Carol A. Wehrheim, Giving Together: A Stewardship Guide for Families. Westminster/John Knox, 2004.
Referenced in: Giving and Financial Stewardship
LifeandLeadership.com Summary
Given the fact that stewardship is not simply about what one puts in the plate on Sunday, but includes a host of everyday lifestyle decisions, it is important for the whole family to be involved in coming to grips with the relationship between faith and money, time, and talents. This is a superb guide for families to use with each other for that purpose.
The book includes five chapters, each one targeted for a specific reflection and set of exercises for the family. Each chapter focuses on one broad area of stewardship: the family’s mission, stewardship in the family, stewardship in the congregation, stewardship in the community, and stewardship through seeking justice. Each chapter includes a brief devotional from scripture (one Old Testament and one New Testament), and a suggested activity from among the five spiritual practices of discernment, hospitality, generosity, fasting, and advocacy for others. The first part of the book contains chapters for participants, and the second half is a leader’s guide.
It may not be feasible for every family in one’s church to use this guide during one massive campaign, but if a church targeted so many families a year to go through this study, it would yield significant results.
This is in the same genre as Roehjlkepartain, Growing Up Generous. Growing Up Generous is more narrowly focused on teens, as to where Giving Together is a guide for whole families.
From the Publisher
Explains the importance of stewardship in the family, the congregation, the community, and the world. Reminding us that stewardship is about much more that money, Wehrheim clearly illustrates a more holistic understanding of the concept to include careful consideration of the choices we make that show the role Christian discipleship plays in our lives. The author skillfully analyzes biblical passages and identifies spiritual practices intrinsic to stewardship as a way of helping families respond to their call to be stewards in today’s world.
About the Author
Carol Wehrheim is a church educator who has served in congregations of the PCUSA and UCC, denominational staff (United Church Board for Homeland Ministries [UCC] in the area of early childhood), seminary (McCormick as Asst. Director of the D.Min Program and adjunct faculty at Princeton), and was named Educator of the Year (2001) by the Association of Presbyterian Church Educators. She has written and edited for several curricula (Whole People of God, Bible Quest, This We Believe, Covenant People), and wrote Getting It Together (WJK, 2002).
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