Welcome to my stewardship website. This site is designed to assist pastors and congregations in their stewardship ministry. If you have a question, please contact me at the E-mail address in the left column. Suggestions are also welcome.

I have written much of the material, however some is also by colleagues. Material written by colleages or myself come with permission to reprint for use in your congregation. Copyrighted materials must, of course, be purchased from the copyright holder.

Be sure to check the links section. If you would like to link to this site, please feel free to do so.

My Services A list of the services I provide to ELCA congregations. For denominations interested in my Stewardship Adventures Seminars, please scroll down.

The Celebrate Generosity Stewardship Program by Eugene Grimm. Celebrate Generosity is a four-week Bible-based program that invites people to move toward and beyond a tithe in their giving. Based on 1 Corinthians 16:2, it celebrates both God's generosity and our generous response to God. Newest edition/upload—August 15, 2007.

Stories to Tell & Gifts to Share, the newest ELCA Stewardship Rescource, and in my opinion, the finest we've turned out in years.

Gratitude Links. I've created a new page for links to sites that contemplate gratitude. Check these out.

Generous People An overview of my book, Generous People: How to Encourage Vital Stewardship and order information.

Archives Articles that I've written in the past for the Stewardship Connection may be found here.

Articles by Colleagues include a number of interesting and useful articles written by my stewardship colleagues in the ELCA.

Bibliography Twenty-five or thirty years ago, there were very few good books written in our stewardship field. Today there is a plethora and with so many new ones coming out, it's difficult to keep up with them. If your favorite (or for authors, your book) is not here, please E-mail me with the vital information. I'll be happy to inlcude them. Some of the books listed are out of print, however, I've found that one can often locate them at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com.

Capital Campaigns Considering a capital campaign. Don't get the cart ahead of the horse. Let's talk.

Congregational Mission Endowment Funds Should a congregation have one? Yes! How does one set one up? Take a look. I've shared the Mission Endowment documents of Trinity Lutheran Church in Ashland, Ohio. It's one of the finest I've seen. For further advice, please contact me.

Fall Consultation Models The ELCA requires by Constitution that Synods hold a fall consultation with congregations regarding their Mission Support. This model is used by Roger Smith.

Preaching Helpful hints for weekly sermons are shared on our ELCA site at www.elca.org/stewardship. Some complete sermons are provided here with their authors' permission. Some are from the public domain. If you would like to share a sermon here, please send it to me with your permission to print. Another good source is Tim Zingale's Sermons and Sermon Illustrations and www.sermonspice.com

Programs I have not attempted to be inclusive of all progams here, however, you'll find a dozen or so listed. If you've had a positively wonderful experience with one that isn't included here, however, please E-mail me. You'll also find my new program Celebrate Generosity here as well.

Stewarship Adventures: Increasing the Harvest 15-30 Percent is my daylong seminar of tools. Read more.

Tithing is not lost. It is not forgotten, but it is considerably underemphasized in churches today...especially mainline churches. You'll find my Celebrate Generosity Stewardship Program, one that emphasizes tithing, useful in this regard. Herb Miller's Consecration Sunday Stewardship Program is another. Look for them both under Programs or click the link. Other tithing materials are to be found here as well as links to tithing sources.

Upcoming Stewardship Events includes stewardship events that are coming up in the Synods I serve as well as a few others. If you'd like to add yours, please E-mail me.

Links is a catchall of other stewardship and stewardship related sites. You may even find a few that surprise you.

Be Sure to Check Out:

Giving to God: The Bible's Good News About Living a Generous Life by Mark Allan Powell. Eerdmans, 2006

We all know that everything we have is a gift from God. But sometimes it’s hard to know just how to give back to God. How much is enough? What does the Bible really say? What should giving look like in our everyday lives? Filled with good news for followers of Jesus, Mark Allan Powell’s Giving to God shows Christians the way to a better life and a better relationship with their money — and with God.

Powell presents stewardship as an act of worship, an expression of faith, and a discipline for spiritual growth. Faithful use of our time, talents, and money starts with a deep, satisfying relationship with the God to whom we belong. We can then learn, says Powell, to give gladly and generously out of our heartfelt connection with God. Informative, concise, and eminently practical (including discussion questions), Giving to God gives us resources for best using the treasures, material and otherwise, that God has given us. (Publisher's Note)

Ask, Thank, Tell by Charles R. Lane. Minneapolis: Augsburg-Fortress, 2006

The goal of this book, says author Charles Lane, is to perform a dramatic rescue of stewardship, freeing it from any connection whatsoever to "paying the bills." When the Bible talks about stewardship it almost always talks about the intimate connection between how a person handles financial matters and that person's relationship with God. Stewardship is an intensely spiritual matter that lies close to a disciple's relationship with Jesus.

The book is designed especially for use in congregational planning and study. Congregational stewardship leaders will come back to three foundational verbs — ask, thank, tell — over and over as they help individuals experience the joy of giving generously. The author makes the convincing case that there is little in life today that can help a disciple grow in relationship with Jesus more than a solid intentional biblical stewardship. (Publisher's Note)