Stewardship Consultant Marlene Kroeker, left, discusses stewardship with Pastor Ken Miller Rieman and other leaders of Prince of Peace Church of the Brethren (Photo by Brian Yoder Schlabach, Everence)
Over the past two years, Prince of Peace Church of the Brethren has embarked on an adventure, leaving behind the anxiety that once characterized its approach to stewardship ministry.
The church, located in South Bend, Indiana, used to discuss finances with fear. The small congregation of 60 often wondered if they would meet their budget, much less if they had money for ambitions outside of the day-to-day operations of the church.
But in 2023, Prince of Peace Church of the Brethren experienced a budget surplus. The congregation also donated more than $20,000 to local and national nonprofits – in addition to its annual giving.
The congregation has seen an increase in household giving and pledges. Even the children at Prince of Peace are learning to pledge and tithe their allowances to the church and its ministries.
In just under two years, Prince of Peace has seen a growing transformation in its stewardship ministry and the attitudes in which attenders discuss giving.
Pastor Ken Miller Rieman credits the church’s stewardship success to the “Spirit-led confluence of evaluating our ministries, naming our needs, looking for help, studying best practices and trying new things.”
TRYING NEW THINGS
Since he began as pastor in 2018, Ken had wanted to revitalize the stewardship culture at Prince of Peace, but he struggled. He had hoped to help the congregation view finances as a tool to fuel the church’s ministry, but he found, more often than not, they viewed finances as a hurdle.
In late 2022, Ken reached out to Everence Financial with interest in charitable giving services for the congregation’s members. This decision marked the beginning of a significant transformation for Prince of Peace as Ken connected with Marlene Kroeker, an experienced Stewardship Consultant for churches in Indiana and parts of Ohio, who quickly recognized the church’s potential for growth in this area.
Marlene enrolled the congregation in the Everence Stewardship Partners program, which helps churches develop a healthy financial stewardship ministry around their needs.
The church had recently begun evaluating its congregational ministries in preparation for drafting a new constitution and vision and mission statements.
“We were already asking questions, studying, learning and growing in our different ministries,” Ken said. Why not add stewardship to the list?
Prince of Peace first started their stewardship journey with Everence by creating a Stewardship Education Team made up of a few attenders in leadership positions – the board chair, treasurer, financial secretary, and a few more folks, including Ken.
They met monthly to discuss the book “Bounty: 10 Ways to Increase Giving at Your Church” written by Kristine Miller and Scott McKenzie.
The book is one that Marlene and other stewardship consultants often suggest, as an uncomplicated source of guidance on how to develop stewardship and increase giving within churches.
The Prince of Peace Stewardship Education Team loved the book. Marlene, with the help of Everence Financial Consultant Ryan Eakins, facilitated the meetings – and saw the team members actively wrestling with the book’s contents, planning how they might go about changing the culture of stewardship in the church and discovering ways to incorporate the church community into this journey.
Marlene brought invaluable expertise to the Stewardship Education Team, Ken said.
“She listened, modeling curiosity and wondering along with us… She invited us to envision how things could be and encouraged our experimentation and consideration of what we’ve learned to make work,” he said.
A key stewardship practice that Marlene encouraged was to have congregants share their “testimonies” – stories about where they see their faith community in action.
THE POWER OF TESTIMONIES
Chuck Harper shares his testimony – a story of where he sees God at work. (Photo by Brian Yoder Schlabach, Everence)
Chuck Harper, the church’s treasurer (and former community theater buff), loves to be on stage. When asked to stand up in front of the congregation and discuss where he saw God at work within the church, Chuck didn’t hesitate.
In that initial testimony, Chuck recounted his first Sunday attending Prince of Peace over 20 years ago.
Growing up, Chuck did not attend church, but his wife had, and she wanted to raise their daughters in a faith community. The family of four began shopping around but never felt quite welcomed anywhere. When they arrived at Prince of Peace, Chuck and his wife knew immediately that this was their new church. Without hesitation, the congregation embraced Chuck and his family.
Throughout the last two decades, Prince of Peace has continued to develop this welcoming spirit, Chuck said. The church is continuously working to broaden and deepen how new attendees are welcomed.
That’s one way Chuck sees God at Prince of Peace, he said, and he’s proud to share that with his church family.
“The testimonies are knitting the congregation together,” Chuck said. “We’re learning more about one another – things we didn’t know before.”
Ken attributes much of the church’s developing stewardship journey to these stories.
“By sharing our stories and sharing about why we’re here, why we give, and how we see God present and at work in our lives and in our community, we transform the anxiety around money into a sense of adventure, calling and purpose-oriented ministry,” Ken said.
In addition to sharing testimonies, the church incorporated other stewardship practices to encourage giving. Prince of Peace now sends all contributing members a quarterly financial statement, thanking them for their donations and telling stories about the differences they’ve made. The statements also make it easy for members to see what they’ve given and whether they’ve fallen behind on their pledges.
BRINGING EXPERTISE TO THE TABLE
While churches can build their own stewardship teams and plans without any outside guidance, Marlene says Everence bring extensive knowledge to the table. She, like other Stewardship Consultants, has been doing this for a long time, so she knows what works and what doesn’t, and how to tailor stewardship practices to each unique congregation.
Marlene attributes part of Prince of Peace Church of the Brethren’s success to Ken’s leadership and buy-in during the process, as well as the Stewardship Education Team’s willingness to be curious and try new things.
“They got it,” Marlene said. “They see the importance in stewardship.”