If we’ve learned anything, it’s that discernment never stops. We’re in our space; we’re navigating the changing realities of COVID; we’re continuing to step into our communities and wondering what ministry looks like together.
Our stories are constantly under revision, that’s the only thing we’re certain of right now. That includes our story about money.
As the pandemic hit we began to hear more stories about food insecurity, job loss, and struggles to pay rent. As we heard and felt the stories about systemic racism through the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, we knew we needed to have deep conversations about faith and wealth.
The spiritual practice of stewardship became a part of who we are, rather than a season that comes and goes. We continued to explore stewardship through art and Lenten lessons on the rich and poor. It wasn’t as much a lesson as it was an adventure in identity. It was about our core values and how we identify them.
We had been like a traditional Presbyterian Church. We had seasons of stewardship, wealth that had accumulated over time, and now a large 6-million-dollar account from the proceeds of the sale of our property. However, our main stories about money concerned budgets, management, and investments. That needed to change.
Just as we’d expanded our stories about what it meant to be church. We needed to expand our relationship with money in order to be better stewards and better partners to our community and the world. We knew the harm money had done to marginalized communities and we wanted to do and be better.
For us, this meant working with the consulting group, Vandersall Collective, to get to the roots of our money stories, both individually and as a congregation. We explored money in the Biblical stories and God’s desire for alternative economies. We took hard looks at ourselves, both now and where we wanted to be.

The spiritual practice of stewardship became a part of who we are, rather than a season that comes and goes. We continued to explore stewardship through art and Lenten lessons on the rich and poor. It wasn’t as much a lesson as it was an adventure in identity. It was about our core values and how we identify them.
Close to the end of our consultation we noticed our future story revolved around being place-based, communal, prayerful, inclusive, relational, transformational, and justice-focused. Our new story is figuring how our wealth can support us as we co-create this vision.
It hasn’t been easy. We’re standing in the tension between our previous stories and the ones we hope will guide us into the future. Our experience is that new stories take time. They take effort and repetition. However, once we claim these new stories and they become a part of us, then our life together in the Spirit begins to take shape. And that is what our ministry— our relational, transformational, justice-focused ministry— is all about.