This month's letter from the Pastor...

`PURE STEWARDSHIP ’
`The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.’ (Psalm 24:1)
`You are not your own; you were bought with a price.’ (1 Cor. 6:19)

I know. It’s an unusual title for a newsletter article, let alone for a month-long stewardship theme. After all, is there anything in this world that can be termed `pure?’ Or, to ask, what would `un-pure stewardship’ look like? Typically, stewardship is the way churches ask for more money, more time, more commitment from the membership. Won’t stewardship, pure or un-pure, ask for something? What is going on, here?

Your Stewardship Team, charged with the responsibility of cultivating attitudes and lifestyles that are God-pleasing, has laid claim to this November as an opportunity to advance such a high and noble cause called, `Pure Stewardship.’ This November, when there is no specific fund raising appeal or congregational wide project to promote, is exactly a time to consider the broadly profound nature of stewardship with `no strings attached.’ So … the hoped for outcome of this monthly emphasis is that you, the member of St. Paul’s church, will take a fresh look at your life and your so- called `possessions.’ It is our further hope that you will come to view yourself and all that you have in a new way -- in a `pure’ way. We hope, finally, for your growth in faith toward and life with God. Two thoughts to get the month started:

 


1. Stewardship, in its uncloaked purity, is the recognition that all we are and all we have really belongs to someone else, belongs to the One to whom we are accountable – God.
We may speak and act as if we are owners – owners of ourselves and all the material stuff of our lives. In biblical truth, we own nothing. All things are God’s. Pure stewardship knows that all of human life is `on loan’ to us for a little while. Pure stewardship knows that we human beings have no leverage in the presence of our Maker and Redeemer, except to honor Him. Therefore, the engine that drives our human living dare not be the exhaustive pursuit of attaining as much or more than the next guy. Rather, we ought regularly contemplate what to do with what we have been `lent.’ God entrusts to us our very selves, our time and our possessions. God further entrusts us to make good choices and decisions about how to manage what belongs to Him. Quite a fiduciary responsibility!

2. God reigns in, with and under all dimensions of life as we know it, not just our `religious’ life. The church, therefore, does not have a `corner on the market’ when it comes to `pure stewardship.’ Who we are and what we have been given does not assume that the church should `get it all.’ While you, the reader, may need to be challenged to increase your commitment to God’s church, God works in all aspects of human life. The decisions we make about how we spend our time, our energies, our resources all come under God’s purview, since God blesses us with the care of the earth, our families and all of life’s endeavors that promote the Good. Pure stewardship is that big!

Pure stewardship, be forewarned, will ask for nothing. Only our whole self!


Pastor Kopp
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 Sunday Services:
Members, guests and visitors, all are welcome!

8:00am: Early Service in English
9:15am: Christian Education Hour
10 :30am: Main service in English

The Sacrament of Holy Communion is
offered on the first Sunday of each month.


Children's Sunday School offered from 9:15am to 10:15am.

Adult Christian education from 9:15am to 10:15am.
The nursery is open from 9 to 11.

See our Calendar of Events for a complete
weekly schedule of services, activities
and educational opportunities. Also, see
our Contact Page for detailed directions
to St. Paul's in Olney.

Rev. Rodney S. Kopp, Pastor
Wayne Lutz, Church Administrator
Karl Schneider, Shut-InMinistry
Sheila D. Booker, Director of Music
Rebecca Ehrlich, Parish Associate

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5900 N. 5th St., Philadelphia, PA. 19120
Phone: 215-424-4800 | Fax:215-424-4805
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