REFLECTIONS ON STEWARDSHIP
Stewardship begins with  receiving..  (John 3:16) "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Stewardship is accountability and responsibility before God. We receive God's love, We are grateful and happy.  We must respond by helping to fulfill God's purposes. Stewardship is not all about money and material things, but about our gifts such as time and talents. What is given to us is not ours to keep but to share and use wisely as God would have us do.  All we have, actually belongs to Him.

The Stewardship Committee remains active in the life of Elmwood.

We strive to nurture involvement and support within the congregation encouraging use of time and talents to do God’s work and to fulfill our mission as quoted below:

“Our mission as a congregation with the Holy Spirit as our guide is to share the good news of Jesus Christ in the world and to fulfil our responsibilities to God and our neighbours”.

Last Fall (2006)three of our members attended as delegates at the "Stewards by Design " conference, held in Niagara Falls, Ont. This was a privilege as this conference, organized by our national church, reviews the applications received annually and selects only a limited number of applicants.

This was a very informative few days, and we returned to Elmwood with renewed enthusiasm and many ideas for guiding our congregation in the quest for strength and growth in our church.

Our theme "CELEBRATE ELMWOOD" continues, as we truly have so much to celebrate at Elmwood Ave. Presbyterian Church.  We all, as part of this congregation are responsible to give thanks for our many gifts by supporting this work.

Earlier this year, we held a "visioning" program, whereby members of the congregation were invited to join us on a given Saturday to participate in a session of discussion and sharing of thoughts and ideas.

Those attending were divided into groups, with leaders, and were encouraged to share their feelings about our church, the positives, and what concerns they might have.

Suggestions were invited for change, improvement, and nurturing the many positives we have. This was a very well-attended event, and was felt to be of great benefit. From this we re-affirmed that we are very fortunate to have what we have at Elmwood... gifted leadership, dedicated and gifted volunteers, and a solid core of caring sharing congregation in our church family.

Suggestions were made for changes, and our committee has reviewed all . We have taken the results to the appropriate people, and some new and interesting endeavours are planned for the future months and years. We have reported back to the congregation, and will be giving updates as we move ahead.

An exciting new development, on the recommendation of our committee, has been in the hiring of ELISE CHAMBERS, as our CO-ORDINATOR OF MINISTRY TO CHILDREN AND YOUTH.

Elise officially came on board August 1st. and is working in preparation for September and onward in organizing Sunday School and youth activities.

ELISE has many gifts, great enthusiasm, and excellent experience in working with Children and Youth, and we look forward to having the young people of our church more involved in the services and events.