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Barry Finkelstein: Welcome,
welcome to our general assembly

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22 workshop on giving and values
stewardship as family spiritual

practice. I'm very thankful,
Steve, one of the stewardship

for us consultants, and I'm
really pleased to be joined by

Ann Richards, Director of
lifespan spiritual growth at

Mount Vernon Unitarian Church
where we are both members in

Alexandria, Virginia. And we are
so glad that you have joined us

for this workshop, which we are
really excited about. Where to

start with a channel sliding and
I invite you to get a chalice.

I'm gonna light my chalice now.
So if you want to pause this for

a second, and go get your own
Chalice, you can do that. And

our chalice lighting words were
written by Elizabeth Harding

from the second Unitarian Church
of Chicago. We Unitarian

Universalists don't drink from
our chalice. Instead, we use it

to hold the flame. The circle of
the chalice helps keep the fire

small. The flame doesn't blind
us, it doesn't burn us. It gives

us light. So we can see all the
different things in the

universe, even the invisible
ones, because the Unitarian

Universalist flame is a light of
learning. The flaming chalice is

a symbol of learning and of
love. It's our symbol, the

symbol of Unitarian
Universalism. And I liked that

because we're going to be
spending the next hour doing

some learning even collective
learning and and I are learning

as we as we talk through this.
So welcome again, welcome and

introduction. Well, welcome. And
I'm pleased to offer some

introductions, tell you a little
bit about Anne. And as a

credential religious educator
here at Mount Vernon Unitarian

Church, and she has, as you can
see a master's in arts

management and has worked in
education and arts, both of both

skills, very useful for the
topic at hand. And as I

mentioned, I've been a
professional stewardship

Consultant since 2007. I love
doing this work. I've worked

with somewhere around 100
Unitarian Universalist

congregations. We acknowledge
that our congregation the Mount

Vernon Unitarian Church resides
upon the traditional territories

of the following indigenous
communities, the Piscataway,

Powhatan, Cherokee, and DOGUE,
now known as the talks,

acknowledgment is only a
beginning as we work for

justice, freedom and self
determination. So here's what

we're going to do today, we are
going to start with some context

about stewardship and how
families experience stewardship.

So a little bit of an overview
of, of these topics that we're

going to talk about year round
stewardship activities in our

congregations. Many of you
probably have heard around

stewardship committees, and
whether you do or not, and

whether you acknowledge it or
not, you are doing some

stewardship kinds of work all
the time. So we're going to talk

about that. And we're going to
talk specifically about how we

can maybe more more effectively
engage families in these year

round activities. And then we're
going to talk about specific

campaigns, annual campaigns,
annual budget drives, annual

pledge drives, whatever you call
them, and capital campaigns and

special campaigns, and again,
how we can engage families in

that. So those are our main
topics for today. And I'm going

to start with a little bit of an
overview of stewardship. So I

like to remind us that Unitarian
Universalism is a covenantal

faith. And I like that a lot,
you probably all know that we do

not have a creed, we do have
statement of principles and

purposes that we all sign on to.
But otherwise, our faith is

governed by covenants that we
make to one another, and to and

to our congregations, and that
our congregations make to each

other, and to this association
that we call the Unitarian

Universalist Association of
congregations. And what I mean

by covenants is that we make
promises to one another. And

that's really the glue that
holds us all together. And I

think that it's that glue,
that's such an important element

of stewardship. It's too easy to
think about stewardship as being

primarily or exclusively about
money. And money's important.

And we're going to we're going
to talk about money today. And

we're going to try to help you
think through how you can talk

about money more directly in our
churches because we frankly,

don't do a great job of that.
But stewardship is so much more

than money. Stewardship is about
connections, and it's about

spiritual growth, and it's about
generosity. And it's about being

together and taking care of
what's important to us. It's

about values. And you're going
to hear quite a bit more about

that as we talk. And our hope is
that we can take some of the

what we do in stewardship in our
churches, number one, deepen it

and expand it. But then also
work much more with families and

and multi generational
activities in this stewardship

as covenant and stewardship as
values vein. So with that, I'm

going to invite ants to speak a
little bit about how families

experience stewardship in our
congregations.

