about 5.3% of that money is shared with the local synod as mission support. The Virginia Synod share 40% of the mission support it receives from congregations for Churchwide ministry. Thank you for your faithful support!

Read stories and find out more about how your gifts of Mission Support make an impact on the larger church at Stories of Faith in Action.  You can also watch the most recent Virginia Synod Mission Support Thank You Video to learn more about Mission Support in the Virginia Synod.

The Virginia Synod Stewardship Table has created a booklet of monthly devotions, to be used by your Church Council at its meetings. Each devotion it contains was written by a pastor or lay member of our Virginia Synod, around the theme of stewardship as that which frames our lives together, called to share in the ministry of Word and Sacraments.
We hope that you will find these brief devotions, with their thought-provoking questions, to be helpful to you as you conduct the ministry and the business of your congregation or parish.

Each devotion for the month will also be distributed at the start of the month to help center the planning of your congregation’s Church Council meetings.