We are asking you to prayerfully consider your commitment to God and His Church as we begin the Saint Nicholas 2009 Stewardship campaign. We come to you each year with this request and each year you respond with great generosity and love. Our 2009 theme

Stewardship is an important part of our Orthodox faith and is part of a total commitment to Christ. Stewardship is part of a Christian lifestyle that is expected by God as a loving way to give back to God for thanks of what He has given us in life.

God endows each of us with personal gifts, talents and material possessions. Stewardship is acknowledging that God is the source of each gift received and every blessing in life.

Orthodox Christian Stewardship reminds us that these gifts are not our own; that we have a trusteeship over them and not an ownership. Stewardship means to give a portion back to God, as a direct way of expressing our thanksgiving to Him for these gifts.

The concept of the tithe entered into Christianity and became a guideline – at times a minimal guideline – for giving within the Church. This was especially true in the early Church where millions of Christians in the first few centuries gave everything to our Lord, even their very lives as they spilled their martyr’s blood out of their devotion and commitment to Him.

Stewardship in the Orthodox Faith is to live and practice the teachings of Jesus Christ and the actions in our daily lives confirm our beliefs in our faith. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese refers to the three T's of stewardship being Time, Talents and Treasures to the glory of God.

“Managing” Our Talent, Time, & Treasure
The word “steward” according to Webster’s Dictionary is “a person entrusted with the management of estates or affairs not his own.” Our Judeo-Christian tradition teaches us that our talent, time, and treasury make up these “estates and affairs” given to us “to manage” by God.

Our Saint Nicholas Parish invites you to become a part of our 2009 Stewardship Campaign. We are grateful to you stewards for your faithfulness throughout the years. Many of you give of your time and talents – both of which are gifts from God – with hours upon hours of volunteer offerings. You also give of your financial resources – again gifts from God – as faithful offerings. Thank you for bearing fruit through this witness and service.

Talent
In God’s wisdom, we were all created to be different in our abilities and talents so that we might help each other. God designed it that way to bring us together as a community. When we pray and worship as a community, many talents are at work; the Priest; the congregation singing; the chanter; the altar boys, and the ushers are giving their talents.

Talents can be as simple as being a reader to organizing a fund-raiser. Maybe you can sing well or write well, or you can bake or cook well. Whatever the talent, we are called by God to share them and each of us has many talents to share in the service of Saint Nicholas's parish and the community at large.

Think of all the different talents you have and how you could use them to benefit others and the church. Look over the many ways you could help out and make a commitment. We need everyone’s talents so the burden isn’t left to a small group.

Time
The world of today is a fast-paced, time consuming place. Our jobs, children, personal commitments, leisurely pursuits, and sleeping all take a toll on the 24 hours we have in a day. We never seem to have enough time. The irony is time was given to us by God, and us humans in our wisdom have figured out endless ways to use it or waste it. Could there be any greater use of our time than that spent serving God in fulfilling His mission, serving the parish, and our fellow brothers and sisters?

Here at Saint Nicholas we have many great ministries, committees, worship services, classes and fellowship gatherings where you can spend your time spiritually, helping others, in fellowship, and serving the needs of the parish and the community. We have people volunteering their time for many of these great works, but we need help from everyone so the burden doesn’t fall on a few. The needs of the Church are growing as the number of parishioners grows, and we need many more stewards to come forward and offer their stewardship of time.

Treasure
It would be wonderful if we could rely on our time and talents only to run the parish of Holy Trinity, but we also need the treasure of each of our parishioners in order to have a church. We utilize our time and talents, which God has given us to earn our treasure. It is therefore fitting that we give a fair portion of our treasure back as a thanksgiving to God. In the New Testament, Saint Paul writes “He who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians v. 9:6,7)

The Stewardship Program at Saint Nicholas has four parts.

Ordinary Stewardship is the regular practice of returning to God a portion of all that God has given us. It involves teaching ourselves how to create a life built upon the notion that all that we have is a gift from God. This includes spreading the teachings of Christ and the concept that giving regularly of our time, talent, and money to God's work on this earth is as much a spiritual practice as prayer and worship.

Time and Talents is getting involved with the Church both in your participation in ministries and offering your volunteer time as well as your talents to help further the Church's mission and ministries.

Extraordinary Stewardship involves the special occasions that arise in the life of our community that call us to give beyond our ordinary habit. They involve increased risk and encourage us to experiment with sacrificial giving in order to help the community realize critical and important goals and programs. The best example of extraordinary stewardship is our capital campaigns.

Legacy Stewardship is the way in which we address the matter of disposing of the accumulations of our lifetime. It is the opportunity to provide a planned gift that constitutes both a legacy to generations yet unborn and a final testimony of the belief in our Orthodox faith.

St. Paul tells us: "On the first day of every week, each of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income."
(1 Cor. 16:2) Every Sunday we should be prepared to make our Stewardship contribution to the Church in accordance with the Lord's generosity to us personally. Supporting the Church should be a priority for every Orthodox Christian and performed on a regular and consistent basis.