| Stewardship group seeks one-stop shopping BY LARRY HYGH JR.
UMCONNECTION STAFF Imagine local church leaders being able to call one telephone number and get help for all of their stewardship needs. Fund raising, creating budgets, capital campaigns, investment advice, maintaining investment portfolios and creating stewards for Christ would all be gathered under one umbrella. The benefits of this A-to-Z approach to stewardship has motivated representatives from several Baltimore-Washington Conference boards and agencies to discuss the possibility of reorganization. The conference needs one-stop shopping for stewardship, one telephone number, said the Rev. Frank Trotter, pastor of Metropolitan Memorial UMC in Washington, D.C. Three years ago, Trotter was asked by Bishop Felton Edwin May to chair the Board of Financial Stewardship Development and to look at the mission of several conference organizations. His assignment was to create a stewardship consultation task force that could work together, enhancing stewardship within the annual conference. Representatives from the conference board of financial stewardship development, Cabinet, Endowment Fund and its loans and grants committee, Board of Congregational Life, United Methodist Foundation, commission on communications and Council on Finance and Administration have been meeting with a consultant from the Alban Institute to answer the question, Is there a better way to do stewardship within the Baltimore-Washington Conference? This has been one of the most challenging and difficult assignments Ive worked on, said Trotter, who added that the 25 people at the table did not always agree, but they brought a great spirit to the meetings. The task force has a proposal ready for annual conference that would create the United Methodist Stewardship Center and Foundation of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, Inc. According to the proposal, the current United Methodist Foundation would reorganize in such a way as to include the conference endowment fund and the Board of Financial Stewardship Development. This new model would ultimately employ an executive director, director of financial management services, director of planned giving, director of fund raising and three support staff positions, Trotter said. This is not about money, but what God tells us to do with our money, he said. Its about funding new church starts, creating first-class camping facilities; its about unlocking the key to giving in the Christian heart. Once the plan for reorganization receives approval from all the participating groups, Trotter expects it will go to the June session of annual conference. Members will be asked to approve the intent of the proposal and the creation of a transition team for 12 months beginning July 1. The 2003 annual conference will be asked to fund the reorganized model, he said. The idea for this reorganization stemmed from research conducted by the Stewardship Consul-tation Task Force, said the Rev. Lon Chesnutt, chair of the United Methodist Foundation board. The task force conducted a series of interviews in different size churches to determine how people perceived conference stewardship programs. According to Chesnutt, many churches were unaware of conference stewardship programs and resources and reluctant to ask help in financial development. One theme that kept emerging was how to provide a central resource for clergy and laity, which could then channel a person to someone who could help them when a financial concern arose, Chesnutt said. George Gaither, also a member of the United Methodist Foundation board believes that the new structure would provide a vehicle for better communications to local churches. The new group will give everyone an opportunity to get involved, he said. | 
Login/Register to leave comment