EDITOR'S NOTE
FIRST AND FOREMOST
by Penny Brink
This edition of Dynamic Steward is a “Special Edition.” The last time we published a “bumper edition” was for the General Conference Session in 2015 in San Antonio. This time we are looking forward to a world advisory for Stewardship Ministries, where all our division directors will join us at the General Conference for a week of seminars, prayers, and training. This edition holds important information for both our stewardship educators as well as all those learning to be good stewards. In particular, we are addressing our strategic plan for stewardship education in the world field.
Practicing financial stewardship in a truly biblical fashion, as well as according to the guidance we find in the Spirit of Prophecy, may seem complicated at first. We hope that, after studying the articles in this edition, the reader will be well on their way to understanding the matter more clearly, and will recognize the part that faithful stewardship plays in the way we trust and worship God.
This edition holds important information for both our stewardship educators as well as all those learning to be good stewards.
Learn what Systematic Benevolence actually means in the practical sense, and how someone who doesn’t even earn anything can still be a faithful steward because of God’s special design. Have you ever heard the term “second tithe”? Find out if that concept is binding. What about the Combined Offering Plan or the Calendar of Offerings? Which one does your division ascribe to and why? What can the local church do to assist in their members’ economic development, so they, too, can participate in financially supporting the mission of the church? Can you calculate your church’s Generosity Factor? Is tithing and giving offerings just something we do on a superficial or behavioral level, or is there a deep spirituality beneath it all?
All this practical wisdom and more is available for us to consider in this edition! May we learn to put God First because He gave His all for us!
