by Mike Winter, Stewardship Pastor
By Mike Winter, Stewardship Pastor
First, a little background…
Kathy and I were raised in central Minnesota. We met in high school, eventually married, and this year will celebrate our 44th anniversary. We have three married children and eight grandchildren, all living in Oregon. Kathy and I became Christians in 1969 through the influence of a couple who simply loved us into the kingdom. Two months after our conversion, Pastor Kim Hodge was called to serve as pastor of the church we were attending in MN.
In 1974, we moved to Portland where I served at Western Seminary for 18 years, mostly in Development work. During our time at Western, we met Ben and Mary Cross. At the time, Ben was a student at Western and served on staff for a time at the church we attended. From 1992 to 2007, I served with Conservative Baptists as the president of Ministry Advance Foundation, the stewardship education, estate planning and planned giving ministry in both Illinois and Colorado. During those years First B invited me back several times for estate planning seminars. At the end of 2007, we retired and moved back to Portland in order to be closer to family.
Stewardship Vision…
The vision taking shape here at First B is especially stirring for me because it recognizes that each person has something uniquely “locked up” inside their soul just waiting to burst out—a “stewardship” of what God has entrusted. Our primary stewardship is the Gospel, however. Ephesians 2:10 suggests that each Christian also is: “…created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” That is Life Stewardship! The implication is that everything we think is ours (our time, talent, treasure, families, relationships, spiritual gifts, physical and mental abilities, cars, houses, boats, RV’s, 401k’s, jobs, businesses, real estate and everything else) is actually God’s (read Psalm 24:1), and He wants us to fully develop and use all of His things to make a difference for His kingdom.
So….the ministry of life stewardship is:
- Helping God-empowered people,
- Accomplish God-ordained objectives,
- By using their God-entrusted resources (of time, talent and treasure).
My ministry as Pastor of Stewardship is to help you accomplish the kingdom goals and dreams God has entrusted to you. The primary focus is twofold:
- Life stewardship—helping people “unlock” the “good works” God has given each of us to do for the kingdom, and
- Financial stewardship—helping people develop the attitudes and skills necessary to handle money as God intends rather than using the method and motivation our culture models.
Bottom line:
The Stewardship Pastor is a staff position focused on helping the FBC family use well all that God has uniquely entrusted to each, including our time, talent, treasure, relationships and personal dreams for ministry. All of this should be used to partner with Him in being disciples who make disciples. My own personal goal is to help you desire to live every moment with growing awareness of God’s abundant generosity to us.
