Worship at Ralph Connor... Take a look at 2  sermons below by Mary Shearer, May 2011

1. People are inspired to come to Ralph Connor worship for a variety of gifts that include:
   

2. ✢  a community of faith and spirituality
   

3. ✢  a welcoming and diverse approach to modern day thinking
   

4. ✢  music that resonates with our soul
   

5. ✢  relaxed, non judgmental and respectful atmosphere
   

6. ✢  supporting social justice issues
   

Worship can include the quiet contemplation of yoga and meditation, insightful discussions of scripture, thought-provoking sermons, spirit-filled approach to music.  Worship also includes an emphasis on open and “generous” communication in all aspects of the operation of the church.

Scripture is interpreted metaphorically, with a deep understanding of the complexity and nuances available through a more liberal interpretation of traditional teachings.  Offerings from other faith traditions and a deep reverence for ecology and our place on the earth are woven into regular services.

Our Minister, Rev. Ron Jeffrey brings intellect and knowledge about our history from the Bible from many denominational and spiritual backgrounds... his connection with current events... with wit, spontaneity, fun, and connection to life right now in the present.

Social justice and outreach are an important manifestation of worship at Ralph Connor and are connected with the efforts of the United Church of Canada.  Through discussion, ministerial input, fundraising for those in need, and community lectures, the congregation stays abreast of current issues in our world and endeavors to take action in ways that make a difference.

At Ralph Connor, you’ll find a congregation and staff who are warmly welcoming, an intellectually and spiritually stimulating environment and a true sense of social responsibility and justice in action.  We welcome any questions or input you might have about our approach, mission or vision.

Pastoral Class: Those wishing to join the church or bring children for baptism are invited to a pastoral class. Please contact the office for more details.

Sermon May 8, 2011 Choices Do Make A Difference – Part One....Mary Shearer

Good morning.  For those of you who do not know me I am Mary Shearer, a member of this church.  Last weekend I attended a United Church Conference in Edmonton called Money, Meaning and Faith.  Because stewardship is presently the main focus of our Church Council the conference seemed a good fit.  My initial hope was that I would return with many good ideas for improving our Stewardship, especially ideas for financial management.   I very quickly realized that I was going to come away with far more.  Gradually I became aware that in some ways our church is far behind in understanding and implementing real Christian Stewardship. 

The main idea that I came away with by the end of the weekend was that as soon as money becomes the mission of the church or the main value of the individual things change.  The church ceases to be the church and the individual loses the opportunity to make his or her money make a difference.   Two speakers presented compelling evidence that money must follow rather than lead.  A strong sense of mission must drive the church and thoughtful values must lead an individual in his or her decisions.

Before I talk about the work of the first conference presenter, Barbara Fullerton, I want to review the message in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians that was our scripture for today. 

I am sure that most of you have observed in a science class the power on an electromagnetic field.  As long as the field force is maintained a loose pile of nails will hold a fixed shape as if they were soldered together.  But the moment the current is cut off the nails fall into a shapeless mass.  Paul pictures Jesus in this text as the head of the church.  Christ is the unifying power that keeps the body together.  The teachings of Jesus help guide and direct the decisions that the church makes.  If we do not center our mission on changing lives and making a difference in the world there will be not only be a financial collapse but more importantly a collapse of morals, ethics and spirit.

Paul also stresses that members of a church must cooperate to achieve their mission. He uses the image of a body as the symbol of this cooperation.  Again I turn to science where we have a strong example of how cooperation makes for a stronger whole.  A discovery has been made that when roots of trees touch there is a substance present that reduces competition.  This fungus helps link roots of various trees.  In this way the trees have the means to cooperate with one another to share nutrients and moisture.  This tree example is one way to illustrate the results that can be achieved by cooperation.

Finally Paul teaches that each Christian has a distinct contribution to give for the benefit of the whole.  It comes by way to service to others.  Martin Luther said, “A Christian is the most dutiful servant of all and subject to everyone.”    In other words serving other is the Christian’s responsibility.

