Stewardship

Good morning. More than 20 years ago, I was contemplating a sermon I had just heard and came to realize I was setting aside more money for pizza each week than I was dedicating to my church.

I didn’t like what that said about my priorities.

That was a beginning for me of a new way of looking at Stewardship. I found that when I increase my financial commitment to church, other commitments followed. Commitments to attending services, to prayer, reading scripture and to service in the community.

For me those commitments translate into experiencing more of the person God has called me to be. I come to church in a large part to be reminded of that person.

I’m here at St. Michael’s because I find St. Michael’s to be a community that encourages practices that put me in touch with the Holy Spirit and remind me of the person God has called me to be.

It is a transformative experience when I can say “God’s will, not my will”. I worship here at St.Michael’s because I know this transformative experience is happening in many of your lives as well. I know this because in some cases you’ve told me directly, or you’ve shared a prayer or experience which exemplifies this. I can also see it in the ways we care for one another, our church, and our community.

I support St. Michael’s, my church home, because not only do we use our beautiful church to worship together, but we use our building as a place of refuge where the door is literally always open, as a home for Greenwoods Counseling, and a meeting place for AA and now a food pantry

We are living and proclaiming the transformative love of God.

For that I am thankful and that is something I support with my time, my talent and my treasure.

~ Denise Butwill