Unknown: Well, very, I'm of the
opinion that sometimes they

don't, they don't really get a
chance to experience it.

Certainly, some children don't
even know that there are

families that their parents are
giving money to support the

church and the classes and
activities that they get to

participate in. And we know that
by and large, not just with you

use but for in most churches,
families give a lower percentage

of donations than many of the
other populations in the

congregation. What we don't
know, truly is why, because

there just is not enough
studies, there aren't there

isn't enough statistics, what we
can guess is that families are

usually earlier in their
lifespan younger in their

lifespan, and therefore don't
have as much income, and

therefore are pledging less. So
that's our guests. But often

another thing we notice, we're
not sure because we don't have

the statistics, but we noticed
is that stewardship committees

don't always have
representatives, they don't

necessarily have a youth
representative from the team

group, they don't necessarily
have even parents on a

committee. And that can make a
big difference in terms of the

stewardship relationship to
families and children. And

that's why some families, some
children don't even know about

stewardship, or what the word
stewardship is, because

stewardship is Oh, so much more
than giving money, right?

Barry Finkelstein: Yeah, very
well put. One of the things that

I, when I first started doing
the stewardship consulting work,

one of the things I tried to do
was find some definitions of

stewardship. And there are quite
a bit of quite a few of them.

And one that I found on that
great fount of wisdom Wikipedia,

that has stuck with me is that
stewardship is taking care of

something we do not own. And I
kind of like that, because, of

course, our congregations will,
you know, most of them have been

alive before we were. And many
of them, we hope that all of

them will be alive long after we
are gone for our children and

grandchildren. And yet we are
the stewards of at the moment.