Keep these three things in mind:

         Centering in the teachings of Jesus,

         Cooperating as a church and

         Serving as an individual

Don’t worry!  There will not be a test at the end of the service but you should see the link between Paul’s three messages and what I have to share about Stewardship.

Barbara Fullerton is a United Church staff member from National Office She has identified the best congregational stewardship practices used by United Churches across the country.  Her work is based on sound research and can help us identify what we are already doing well and show us potential for growth.

Her recent PhD thesis centered on this question.  How do ongoing, year round stewardship practices, including preaching and teaching about stewardship correlate with generosity?  First she analyzed the financial stewardship of over 3000 United Churches from 1999 to 2004.  444 of these churches stood out with increased per capita givings over the 6 years.  Their givings were from 24 to 55 percent above the national average of all United Churches.  Next she looked for stewardship practices that best correlated with these increased givings. 

She identified six general areas. These are printed on the back cover of the white insert in your bulletin.  Please turn to this page.

Stewardship that Correlates with Generosity

•Sound Fundraising Methodology   Includes: mission clarity, an annual giving program and donor appreciation.

•Stewardship Integration Into Worship   Congregations that lift up stewardship every Sunday in a variety of ways create more generosity among the members.

•Creating a Culture of Gratitude and Generosity   This involves nurturing individual and communal identity as stewards and disciples rather than consumers.

•Stewardship Leadership by both Clergy and Lay Leaders   Preaching about stewardship and active lay involvement in stewardship training and annual giving.

•Spiritual Growth Opportunities   People involved in spiritual growth and discipleship tend to be generous with both their lives and money.  

•Engagement in Social Justice Concerns    This includes work at all levels local, national and global as well as a variety of areas such as environment, poverty, and justice for all.

 

All six practices influence giving in their own way.  Unfortunately most churches only focus on a few.  Barbara found that over the six years churches with a narrow stewardship focus experienced a decrease in givings.  At the present time I believe that at Ralph Connor we do quite well with Spiritual Growth Opportunities and Engagement in Social Justice Concerns    I think we are lacking in Sound Fundraising Methodology, Stewardship Integration into Worship, Creating a Culture of Gratitude and Generosity and Stewardship Leadership by both Clergy and Lay leaders.

Barbara ended her presentation with a suggestion that she feels is so important she called it a Copernican Shift.  Nicolaus Copernicus was a Renaissance astronomer and the first person to formulate a comprehensive theory which displaced the Earth from the center of the universe.  His work caused a major shift in scientific thinking.

Barbara emphasized the need for both churches and individuals to move from a maintenance focus with the church or self at the center to a ministry and mission focus with God and others at the center.   She urged us to use the gifts and assets that we have as clues to the mission to which the Spirit beckons us.  A church with a mission can invite people to give to it.  Individuals passionate about what God is calling them to do are also generous.

Your church council has identified stewardship as an area of focus for the coming year.  We are starting small but our goal is to join the league of churches that excel in all six stewardship areas.  We want to excel because if we do it will be because of our generosity in all areas of giving not only because we met our budget. 

This brings me back to Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.  I hope that you now see how keeping Jesus Christ central to your life and our church, working together and serving as individuals must form the foundation of our stewardship journey

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HALLEJUIA and AMEN.  Thanks for listening.  I’m done part one. Please tune in again next week.

Sermon May 15                       Ralph Connor United Church

Choices Do Make A Difference – Part Two

By Mary Shearer

Good morning.  Two weeks ago I attended a United Church Conference in Edmonton called Money, Meaning and Faith.  Last week I spoke about insights I learned from the first speaker, Barbara Fullerton.  Her work centered around best stewardship practices for churches.  If your interested this sermon is available on our Ralph Connor website and there are a few copies in the Narthex.

