Children & Youth Stewardship

I’d like to first recognize all of the ways children and youth give their time and talent to our community. Those who serve in the choir give many hours each week. Your voices enrich our worship and experience of the liturgy; we are grateful. Many children and youth support our community through acolyting, live streaming, reading, ushering, youth group leading & children’s chapel teaching. Students show up at parish-wide events ready to clear and wash dishes, stack chairs, mop the floor & take out the trash. Thank you, students, for all these gifts and the ways that you care for the church. Thank you, parents, for all your support in getting your child here and making it a priority.

Children’s Stewardship Project:

Children are asked to bring a non-perishable food item for Dayspring, dollars/coins, or fill out an act-of-stewardship slip and put it in the stewardship basket waiting in Burrows Commons. This basket of collections will be taken up to the altar monthly to be blessed by children. I encourage you to help your child get ready for church every Sunday by getting their dollar, their canned good or by thinking of an act of stewardship they did.

In Godly Play and Children’s Chapel, we teach kids there are two main reasons why we are called as Christians to be stewards/caretakers:

1. God asked us to during creation. (Gen 1:26)

2. We were given all that we have, so we can turn around and give freely. (Matt. 5:42, Matt. 19:21)

When talking about stewardship, we talk about caring for our body, the earth, the animals, people in our community and the church. We talk about being a steward with our money, with our time and with our talents/gifts. Kids already have an innate wonder about God and creation. They often respond to their world with an attitude of abundance. Let us allow our children to lead us in how to hold our money, time and gifts loosely and with gratitude.

One idea for teaching your child about money and giving is to start three jars — spend, save and give. Each week they earn $3 dollars, to put one in each jar. Each Sunday, they take money from their “Give” jar to put in the stewardship basket. The “Save” jar is for the next big trip or savings for a car. The “Spend” jar can be spent however they wish. The Moneybunny Book series by Cinders McLeod is a great resource for talking to your kids about money.

Youth Group Stewardship Project:

Starting soon, we invite 6th-12th grade students to submit an Estimate of Giving (EOG) card to the FY2026 Youth Financial Campaign (July 1, 2025-June 30, 2026). The total monetary goal of this campaign will be set by the Youth Group. The proceeds of this giving will also be decided by the Youth Group.

We’re starting this new project because student giving matters. We want to provide an opportunity to practice the spiritual discipline of holding money loosely, of understanding that everything you have is a gift, thus you can turn and give it away freely (Matt. 5:42, Matt. 19:21). We have purposefully focused on monetary giving this year, not to negate the time and talents these students give to the community, but in order to help students start to practice managing and giving a portion of their money away each month.

The EOG cards and donations will be tracked through Realm, just like adult gifts. Youth can give online, set up an automatic online payment, give cash in an envelope with their name during the service or during Youth Group.

I encourage parents and students to talk about this project together. Here are some conversation starters and giving ideas:

• Students ask parents: Do you give money to the church? How and how much do you give? When did you start? What does it mean to you to give to the church?

• When receiving an allowance, money from a job, or holiday gifts, consider dividing the money into three pots — spend, save and give. This is a great way to organize and think about your money as an adult. Start practicing now.

• One rule of thumb is to try and give away 10% of your money.

• $100 in job income per month - $10 to give away

• $20 bill as a birthday gift - $2 to give away

• $10 allowance per week - $1 to give away