stewardship | Memorial United Church of Christ

Woven Together: Unlocking the Spirit

Posted on November 3, 2019November 3, 2019 by Kristin Gorton

Today is Stewardship Sunday, or what we call Celebration Sunday. Over the past 4 weeks we have been talking about the ways each and every one of us is an important thread in this congregation’s ability to change lives. The Stewardship Committee, Kaitlin Young, Sue Webb, Dick Runge, and Jan Hoffman, guided our focus on 4 ministries that are integral to the DNA of this congregation: Because of you, our church changes lives through music, children and youth ministries, local outreach, and social justice advocacy. We are woven together. We are one in the Spirit. Yet on this Celebration Su...
Read More

Woven Together: Living Water

Posted on October 31, 2019October 31, 2019 by Kristin Gorton

I would like you to consider what might seem, on the surface, like an impossible possibility: Weaving with water. It is much easier for me to imagine weaving with ribbons, thread, or yarn. These things are solid. Easy to grab onto. But weaving with water? That seems impossible. Unless, of course, we are talking about the upcoming frozen tundra and ice of our Wisconsin Winters, water is something that as we start to weave runs right through our loom and splashes onto the floor. Water needs some sort of contain to hold it. A bucket. A jar. A body. Our bodies. Water. Living. Reading t...
Read More

Celebrate Abundance

Posted on October 17, 2018October 17, 2018 by Kristin Gorton

Do you have a favorite childhood story? I have long been fascinated by stories—and how we tell them—whether it is through spoken or written word, images, art, movement, or music. As an undergraduate student I studied communication arts, which included debate classes, rhetoric, radio, television, and film. As someone drawn to the stories in the bible, I love how the past, present, and future intertwine. How we tell our stories weaves into who we are as individual, as a community, a nation, and a global community. This week, one of my favorite childhood stories came to mind—all over one word....
Read More

THIS is Church! (1 Thessalonians 1:1-19)

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Kristin Gorton

As we officially kick-off Memorial UCC’s Stewardship Campaign today, I am going to take a risk and delve into the question: Just what is “stewardship” in the life of the church? The Merrium-Webster Dictionary defines stewardship as “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care." However, I encountered one of the best responses to the question “what is stewardship” here, at church, earlier this week—and the answer came from a 3 year-old. Here is your invitation into the story. I invite you to take a moment today, and each Sunday over the next four weeks, to loo...
Read More