And by stewards, that means
taking care of, of the

congregation. And as you said,
and I'll bet that most children,

maybe even many families,
because we they often are

neglected to some degree in our
stewardship work, don't even

understand how our churches are
financed, and that its

stewardship and the the
financial resources committed by

members, that provides the
lion's share of the financial

resources it takes to run our
congregations. So let me talk a

little bit. And then and you can
jump in here too. Let's talk a

little bit about year round
stewardship activities. I'm

going to be working with a
congregation later on this

spring. That's just starting a
new year round Stewardship

Committee. And they're
interested I'm going to be doing

a workshop with them to talk
about how they might engage all

members of the congregation. And
I've learned quite a bit from

our content from from how the
work that Anna and I have done

to develop this workshop that I
can share with them. But we

asked ourselves, how can a year
round Stewardship Committee work

more effectively with families
are engaged more with families,

and one thing we talked about is
collaborating with all church

committees. Too often the
stewardship people are what we

think of as money people.
They're the from the finance

committee, sometimes there's
some board members, the

Treasurer, endowment people
usually participate. But if we

take this broader view of
stewardship than and I have both

been talking about, we want to
go beyond that. We want to be

working with membership. We want
to be working with religious

education committees or
lifespan, faith development,

whatever you call it. In your
congregation, we want to be

working with social justice. We
want to be working with the

music people. We want to know
what what motivates people, what

excites people about the
congregation? And where can we

invest more, more resources to
to to make to further our

mission. So we have a couple of
ideas about how storage around

stewardship committees can
extend their reach and

particularly reach out to
families. And one thing that

I've learned in my visits to
come congregations is that it's

really important to meet with
representatives of all the

groups in the congregation. And
when I first started this work,

I didn't spend a lot of time
thinking about children or

youth, or families with children
and youth. But I've learned that

that's a big mistake. And so
I've corrected that. And now

whenever I go to work with a
congregation, I asked to meet

with the youth group, if there
was a youth group, including a

middle youth group, a middle
middle school youth group, and I

meet specifically with families,
I often have an event for

families. And part of it is I
learn a different perspective

about the congregation. And I
can use that in helping advise

on stewardship activities. The
other thing I'll say, you see on

this slide, we talked about
asking families and young

people, there's a lot of power
and asking, the term apt to ask

is a really powerful thing. And
we don't always recognize that

and sometimes we're not 100%
comfortable with it. But I find

that that asking is encourages
people to do things. You can ask

people to volunteer, you can ask
people to donate something, you

can ask people to come to an
event. And we should ask non

apologetically, because these
are all things in support of the

mission of our congregations.
And if we do that, we'll be a

lot more effective at engaging
people. The other thing I've

learned, as you can see on the
slide, leveraging social media,

that's really, really important
these days. In order to

communicate with people in the
congregation, you need to reach

use all the tools that there are
text, email, Facebook,

Instagram. And one of the things
I've learned as a as a

relatively older person, is that
I need to talk to young people

to find out how young people are
communicating these days. One

thing I learned a couple of
years ago is that very few young

people use use email anymore,
they use text a little bit, they

might use Facebook a little bit,
but at least as of a couple of

years ago, they were using
Instagram and Snapchat and

Tiktok. And I don't know what
they're using today. But the

only way to know is to ask. And
so asking young people to help

you with that, I think is really
important. And then the other

thing, the last thing on this
slide is that often a year round

Stewardship Committee is charged
with trying to change the

culture of the congregation, and
to build a culture of

generosity, a culture of
engagement, a culture of

stewardship, a culture of
abundance. And all those things

can only be done if you work
with other committees, and

involve as many people as
possible.

Unknown: And that is of
particular interest to me,

because very often talks about
stewardship as a way to express

values, deciding where your
money goes, is a way of

expressing what's really
important for you. And that's a

useful thing when you're working
with children, because what is

our goal in religious education,
to teach them about values? So

why not use stewardship to help
do that? And I want to talk a

little bit about this year round
change in culture, perhaps that

changing culture can start at
home. So how are we looking at

stewardship around the house, I
love the word stewardship. And I

know it's kind of becoming
passe. It's going out of favor

right now, but I love it.
Because as you said, Barry, it

means taking care of something
that doesn't just belong to you.

And that's the same of your
house, you share it. So for

example, instead of having a
chore chart at home, why not

have a family stewardship chart
at home, and why not keep

information and chores having to
do with bill paying and money on

that chart, as well. The more
you use stewardship language at

home, the more you can help
families and children in

particular, think about values.
So for example, you could say to

your child, Joey, I am going to
take care of some of my

stewardship responsibilities.
Tonight, I'm going to meeting so

you're going to have a
babysitter or Lila, I'm going to

give you $1 to put in your
pocket or go get from your

allowance $1 Because they're
going to be passing the plate

this morning and you'll want to
make sure to be able to

participate. So using the word
stewardship, encouraging people

to use the word stewardship at
home year round, helps the

steward the attitude people have
about stewardship, when you come

to that all important, special
month when you're really talking

about pledging, very talked a
little bit about how it's

important for stewardship to
work with every committee and

that is so true, but because my
particular interest Studies in

religious education, we wanted
to sort of drill down and look

at that particular relationship,
and ways that that can be

strengthened so that both
religious education can benefit

from stewardship, and that
learning about values and vice

versa. Stewardship can have all
the energy and excitement that

often happens in with children
and religious education, and

bring that into stewardship. So
one thing you can do is have a

committee member, either that
attends both me meetings every

month, or if that's too much,
maybe they sit on the religious

education committee, but they
read all the notes, meeting

notes for stewardship, and
attend a stewardship meeting a

couple times a year, or vice
versa. Because there are a lot

of ways they can work together.
But if they don't have that

basic communication, then
working together isn't going to

work isn't going to happen. I'm
having stewardship present at

family events, I cannot tell you
how important this is for me.

Because that moment when you sit
down and figure out your budget

and write out the cheque or do
the electronic donation is never

as exciting is the annual
variety show. And I think when

people see the word stewardship,
when they see the word pledge,

while they're having good time,
they can connect those two

things. And so all year round,
people ought to be able to

connect the fun they're having
the way they're learning those

experiences with the friends
that they haven't church with

stewardship. And a simple thing
like showing up with your name

tag on if you're in the
Stewardship Committee can make a

difference and a subconscious
connection with that. You they

can even participate in these
kinds of events, like at the

variety show, in fact, I don't
know if you remember, Barry, but

when we did our online pageants,
this hardship committee read a

poem about winter, and planning
and pledging and it gave them an

opportunity to be seen in this
really warm

but comfortably bull holiday
event where they might not have

otherwise even people wouldn't
even thought about stewardship

in that context.

