Money doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Money has a mission. This straightforward four-week stewardship sermon encourages the congregation to give to the vital mission and ministries God has laid our for the church.
Note: This sermon series works best accompanied by a narrative budget, so you can give the congregation numbers for each area–how much money supports each area of ministry. For more about how to construct a narrative budget, click here.
Where Our Treasure Is: Series Outline
Week 1: Worshipping God
Scripture: Psalm 96 and Acts 2:42-46
In a few succinct verse, the passage from Acts lays out the four missions of God’s church. The believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching—to the formation of their own faith. They devoted themselves to the community—to serving their neighbors. They devoted themselves to their shared meals—to connecting with each other in fellowship. And they devoted themselves to their prayers—to worshipping God. These are the missions of the church universal, boiled down to basics.
As you introduce the idea of money supporting the missions of the church (which may be uncomfortable to people used to language of “giving our tithes to God), lift up the money you spend on worship each year, and how it reflects your congregational value of worshipping God. You are putting your money where your mouth is!
God created the church to carry on Christ’s missions. If we didn’t have a dime, we would still find a way to be the church. But money is one of the tools we use to strengthen our missions, a resource we can draw on to teach and worship and connect and serve more effectively.
Rev. Carol Holbrook Prickett
Week 2: Forming Our Faith
Scripture: Proverbs 1:1-7 and Matthew 28:16-20
Faith does not spring fully formed into our hearts. It is not given to us as a perfect, finished gift, ready to be unwrapped. Faith is a seed that we choose to nurture, to give our attention and time and energy to, to help it grow and take root in ourselves. One of the great gifts we have inherited from Judaism is the value of study in the life of faith. Our Old Testament is full of wisdom literature, writing meant to poke at our brains until we see God or God’s world or even ourselves in a new light. In his own day, Jesus was known as a rabbi, a teacher, one who brought others to deeper understanding of God’s truth. These scriptures remind us how central being a lifelong learner is to our faith, and encourage us to give to support that goal.
Being people of strong faith makes a difference to our world. It makes a difference in how we see people, how we treat people, the language we use, the behavior we tolerate in those around us, the way we spend our money, the way we handle crisis and grief, the everyday choices we make to help or harm our neighbor. Being people of strong faith makes us missionaries every day, to people who sorely need someone who knows the depth of what it means to love.
rev. carol Holbrook Prickett
Week 3: Connecting in Fellowship
Scripture: 1 Kings 17:7-16 and 1 Corinthians 12:12-31
“Fellowship” may be a slightly antiquated word, yet the need for community, for strong and caring relationships, is as important as ever. The Old Testament reading tells the story of a potluck that saved three lives, as Elijah and the widow of Zarephath come together to each offer what they can–a little corn meal, a little miracle–to keep them all alive in famine. Paul reinforces the point that each of need each other, with our unique gifts and abilities. Spending money on fellowship isn’t just about funding parties; it’s about creating and sustaining the kind of relationships that can be life savers when stormy waters hit.
Our faith tells of us a God that values relationships with humans above all else. Of a God who loves us deeply, who speaks to us in words we can understand, who came out of heaven just so we could touch his hand and hear his voice.
Rev. carol holbrook prickett
Week 4: Serving Our Neighbors
Scripture: Isaiah 58:6-10 and Matthew 25:31-46
Whether you call it mission, charity, justice work, or neighborliness, serving those outside our walls is a vital part of our faith. The themes of serving those in need permeate both Testaments of our scripture in the strongest terms. Yet with so many needs (and so many fundraising pitches), it can become easy to give haphazardly. Giving to a congregational budget for mission allows the church to engage in thoughtful, sustained, and reliable acts of service to its neighbors, near and far.
There is a hidden callousness to “random acts of kindness.” What we really need is reliable kindness, kindness that is constant, not borne from a whim. Sustaining a mission budget helps us say “you can count on us to be kind.”
Rev. carol holbrook prickett
Ministry Resources
Where Our Treasure Is Liturgy, including
Where Our Treasure Is Stewardship Resources
Where Our Treasure Is Graphics (editable Canva templates)
Deep Well Worship 