'Being Stewards of the Riches of Christ' Conference
September 11, 2010 9:00 am 12:00 pm at Church of the Good Shepherd
Stewardship is about ‘relationship with Christ’
The Rev. Michael "Corky" Carlisle, a prominent speaker on stewardship in the Episcopal Church, and well known to several in this Diocese, will be visiting three islands this September: O‘ahu (Sept. 1–7), Maui (Sept. 8–13), and Kaua‘i (Sept. 14–20).He will be speaking at the Church of the Good Shepherd, Wailuku, on Saturday, September 11, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Please download, complete, and return the Corky Carlisle Registration Form, Maui. The cost is $35 per person, or $300 for 10 people from the same congregation. All are encouraged to attend.
Details for the other islands will be posted as they are made available.
Stewardship shouldn’t be a “beg-a-thon” that becomes a church’s focus for a few weeks every fall, says Carlisle. Stewardship is a year-round process, not a program. Nor is it fund raising. “A fundraising goal is to get money,” Carlisle says. “A stewardship goal is to change people’s lives.”
We misunderstand the ministry of stewardship so profoundly. Stewardship is part of the church’s mission to bring all people into a relationship with Christ. “We live in a culture that says we don’t want to be dependent on anybody. To be so generous that you become dependent on others is an opportunity for them to show generosity in return. I would like to remind us all that self-sufficiency is not one of the gifts of the Spirit,” he says. It wasn’t until after the rule of Constantine that being poor was no longer the Christian way, that giving to the poor became the norm. Jesus says don’t be anxious about that – seek God’s kingdom, and these shall be yours as well.
A simple Google search of the Rev. Michael "Corky" Carlisle will yield a list of his recent engagements. Dioceses as different as Newark and Alabama have sponsored major stewardship events with Corky as the keynote speaker. He has served the Episcopal Network for Stewardship and the North American Conference on Christian Philanthropy as a workshop leader.