Barry Finkelstein: Well, and I
think we have to do that very

intentionally. Because I know
people again, of my generation,

and most of the stewardship,
traditional people are of my age

or older, you know, we often
don't, we don't come to what we

think of as family events,
unless we're encouraged to. And

I know for myself, every time I
come, I come now, of course,

with my granddaughters, but even
when I didn't do that, when I

came on my own, when I'm invited
and asked specifically to come,

I always have a wonderful time,
but it wouldn't bubble up on my

radar screen. So I think from a
stewardship and an ARRI

committee, working together
perspective, if we can get,

again, multigenerational
participation, including the

stewardship people, I think
that's a win win in so many

ways.

Unknown: And there are a lot of
other things, too. I know that

you talk a little bit, Barry,
about youth and families being

involved in strategic financial
planning.

Barry Finkelstein: Yeah, one of
the things that I like to do

with congregations is what I
call comprehensive and long

range financial planning. It
gets us out of the sort of

stress mode of can we raise
enough money in pledges to

balance the budget for next
year, it lets us step back and

think more broadly and more
expansively about resources

allocated for the mission of the
of the church over the next

several years and in a more
relaxed or relaxed horizon. And

I love involving youth and
families in that process. Again,

it's it's easy for the money
people to do that job

themselves. They can create a
strategic financial plan and

present it to the congregation
and, and everything would be

sort of okay. But if you use it
as a tool to engage people, and

ask, ask people, What do you
want to see us doing in these

next few years? And how can we
allocate resources to that? And

then how does that link to our
to our stewardship programs,

that's so much more powerful,
plus, it's more fun and you get

more useful information. And
when the congregation comes,

when it comes time for the
congregation to approve a plan,

and allocate resources to it,
more people know about it. So I

love that. The other things I
think are useful to do are to,

again for a year round
Stewardship Committee or to work

with adult religious education
committees, and put on some

committee has put on some
programs that are about money,

or about stewardship more
broadly, but particularly about

money in people's personal
lives. You know, I've learned

that that many denominations,
maybe most denominations feel

like part of their mission is
helping members think about

money in their personal lives
and planning for the future

planning for retirement,
planning for college planning

for having a starting a family.
Budgeting in consistent with

your values. And we really do
very little of that. And so I

think if we could work together
between stewardship, and adult

religious education, we could
put on all kinds of exciting

programs that people would want
to come to. And that wouldn't be

directly about raising money for
the church. But it would be

about furthering the mission of
the church.

Unknown: And in fact, there are
some curriculum available

through the UUA like wisdom
path, if somebody from

stewardship wanted to offer
that. And that would be a great

connection. And it's really
important that if you decide to

do that, all of the PR about
that program says, jointly

presented by the adult religious
education or if you have a

lifespan program, and
stewardship, so they see the

word stewardship and education
together again, and again, you

can go even further that chart I
showed you that was the

stewardship home chart. Why not
make that a giveaway? When you

are visiting homes or, you know,
preparing for that pledge drive?

How easy is that that's a cut
out giveaway thing. And each

family can fill in their own and
use it. So there are a lot of

ways that you can emphasize the
fact that stewardship is so much

more than just taking your
money.

Barry Finkelstein: Yeah. And I
love that add, I know we've

talked about this, but when I
visit with people in their homes

for about stewardship, I always
suggest they include their

children. But I never thought
about leaving them a tool or a

handout, and that chart is
something we could actually

leave that the children would
like and would enjoy and, and

could use and understand. So I
think it's a great, again, a way

we can work together and come up
with ideas that that maybe

neither of us would have had on
our own.

Unknown: Absolutely. So that is
about all those ideas have to do

with creating a culture a year
round culture that elevates

stewardship, as being about
values as being about

collaboration, as being about
working together to support take

care of our community. But then
there's a time of year that

there is a pledge drive or a
campaign. And there's even more

there are additional things you
can do that draw on these

collaborative ideas during a
campaign, for example, what you

said about involving the
children in stewardship

conversations, well, you just
said financial long term

financial planning should
involve kids. What if it's time

to do the pledge drive, and you
have visiting stewards? And they

go in and sit down? I know you
always choose to sit down at the

table with the children as well
as the adults.

