Stewardship weekend features Mennonite agencies
by Kathy Heinrichs Wiest
Believing that stewardship education in a time of financial stress means that the church needs to muster all its resources, Kingsburg (Calif.) MB Church accessed a significant pool of resources within the family of Mennonite institutions for its annual stewardship weekend, Feb.19-21.
“In our economic situation, there’s a tremendous need for people to manage their finances more effectively thanever before,” says Pastor Ron Penner. “We want to not just save money, but do this from a biblical perspective.”
A biblical foundation was the theme throughout the weekend as MB Foundation,Mennonite Insurance Services, Mennonite Mutual Aid and Pacific Mennonite Aid Society shared their expertise and raised awareness of their services.
MB Foundation representatives Christine Wall and Donn Rojeski and Michael Burton, representing Mennonite Mutual Aid, led a “Freed-Up Financial Living Workshop” Friday evening and Saturday that covered biblical principles on managing money. Rojeski summed up the biblical foundation: “It’s not about what I own and what I’m going to do with it, but what am I going to do with what God has entrusted to me.”
Jerry Linscheid of Mennonite Insurance Services and Charlie Neufeld of Pacific Mennonite Aid Society joined the other representatives Sunday morning. Each agency shared briefly in the worship service as a follow-up to Penner’s sermon on stewardship. They followed with a more extensive discussion in a joint adult Sunday school hour, and many took the opportunity to speak with the representatives individually.
Services offered by these institutions include various types of insurance, estate planning,financial advising, retirement planning, and investment certificates. “We havea lot of resources that some people in our church didn’t even know about,” saysPenner.
Photo: Michael Burton leads Freed-Up Financial Living Workshop as part of Kingsburg MB’s Stewardship Weekend. Workshop participants are (left to right):Nate Ayers, David Englebright, Aaron Adams, Pastor Ron Penner and Johann and Melanie Weber.
This article is part of the CL Archives. Articles published between August 2017 and July 2008 were posted on a previous website and are archived here for your convenience. We have also posted occasional articles published prior to 2008 as part of the archive. To report a problem with the archived article, please contact the CL editor at editor@usmb.org.
