TENS Webinar Provides New Tools for Congregational Stewardship

“Every conversation we have about money in church is a pastoral one.” 

A group of nearly 30 lay and clergy leaders from 16 congregations across the Diocese heard that message from J. Davey Gerhard, the executive director of The Episcopal Network for Stewardship (TENS) in the webinar Pastoral Stewardship in a Changing Landscape last week. 

“This requires some deeper formation. A deeper, cleaner, louder bolder invitation to participate and to be relational leaders.” 

With that framing, Gerhard addressed how our churches can move from transactional, fear-driven conversations about stewardship and asking for money to a deeply grounded spiritual practice of gratitude and generosity.  

The webinar, one of many tools all congregations in the Episcopal Diocese of San Diego can access because of our diocesan membership in TENS, covered both concrete materials congregations can use to run a turn-key year-round stewardship program and theological framing for remaining focused on mission and ministry rather than budget line-items in our discussions of stewardship. 

You can watch a recording of the 70-minute webinar and download the slides from the presentation below. To access the full range of materials TENS offers, you can visit their website at www.tens.org. For access to the password-protected materials developed to support this year’s campaign theme, Plenty Good Room, or to learn more about how to take advantage of TENS information and trainings, please email David Jay, director of development at the diocese, at djay@edsd.org.