Barry Finkelstein: Absolutely,
absolutely. i That's I find that

very, very powerful. And when I
do it in the future, I'm going

to use something like your your
tool for the Stewardship chart.

So I have to take a leave of
leave behind with them.

Unknown: I am going to let's
take a little break here, Barry,

because I have an example of how
a family might use a stewardship

worksheet when they come
together as a family. Everybody

ready, it's stewardship family
time. What are the crowns for

there for you to use on the
edges of the stewardship form?

I'm going

to draw a picture of my friend
Marianne.

Ariane isn't real.

I'm sure your sister will draw a
great picture of herself.

Everyone will know what she
looks like.

You know, in this family, we
like to give money to things

that are important to us things
that we value. When you go to

church. What's your favorite
thing? What's something you

value?

Oh, the playground. That's the
best part.

Let's put $1,000 down to add to
our pledge in honor of the

playground and the grounds

MBU See, now how can we support
which IP of our playground

besides pledging,

oh, like working in?

Exactly. Let's put that down for
our stewardship commitment to

the playground. We'll say after
church an extra hour to help out

on work in any day when everyone
pitches in to take care of our

property. What else did you have
a good time doing? Didn't you

tell me you like singing
Christmas carols? Yes, but

they didn't have enough cheese
pizza there.

Well, let's put that down. How
much do we want to add to our

pledge to make sure they have
enough cheese pizza? And what

about the stewardship commitment
for that?

How about this, we can volunteer
to order it and that way we can

make sure we get enough cheese
pizza. Do you want to do that

together? Sounds good. I enjoyed
worship this year. But you know

what else? I really appreciated
all the work that the climate

action team did.

When we had our ER side Miss
Donna and Miss Joe from Cactus

some of our lessons.

Oh, that's when you did the
creek cleanup. Right? Yeah,

I found so much trash.

They didn't even have enough
bags. Oh, well, that can be our

donation. A box of compostable
bags is 2695 2695. Got

it? Or you can volunteer to shop
around this time?

Why don't you put that down for
our stewardship commitment.

So what do you and Marianne want
to put down?

We can see Miss Leah.

Nice. Well, would you like to
pledge to make sure that Miss

LEA has all the books and
supplies? She needs

a bajillion dollars?

No

have a gajillion dollars? Yeah,
but Marianne does?

Do you even know how many zeros
like a Julian has?

A good Julian doesn't have
zeros. It has X's and it has 16

x's.

Okay, okay. What if we do it
like this?

What should we do for
stewardship, then? Can we do

something for Miss Leah?

At school? We wrote music
teacher thank you notes.

That's such a good idea.

At church. I thought it was good
when we talked about why people

do bad things and everything.
But why don't we have to get up

so early?

Well, we can write that down. I
don't know why church starts at

time.

Who would be able to answer that
question?

The minister will maybe miss.

So what can we pledge for that?

Give $1,000 For Reverend
Schmidt, Mark, Yvonne and all

the volunteers who have to get
up even earlier than I do to get

everything ready.

Ah, that's good. Now, is there
anything else you want to

include? At church,

I get to see Tori,

quarry toys, my friend.

That's the nice thing about
church, we can all have friends

of different ages. So what do
you think that's worth?

It's invaluable? It's worth more
than money. That's true.

I have an idea though. What if
we invited Tori's family to have

lunch with us after service. And
instead of going to a restaurant

to eat, we'll share a picnic on
the church grounds. And we'll

take though we would have spent
on that lunch for both families

and add it to our pledge.

Okay, I'll put that down.

Can Marianne calm? Might as well
no one

can see her.

Of course, Mary Ann pledged a
gajillion dollars to the church.

And it wouldn't be a stewardship
celebration picnic without her.

So Barry, I love the idea of
kids. Enjoying that time by

coloring and using sensory
stimulus things that they

remember seeing things that they
see things that they hear. But

I'll tell you, it's not complete
until you've had a family

pledging celebration. And it
sounds like it's just fun. But

it's way more than that. This is
working off what we know about

how we learn. Just in the last
3040 years, the what we know

about how brains learn is so
much more it's so different than

before. We know that anytime
there's sensory stimulation,

things that they can feel or
touch things that are out of the

ordinary children are likely to
remember it. But it's not just

about the kids, because parents
developmentally are programmed

to appreciate what their
children appreciate. I'm sure

you've noticed parents will do
on behalf of their children what

they would never do ourselves.
Their experience watching their

children have a good time with a
stewardship submission

celebration is very different
than sitting alone at a desk

writing a check So I think it's
a great idea once you have as a

family decided what you're going
to give, spend just 10 minutes

to say it's time we're going to
give it and you can decide who's

going to push the send button,
or who's going to put the check

in the mail and decide what
you're all going to say if you

have a family motto, or you
could just use party implements

ready.

