Rev. John Bookshaw's idea for a different kind of stewardship campaign didn't go down too well when he first suggested it to the stewardship committee at his church in Michigan. The  idea? No speeches or sermons about the dire need for more money.  No home visits to encourage more giving, and no pleading about the state of the budget. It seemed risky.

But Rev. Bookshaw managed to convince the committee to try it, using In Heaven's Name, Why on Earth? as the basis of a series of sermons leading up to Stewardship Sunday. "People just love it," he says, "They learn what it means to be stewards and managers of God's resources.  They are not giving God anything.  I never stand up and say 'People, we need more money.' Instead, I want to proclaim the truth of Scripture, I want them to see Jesus, I want the Spirit to move and change their hearts and lives," says Bookshaw. 

The result?  "God has definitely changed people. They begin to understand the theology of what it means to be a part of the body of Christ. Then they make their own decisions about how that should play itself out finacially." For each year that Bookshaw has used In Heaven's Name , pledges and offerings have increased.  "We have been able to do more ministry with the resources this new approach has provided," notes Bookshaw.

Bookshaw chooses transparencies from In Heaven's Name to project during sermons. He leads the congregation through the theology of each, emphasizing the point of the course:  God owns all things in all of Creation; we own nothing.  There are 16 transparencies in the course; Bookshaw asserts that "you can go two to three years without repeating a picture."

If you're wondering if this course would work for your congregation, consider Bookshaw's advice:  "I'd recommend it to anyone and everyone."

Ideas in Snippets

Pictures for young children Some of Crossways International's graphics are used to teach young children. A teacher shared this with us recently:  "I used the illustration with eight frames that outlines the story of salvation [The Divine Plan] to teach a class of parents and young people. I gave copies of the illustration to participants. One parent later told me that, during the following week, she was about to dispose of the illustration only to have her son tell her, "Mommy, never destroy that picture. I want to keep it all my life." More on Stewardship While In Heaven's Name is geared to helping people understand our role as managers — not owners — of God's creation (see article above), the study of other Bible survey courses from Crossways International often results in an increase in congregational giving. "Our whole leadership team has studied Crossways at least once; some of them have been through it ten times," says Pastor Ted Conter of Long Beach, CA. "The result: 40 percent of our total income now goes to benevolence."

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