Lisa KrammeLisa Kramme
Director of Faith Formation
Nebraska Synod, ELCA

Images are often the inspiration that I need to begin writing. I see something and it reminds me of a story I’ve heard before. Sometimes what I see has its own, new story that it shares with me and I try to pass it along to others.

Searching for an inspiring image to begin this article on a new stewardship project the Nebraska Synod is launching, I looked to Google Images for a source of inspiration, typing the word, “stewardship” into the search box. More than 6,370,000 images were found on the topic.
There were images of dollar bills peeking out from the pages of the Bible. There were pictures of various types of trees and photos of cupped hands holding a bit of earth and a growing seedling. There were images of church buildings and several pie charts, divided and labeled with how people spend their resources.

I refined my search to search for the terms “stewardship” and “children” together. This time there were only a few more than one million images to peruse. These varied from a child putting a coin in a piggy bank to a drawing of a teddy bear hugging the earth.

What images come to mind when you think about the term “stewardship”? How about when you consider the phrase “stewardship and children”? That is what a team of people will be thinking about during the coming year.

The Nebraska Synod would like to become more intentional about teaching children to be good stewards of the talents and treasures God gives them. With that goal in mind and support from the Feed the Roots, Grow the Forest campaign, a team will be working over the course of this next year to develop strategies to help parents of young children around the Synod teach their children about stewardship.

This team will be made up of parents of young children and other church leaders who have a desire to help teach children about stewardship. Members will commit to one year of service, beginning with an opening retreat in October and bimonthly meetings throughout the next 12 months.

After discussions about what “stewardship” and “stewardship education for children” may mean to the team as they do this work, group members will brainstorm ideas of what could be developed in the Nebraska Synod that would help parents teach their children about stewardship. Team members will follow up on ideas and narrow their broad vision to more clearly defined plans throughout the year. The goal is that, by the fall of 2010, there will be one or more actual products that can be shared with the Nebraska Synod that will serve as a stewardship education resources for parents.

If you have ideas to share, please contact me at lisakramme@nebraskasynod.org.

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