Stewardship Union Leadership A seminar about how to do it. By Mario Niño, MSPH. GENERAL CONFERENCE Stewardship Ministries

The Basics Each Division’s Leader needs to know… 1. The Philosophy of Stewardship. 2. The History of Stewardship. 3. The Theology of Stewardship. 4. The Methodology of Stewardship 5. The organizational Structure of STW.

The Philosophy: The philosophy explains why we do what we do. Therefore, the Philosophy of Stewardship explains why the Stewardship Ministries came into existence. The Stewardship Ministries Department was organized by the General Conference (1966) with the purpose of helping churches to fulfill the mission of the church through a spiritual revival.

The History: At the 1966 General Conference Session, a vote was taken to change the Development Service of the church into the Department of Development. The Development Service began in North America in 1954 at the conference level only, and was used to help individual churches finance building projects (churches and academies).

More about History: The new department would have as its primary function the promotion of a spiritual revival program at the local church level promoting a spirit of sacrifice, in order to boost world evangelization and the development of the church in general. Three basic programs were organized: 1. Combined Budget, 2. Development Plan and 3. Systematic Benevolence.

The Theology: The Theology of Stewardship is the fundamental icon in understanding and promoting stewardship. Today we hear several meanings for the word stewardship: Tithing, lifestyle, giving, spreading the gospel. Our definition is: “Stewardship is all of me in response to all of God”.

The Methodology: The faithfulness and generosity of the church members do not take place in a vacuum. Generosity is there when appropriate environment is created. If the environment deteriorates, the members are affected. We emphasize, that creating and maintaining this environment at the local church level, is not only a necessity, it is an imperative

Methodology… One of the best methods for promoting stewardship is the Spiritual Revival Program at the level of the local church. The Spiritual Revival Program is a system of organization and development of all the programs and projects that a church defines as its main necessity. A system is not good or bad by itself. Requires emphasis and motivation.

Other ways for trainning. 1. Ministerial assemblies and retreats. 2. Annual worker’s meetings. 3. Seminars with theology students. 4. National stewardship conventions. 5. Stewardship Advisories. 6. Annual spiritual emphasis programs/ 7. Stewardship symposiums. 8. Biblical Stewardship Institute. 9. Stewardship Festivals.

The Structure: As a world church, we use the denominational structure in order to fulfill our task. The GC personnel has the duty to support the Division’s stewardship director. The Division director, support the Union’s stewardship director. The Union director, support the local field’s stewardship director. The local field director support the local church.

What to do? As a Union stewardship director you need to: 1. Maintain a permanent communication with the Division (two ways). 2. Define the main event of your Union for the following year. 3. Process the service request with six to nine months in advance. 4. Invite the Union’s/Conference/Field president for the main event of the year.

Stewardship Union Leadership A seminar about how to do it. By Mario Niño, MSPH. GENERAL CONFERENCE Stewardship Ministries