Very you told me that your
granddaughters spent some time

with these party blowouts this
last weekend? How did it make

you feel to watch them with
them?

Barry Finkelstein: Oh, it was
wonderful. That was a hoot. And

you know, we talked down about I
don't think we've mentioned this

term before. But one of the one
of the things we stewardship

people talk about as joyful
giving. And what could be more

joyful than working with your
children. And celebrating at the

end with one of these
noisemakers

Unknown: the parents aren't
giving are the children aren't

giving money. But the parents
do. And they will remember this

experience almost as much as the
kids and certainly anything more

than they would do at the end of
the year when they're thinking,

Oh, I've just got to give
something before the end of the

year and I can write it off on
my taxes. Remember, this

pledging celebration party?
Well, that's

Barry Finkelstein: right. And I
think it really, you know, an

our pledging to our churches
should be joyful. I mean, if you

step back and think about it, we
Unitarian Universalist for it,

we're in this together, we're
all voluntary members, right

with there was there's no
compunction of compulsion to be

a Unitarian Universalist,
there's no, there's no, nothing

we're worried about in terms of
guilt or anything, we do it

voluntarily of our own freewill.
And what should be more joyful

than spending our money to help
support that, and involving the

children will reinforce that
very dramatically.

Unknown: Exactly. So why would
we leave them out? Why would we

start the service, perhaps your
church doesn't pass the plate,

while the children are in the
chapel, maybe they have a

separate children's chapel, or
maybe they've celebrated

together, worship together and
they leave and then they pass

the plate. Why not? This month,
while we're doing a campaign,

pass the plate, maybe you can
let the kids pass the plate,

make sure you advertise that
you're doing that. So parents

can send money. And the kids can
have the fun of putting

something in the plate, as they
go by take a minute to explain

why you've moved the offertory
in service, and that it's a

chance for kids to know how
important it is to appreciate

stewardship, and offertory.

Barry Finkelstein: Well, I
agree. And the same holds for

testimonials. Many of you, I'm
sure in your congregations have

testimonials, either during
during the campaign season or

else you're around maybe once a
month, you have somebody do a

talk about why the church is so
important to them. And hopefully

they say something about their
pledge and how they thought

about their pledge. And maybe
they increased it this year,

whatever story they tell, why
not have that during the time

that children are in the service
as well. And emphasize to the

people giving these testimonials
that we see these as

multigenerational. And your
message to talk about that

should be just as interesting to
children as to the rest of the

congregation. Imagine if we did
that, that's again, it's a

fairly easy thing to do to
emphasize how we're all in this

together, and that's what
stewardship is about.

Unknown: And you know what
you've done, Barry, you've made

sure that that parent is going
to talk about stewardship three

times that day, not once,
because there was the part in

the Mormon morning, before the
service when they said please

take this money. This is why I'm
giving you this dollar. And then

there's the time during the
offertory where it passes by.

And then there's the time when
somebody from the pulpit. It

says out loud that parent has
talked about stewardship three

times now. And that's the person
who's giving the money. So I

have a picture here. Can you see
this? It's a Stewardship

Committee member with a dragon.
And I think that there's a lot

of famous fairy tales about
dragons that hoard treasure. I

think it's a great idea to have
Stewardship Committee members in

the classroom with the kids.
There are a whole number of

curricula that talk about money
or stewardship, especially the

tapestry of faith curriculum
that talk about taking care of

your home. You Why not have a
stewardship person who's

comfortable children go into the
classroom and talk about those

bits and maybe connect them with
the Stewardship Committee. This

is not all about gathering
money. It's about teaching

values through stewardship. It's
also great when you can have

kids create art projects that
then really punch up that

pledging campaign. And when you
pass out or develop a packet of

pledging materials with letters
of invitation to pledge and the

kickoff, is there anything
colorful, exciting from the

children or for the children?
Kids art can be a great way to

invite enthusiasm and excitement
and youth into that campaign.

