Preaching and Stewardship: Proclaiming God’s Invitation to Grow

Both new and veteran preachers alike find the annual stewardship sermon a challenge and are eager for encouraging, practical advice. In Preaching and Stewardship, Craig Satterlee offers a nuts-and-bolts handbook on preaching stewardship, raising issues preachers need to consider when preparing stewardship sermons and offering advice on how to address them. Satterlee argues that stewardship preaching must include a bold and concrete proclamation of God's love, will, and justice, as well as an invitation to grow as stewards in response to this proclamation. He focuses each chapter on a question preachers ought to ask themselves as they prepare the stewardship sermon, beginning with, 'What do you mean by stewardship?' and 'Why should we give to the church?' In chapters 3 through 6, he explores what the Bible says about stewardship. In chapter 7, he names some of the assumptions both preachers and worshipers bring to the stewardship sermon. The final chapter a variety of ways congregations can support the stewardship sermon. Satterlee illustrates the premise of each chapter with anecdotes from congregational life. Preachers who desire examples of stewardship sermons will especially appreciate stewardship sermons he shares from various preachers to illustrate points in the main text.

Craig A. Satterlee teaches preaching at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago and the University of Notre Dame, and is Dean of the ACTS Doctor of Ministry in Preaching Program. He is consulting pastor of St. Andrew Lutheran Church, Glenwood, IL. His books, which explore the relationship of preaching and worship, stewardship, mission, and leadership, remain fully theological while engaging on-the-ground realities in the life of the church. Titles include When God Speaks through Change, When God Speaks through You, and When God Speaks through Worship.