STEWARDSHIP

PASTORS INVEST TIME AND TALENT

into The Generous Church Leadership Course offered by the Foundation

This program was created through a partnership of four general United Methodist church agencies and was offered in the New England Annual Conference by the United Methodist Foundation of New England. Recently completing its first cohort, the 12 attending pastors, were invited to explore, encounter, and engage the theology of money, the pastor as generosity leader, nurturing generous leaders, and moving congregations to a culture of generosity through readings, presentations, conversations, and more.

John Whitley, Pastor at Milford UMC noted, “This class helped me get a much clearer understanding of my relationship with money over the course of my life and how that intersects with my faith and some of the day-to-day realities of pastoral leadership and it was wonderful to get to work through this material in a group of fellow clergy!”

Facilitated by Rev. Dr. David Abbott-Foundation Director of Stewardship and joined by Rev.’s Rebecca Cho / Ben Daggett / Kate Galop / Seok Hwan Hong / Ross Johnson / Barry Judd / Shannon Keeney / Sunjae Lee / Dongmyung Shim / Alicia Valez Stewart / John Whitley / and Tim Wilcox. They faithfully gathered every month for community conversations around stewardship, a topic many faith communities associate with a fall campaign to raise money for the church’s budget.

“This group of pastors and colleagues were amazing. They were faithful to the curriculum as well as each other while we explored various aspects of helping a church to become a generous community for Christ,” said Rev. Dr. David Abbott. “Their willingness to listen, learn, and apply the program’s lessons to their specific ministry context and then share the results, was an unanticipated and greatly appreciated learning tool for all.”

Pastors interested in applying for the program should contact Rev. Dr. Abbott.