Today I am going to share the work of Nathan Dungan. His mantra is Share, Save, Spend and the motto on his website is: The choices we make with our money can change the world.  Whether we consider ourselves rich or poor, it is easy to be enthralled with wealth and its accessories.  We often assume that if we had more we would be satisfied.  The writers of the scriptures read this morning believe that satisfaction is not dependent on attaining wealth but on trusting in  and serving God.

Nathan’s father was a pastor and his mother was an accountant.  He attributes this fortunate mix of occupations to shaping his views on money.  His programs have been used by many different groups from Best Buy in the USA to South Peace United Church in Dawson Creek, BC.  The mission of Share Save Spend is to help all people achieve financial sanity by developing and maintaining healthy money habits.

Nathan believes that people typically have a dominant characteristic around money. We all are savers, sharers or spender’s Nathan has established that each one of us shows a dominance toward one of these.  Dungan suggests that  knowing your “money temperament” is important. Why? Because if having money makes you want to spend it, you can figure out a way or seek help to keep that natural tendency in check and maybe do more sharing and saving.  According to Dungan, building healthy money habits involves “taking control of things you can control” and learning how to talk about money.

He points out that times have changed and so have expectations about money.  He claims that in three generations we have moved from a position of focusing on needs and generosity to wants and spending.   Today through multimedia we are told about 5,000 times a day what we need when many of these supposed needs are really wants.  Dungan says, “Ads tell you that what you have isn’t enough.  They chip away at your self esteem.”  We are up against a consumer culture telling us to spend our money and keep up to the Joneses. This is especially tempting for the young and very difficult for people on limited budgets.

One way to fight this is to know what your values are — those things that really matter to you. This involves joining in intergenerational conversations about money, values and faith. 

Before I introduce you to two of his programs that I want to reflect back to one of the main stewardship practices that Barbara Fullerton identified.  She called it Creating a Culture of Gratitude and Generosity.  Nathan Dungan’s programs are custom fit to this stewardship practice.  I would like to see Ralph Connor adopt one of these programs and introduce it not only to our church members but to the greater Canmore community as a form of outreach. 

Our community is ripe for this.  Canmore has recently displaced Fort McMurray as the most expensive place to live in Alberta.  Young adults and families find it difficult to make ends meet.  Plus the recent recession has been a wake up call for all of us.  People are motivated to learn about finances and spending habits.  We also identified at our Mission Strategy meeting with Joel Den Hann last spring that we want to increase the ways that we reach out to the Canmore Community.

So here is a quick summary of two of Nathan Dungan’s programs.

The first program, Financial Sanity is aimed at an intergenerational adult audience.   Financial Sanity provides a simple but complete script to lead a group through four one-hour sessions. The guide is written for leading both Christian and Secular groups.

The second program, Money Sanity Solutions: Linking Money + Meaning is designed to get families talking about money by leveraging everyday life experiences. The goal: help everyone in the family develop healthy money habits that are linked to their values. It too, is intergenerational, with Grandma and Grandpa included if they live nearby.

The format of both programs is similar.  A lively and engaging DVD video starts each session with Nathan providing his insights, stories and wisdom.  The handbook includes thought-provoking conversation starters, relevant case studies, as well as, activities and exercises.  To wet your appetite I am now going to show you some clips from the DVD for the second program, Money Sanity Solutions

Showed a clip on Gratitude and Greed from Money Sanity Solutions DVD

Inserted a personal story about my own family’s struggles with money management.

Last week I tried to cover the best practices of stewardship and link stewardship to mission and ministry through the teachings of Paul.  Today I have narrowed my presentation to suggesting a practical way that Ralph Connor might link a specific stewardship program to our church family and the greater community. My suggestion will not appeal to everyone but I believe that we have the talent in our congregation to make it happen.  There are also many partners we can work with in the Canmore community.  I view this  as a call to a richer view of stewardship, and a solemn refusal to limit our focus to budgets and fundraising.

Thanks for listening

AMEN

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