Good Stewards

From the very beginning, the Lord God entrusted human beings with responsibility to look after his world. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Genesis 2:15. We are stewards of all that God has given us.

The Bible makes clear that “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” (Psalm 24:1), so it all belongs to him really! What we have in our hands are not possessions to be held on to, but things entrusted to us to take care of and use for his glory. When King David asks for gifts to build the temple, he is overwhelmed by the response and his prayer over the offering is profound – “who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.” (1 Chronicles 29:14).

The idea of stewardship is a strong theme in Scripture. We must hold lightly to what is in our hands and use it well. When we give to the Lord’s work we are only releasing some of what is his anyway.

At our Annual Church Meeting in March, our treasurer, Colin, presented the annual accounts and gave a snapshot of the finances over the last 10 years. He has pointed out before that, without a number of special gifts over the years, we have run at a deficit every year; expenditure exceeds regular income. Those extra blessings have kept us afloat, but we can’t count on them. We were aware of the challenge last year and had a Gift Day which brought in over £12,000 - praise God for people’s generous response to the need.

Reflecting on all this, I’m aware that if we hadn’t given away 10% of our regular income, as a tithe to support other mission work, we would have been OK. We gave away almost £7000 last year but still feel we ought to release more because of the Gift Day. One might ask “Can we really afford to give that much away every year?”

My response after prayerful thought is – “Can we afford not to?”

The Bible constantly calls the people of God to be generous, open handed and not tight fisted. We must be prudent of course and make sure we can meet our obligations, but we have trusted the Lord to provide over the years - and he always has, one way or another. We’ve even invested over £300,000 in improvements to the building and facilities. Where did all that come from, you may ask? – God’s provision has been amazing; we’ve been so blessed.

Over the three decades I have been here, we’ve never had much in reserve and, at times, its felt like we were sailing very close to the wind. But the Lord has been faithful and the church family has always risen to the challenge and we’ve continually met our costs.

As we look at the likely budget for 2026 with the global rise in prices, we can see that we are heading towards a significant deficit again, unless regular giving increases substantially. We are thankful that we’ve seen an increase of over 5% in both the last two years but the total coming in is several thousand short of what goes out.

Can I encourage us all to take this to the Lord in prayer and to examine what we are able to contribute. Regular committed giving provides the backbone for our work and when Gift Aid can be applied that adds 25% to the value – thanks to the Government.

Please join me in reviewing your gifts for 2026. We all share in responsibility for the family budget. We have been blessed in so many ways over the last year; let’s show our thanks to God. Its all his anyway!

With grateful thanks for all your support,