The Rev. Phyllis Bartle enjoys stewardship so much that she is beginning a year-round program on the subject at her church.

The biblical view of stewardship is essentially supervising and making effective use of resources that the Lord provides for the betterment of His people and society. But many people think of generosity when discussing stewardship as the two are tied together in many ways.

Stewardship has become Bartle’s bread-and-butter specialty in the Diocese of Central Florida. The rector at St. Jude’s participated in two events recently where her primary focus was on stewardship, and this month shared some of the insight she has learned at a stewardship workshop at Church of the Messiah in Winter Garden.

More than two dozen churches sent representatives to the seminar, making it a huge success in more ways than one. “We had a great turnout for the stewardship seminar,” Bartle said. “(Rev. Canon) Tim (Nunez) said 27 churches were represented. The Bishop (Greg Brewer) was not with us but his endorsement was felt as such a good group showed up.”

Attendees learned a lot. Bartle is one of the Diocese of Central Florida’s premier speakers on stewardship. In April, she attended the annual TENS (The Episcopal Network for Stewardship) Conference at King of Glory Lutheran Church in Dallas.

The Volusia County rector followed that up by serving as vice-chair for the General Convention of The Episcopal Church’s Committee on Stewardship and Responsible Investing. She was one of 11 people from the Diocese of Central Florida to attend the convention, held July 2-13 in Austin, Texas.

At the Winter Garden workshop, Bartle said four presenters talked about stewardship, including herself, Father Tom Rutherford, the Rev. Pam Easterday, and Canon Tim Nunez.

“There were four different presenters whose gifts were evident in their talks,” Bartle said. “Father Tom Rutherford, Rev. Pam Easterday and Canon Tim Nunez gave much insight into their own joys with teaching about generosity. For me, I talked through the generational challenges of giving. I emphasized the differences between the silent generation and millennials and the need to speak carefully to those differences; that includes the giving levels as well as the methodology.”

Bartle said one of her takeaways from the event is the implementation of a year-round stewardship program at St. Jude’s. “We have begun a program emphasizing different aspects of stewardship each month,” she said. “In August, we focused on the Stewardship of Welcome. We had inserts each week that pointed out ways to think about welcome both inside the sanctuary as well as in the community. During the year, we will be focusing on environment, finances, facilities, etc.”

For more information on stewardship, please contact Bartle at phlealess@aol.com via email.