Stewardship resources available to churches

As churches emphasize biblical stewardship, various resources are available on the Southern Baptists of Texas website, and others are recommended by convention staff.

Resources by the Southern Baptist Stewardship Development Association are featured at sbtexas.com (select “Stewardship Resources” under the Resources drop-down menu).

Resources through sbtexas.com:

• “Catch the Vision,” a booklet explaining why to have a ministry of stewardship, how to organize for a ministry of stewardship and an action plan for a ministry of stewardship.
• “Church Financial Guidebook,” a practical reference for establishing high-integrity financial procedures within the church. The guidebook offers best practices based on current tax law and popular financial management techniques to protect the church from reputation-ruining financial mismanagement.
• “Connecting the Dots” provides an implementation plan for three individual but related products: “Catch the Vision” (stewardship ministry), “Building a Church Budget Wall Together” (church budget for the staff leader) and “Building a Church Budget Bridge for the Kingdom” (church budget for financial lay leadership). 
• “Living Life for the Highest Purpose: A Study in Christian Stewardship,” an overview of what the Bible says about stewardship, including man’s stewardship of creation, Jesus’ perfect stewardship model, the church’s management of its mission and ministry, and church leaders’ roles as managers of God’s resources. 
• “Pastor, Stand Up for Stewardship,” a handbook for pastors, church staff and stewardship committees whose responsibility is to plan and implement stewardship events, emphases and activities. 
• “Points of Connection,” a booklet to help church leaders develop strategies to connect the church’s mission to the larger mission of God.
• “Practical Ideas,” which offers pastors a two-year comprehensive plan to teach and promote biblical stewardship. It includes suggestions for measuring stewardship progress and for defining the characteristics of a biblical steward, and it’s designed for ensuring that biblical stewardship is consistently taught as a spiritual discipline within the church.
• The convention website also provides resources on a church-wide emphasis, leadership, church budgets, inserts and drama—all related to stewardship.

 Other resources recommended by SBTC staff include:

• “Effective Stewardship,” a five-session video study hosted by Dave Stotts, which teaches that stewardship is more than money dropped in the collection plate; it encompasses everything believers do after they commit to follow Jesus, including using talents and opportunities for his glory.
• “Modern Parables,” a Bible study series on Jesus’ parables using short films combined with teaching by pastors and in-depth study materials. By modernizing the parables, the study creators sought to make them more accessible to a contemporary audience. Parables include “Hidden Treasure,” “The Shrewd Manager” and “The Sower,” among others.
• “God Provides,” a film learning experience by Crown Financial Ministries, offers a dramatic journey through six short films and a printed companion guide to show how people in the Bible wrestled with trusting God to meet their needs rather than relying on the world.  
• “Neither Poverty Nor Riches” by Craig Blomberg, which addresses one of the most difficult questions facing Christians today: the proper attitude toward possessions. The book unfolds a biblical theology of possessions, looking closely at the topic in the Old and New Testaments and then applying the principles to modern life.