Barry Finkelstein: And what
about so I love the idea of

having these action oriented
materials, activity, things that

children can do with their
families at home, and maybe with

their stewards, but then also
invite them to bring those into

church and put them up on the
bulletin board? Have a display?

Here's what your children came
up with, in line with our

stewardship campaign this year?
Wouldn't that be terrific? We do

that for many other things.
Right? If our church is going to

be involved in some large social
justice action, we invite the

children often to make some sort
of projects, why not do it for

stewardship? I love the

Unknown: idea that can be
reversed as well. You and I have

talked about using the
children's choir, if you're

going to have an event, at the
end of the pledge campaign to

celebrate your successful
campaign, why not have the kids

choir sing at it? What a great
way to reward people for having

given I might pay several $100.
For that experience alone, it's

a great way to give them another
opportunity to perform as well.

Barry Finkelstein: No, and
we've, I think we've just

started to scratch the surface
of ideas of how stewardship and

families can be intertwined and
stewardship and our eat

programs. One idea was to have
some of the visiting stewards

visit with our classes, and not
really asking them to make

pledges, but asking them to
think about their their

relationship to the congregation
what they like what they don't

like, and inviting them to talk
to their parents later on. So

that when their parents are
thinking about pledging, the

children will have some input. I
could imagine getting stewards

to volunteer to do that. We
already talked about

testimonials. But when you have,
you should definitely include

some families giving
testimonials, and make sure that

they include their children as
well. And talked about the

choirs. One of the other things
I like is that most of our

congregations do a really good
job with capital campaigns of

involving lots of people
creating lots of energy, lots of

momentum, what some
congregations call hoopla, all

kinds of hoopla around the
campaign. And often it's fairly

easy to involve youth and
children in that. I know, one of

the things I like to suggest is
usually with a capital campaign,

you're talking about doing
something to the facility. And I

like arranging tours and
inviting people to go on tours,

and youth make great tour
leaders. And you can train them

in an hour or less. And then you
can have your youth be the tour

guides. And that's a fabulous
way of making this into a multi

generational event. And I like
the idea of trying to take some

of these things that we've
learned about capital campaigns

and applying them more
generally, applying them to

annual campaigns, applying them
to some year round stewardship

activities. I believe that we
Unitarian Universalists are

pretty clever, and pretty
creative. And if we make this a

priority, we can think of all
kinds of exciting ways to do the

things that Anna and I are just
scratching the surface of here.

So we're inviting you to think
about other ideas. And we'll

talk about this later, we would
really like you to send us your

ideas on this.

Unknown: That's right, very,
there are so many things, we

have only scratched the surface,
as you say. And I'm hoping that

everybody will share with us
their ideas, as you suggested,

and also use some of the things
that have already been written.

There's no reason to reinvent
the wheel. So as you can see

here on this slide, we have a
few resources for you to look

up. Don't forget the great blog
that stewardship for us does.

And the curriculum for all ages
called the The joy of giving.

It's an older curriculum, but
definitely has some resources

worth looking at. All of this is
going to be made available to

you if you registered for the GA
for a period afterward. And we

hope you will also check us out.
You'll see our emails at the end

of this presentation, and you're
welcome to contact us that way.

We have a few closing words then
yeah. This is from stewardship,

the joy of giving, which is a
curriculum written by Kenneth L.

Callaghan, and was adapted from
that. Living is giving. We live

life as best as we give our
strengths, gifts and

competencies. We're called to
service not survive. Our giving

makes a difference in our
families, our congregation, our

community, and our faith.

Barry Finkelstein: Thank you
once again for joining us. I'll

extinguish our chalice.

Unknown: Well, we hope that we
have got you on the road to

thinking about some new ideas
that are full of energy and

color and enthusiasm, all about
stewardship and to inspire you

we're going to have our own
little stewardship Party right

now. You ready Barry?

Barry Finkelstein: I am ready
because I was thinking when I

look at this about joy and
giving so here we go.