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Scott opened the meeting in prayer.

We opened with a discussion of what worked in previous years and what could have been improved. Items noted:

• Team involvement. Involving members of the stewardship ministry team early in the process helps the stewardship season to run smoothly and helps get the word out more effectively.
• Impact to ministries. Members seem to respond well to hearing stories about how ministries and the mission of the church are impacted through their stewardship. While the stewardship emphasis season is mainly about raising the General Ministry Fund, the fund is primarily in place to support and enable the ministries of the church. De-emphasizing the budgetary aspects and the issue of "keeping the lights on" is helpful in this regard. Positive examples given: Rachel's discussion in the past of how the children's ministry is a primary mission field that lies directly beneath us. Jason and Jasmine's moment for mission on the impact of the international ministries of the church in leading individuals to Christ.
• Stewardship within the team. Eddie emphasized that the team should be serving as stewards of the church's resources. He reported that as he was reviewing the communications budget for last year's materials (which were done during the interim period between communications coordinators and necessitated some fast turn-arounds), he found that $1,400 was spent on signs and other materials. The team felt that setting the tone through various communications vehicles, including signs, is important; but all agreed that we need to ourselves be good stewards within the team. Eddie will explore various strategies for that this year.
• Stories of "why I give."During a prior year, we have produced a booklet that provided personal testimonies of why individuals give. This was a very powerful tool and was well received.
• Involvement from congregation. The best stewardship seasons involve broad-based participation from members.
• Timeliness of follow-up. In years past, the holiday schedule has worked against follow-up activities (letters, etc.) on outstanding pledges. We need to be mindful of the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays in focusing our efforts.
• Step chart. A step chart used in years past shows graphically how broad-based the giving is in the church, and helps to dispel the myth that a very few give large sums toward the budget. Other churches have used such a device in conjunction with a "grow one step" theme during stewardship emphasis, which we may or may not pursue.
• Emphasis on giving units. In years past, encouraging each member to give (and at times setting goals for this) has helped increase giving throughout the church. We discussed affiliate membership as a way to strengthen college members' ties with the church, and perhaps encourage college members to make a pledge (regardless of the amount) to encourage the discipline of giving.

The meeting continued with a discussion of themes:

• Church-wide, it has been proposed that a theme for 2007-2008 would be "Celebrating the hospitality of God." Scott would like to find ways to tie stewardship with this theme, and the team members expressed agreement.
• Greg proposed a possible theme, from 2 Corinthians, 4:15: "All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God." Or, in shortened form, we could use "Thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God."

Calendar:

Tentatively, the 2008 Stewardship Emphasis Season is set to begin on October 14 and can run through November 11. In follow-up discussion, the team thought that based on feedback from prior years, it would be worthwhile to shorten the season by one week, starting on October 14 and continuing through Pledge Dedication Sunday on November 4. This would reduce the length of the season and also allow earlier follow-up after pledge dedication Sunday on outstanding pledges, before the holidays.

Next meeting: The next meeting will be Monday, 6/25, in room 408. At upcoming meetings, Scott suggested a possible joint session with the Financial Resources team to hear from the master plan feasibility study consultants. Additionally, Scott suggested that it might be helpful to invite a younger member who was involved in raising over $60,000 for a Georgia Tech mission trip to New Orleans to come and discuss college-level giving with the team. (It was also noted that there likely will not be intersection between the Stewardship Emphasis Season and a capital campaign, based on timings currently under exploration.)

The team named several members who would make good additions to the Stewardship team, and assignments were made to contact these individuals.

Greg closed the meeting in prayer.