PRAYERS FOR STEWARDSHIP

This page offers prayers for stewardship you can use in your parish’s annual giving campaign.

Annual Giving Campaign Toolkit

Gracious and Generous God

Gracious and generous God, Creator and Giver of all that is good, we thank you for our many blessings. We acknowledge that all that we have is from you. We offer you thanks and praise for the beauty of the earth, our work, our family, our loved ones, and all the gifts we have been given.

You are with us always. In each dark hour, you are here. In each bright hour, you are here. Blessed by your grace, may we show gratitude by sharing what we have been given.

By serving our brothers and sisters, we serve you.

We remain ever grateful for your constant love, the gift of your Son Jesus, and the presence of your Holy Spirit with us.

Protect and guide us on our journey, and guide those who are involved in Diocesan, and parish stewardship leadership.

We seek to be your faithful stewards.

Amen.

Annual Giving Campaign 2023 - Taking the Next Faithful Step

Generous and Loving God

Generous and loving God, we come to you in thanksgiving, knowing that all we are and all that we have is a gift from you. In faith and love, help us to do your will. We are listening. Speak your words into the depth of our souls, that we may hear you clearly.

We offer to you this day all the facets of our lives, whether it be at home, at work, or at school. We seek to be patient, to be merciful, to be generous, to be holy. Give us the wisdom and insight to understand your will for us and the fervor to carry out our good intentions.

We offer our gifts of time, talent and possessions to you as a true act of faith, to reflect our love for you and our neighbors. Help us to reach out to others as you have reached out to us.

Amen.

We Pray that We Will Make Stewardship a Way of Life

Eternal God, we pray that we will make stewardship a way of Life. We acknowledge you as the source of all we have and all we are.

Help us to place you, our loving Creator, first in our lives by becoming more prayerful, more focused on loving and caring for our families and our neighbors in need, and by becoming less preoccupied with material things.

Help us to hear your call to be good stewards, caretakers, and managers of all your gifts by sharing them for your purposes.

Help us make your priorities our priorities and to put our faith into action. Help us plan to “give back” the talents, treasures and time with which we have been blessed.

Help us plan to serve our church, our community, and our world with your gifts.

May we serve you and pray with a joyful spirit of mind and heart.

Amen.

O Lord, Giver of Life and Source of Freedom

O Lord, Giver of Life and Source of Freedom. We know that all we have is received from your hand. Gracious and loving God, you call us to be stewards of your Abundance, the caretakers of all you have entrusted to us. Help us always to use your gifts wisely and teach us to share them generously. Send the Holy Spirit to work through us, bringing your message to those we serve. May our faithful stewardship be a witness to the love of Jesus Christ in our lives. We pray with grateful hearts in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Abundant God

Abundant God, you made us in your image and breathed in us a spirit of generosity that is both gift and response. Move us, we pray, to give as we have received–abundantly, generously, and joyfully that our common ministry may ever bear witness to your unfailing grace. In the name of the Three in whom we are One,

Amen.

Bless Our Parish, Strengthen Our Faith

Oh God, our loving Creator and Giver of all good gifts, bless our parish, strengthen our faith and grant us the spirit of Christian stewardship so that we may give generously of our time, talent and treasure to spread Your kingdom here in our church and throughout the world. For this, we pray to the Lord.

Amen.

A Collect for Stewardship

Gracious God, giver of all we have and hold as stewards; grant the people of this church a deep and abiding awareness that all things come from you – our health, our incomes, our jobs, our talents and our generous impulse. Send your Holy Spirit to help us as we swim against the rising tides of materialism, envy, individualism and greed in our culture. When we are tempted to think of money as a private matter, remind us that you have asked for part of what we are given, to be returned to you as a symbol of our awareness that you give all we have. And further, help us to help each other in this grace of giving, for you are the lover of our souls and call us to nothing less than transformation in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Prayer for Those Leading Stewardship Ministries

Lord Christ, you held your ground as you communicated a message amidst support and amidst the rejection of your message. Give to us who lead stewardship ministries the strength to help our church to discuss that which it would rather ignore. Help us to speak openly about money, time and land as gifts. Help us to respond to a culture for whom greed is nothing more than a scream of fear; so that our work is not merely fundraising, but is rather a pastoral ministry to a people weighed down by a spiritually deadly combination of abundance and fear.

Amen.

Prayer for Use by a Vestry Regarding Stewardship

Heavenly Father and Creator of all we enjoy, we give you thanks for the countless people who have gone before us in the leadership of this church. We know that the Holy Spirit inspired some as they longed for this church, others as they built this church and still others as they lovingly and boldly led this church through times of abundance and times of scarcity. Help us to be bold as we model giving of time and money to this parish. Make our bold and generous pledge a symbol of both our integrity and our gratitude. Then help us to encourage giving with one sixth of what we do and say, just as you did while physically teaching among your disciples.

Amen.

Prayer for Use by Children Regarding Stewardship

Jesus, we love you and we know you love us. Everything we have is a gift from you. Thank you for play time and for our growing bodies. Thank you for our laughter and our joy. Help us to give some of our time and some of our money back to you. When we think of giving something away to someone who needs it, help us to give two and not just one.

Amen.

A Prayer for Vision

Disturb us, Lord, when we are too well pleased with ourselves; when our dreams have come true because we have dreamed too little; when we arrive safely because we have sailed too close to shore. Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of the things we possess, we have lost our thirst for the water of life. Stir us, Lord, to dare more boldly, to venture on wider seas, where storms will show your mastery; where losing sight of land, we shall find the stars. We ask you to push back the horizons of our hopes and to push us into the future in strength, courage, hope and love. Amen. Open your hearts to the love God instills in them. God loves you tenderly. What he gives you is not to be kept under lock and key, but to be shared. The more you save the less you will be able to give. The less you have, the more you will now have to share. Let us ask God, when it comes to ask God for something, to help us to be generous.

Amen.

Stewardship Prayer – Thomas Merton

Almighty God, we thank you for all the gifts You have given us: our lives, our loved ones, all that we have and all that we are. Most of all, we thank You for Jesus, your Son and our Redeemer, who came among us to show us the way to eternal life. Jesus was the perfect steward of your gifts, showing that complete trust in You is necessary, and that giving of self is a most important part of following Him. May the offerings of our time, our talents, and our material resources be made in the same spirit of sacrifice that Jesus taught us by His life and death for us.

Amen.

Prayers Courtesy of Forward Movement

For the Church – Forward Movement

Quicken, O Lord, we pray you, all members of your church, that we may be alive to the opportunities and responsibilities of our times. Save us from complacency and from fear of new ways; inspire our minds with the hope of your kingdom; give us joy in what lies before us; and stir our wills to pray and to work until your will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

Amen.

For the Annual Canvass – Forward Movement

O God, you have called us to be workers together with you: Make us now of one heart and mind to pray and work and give for the upbuilding and strengthening of your church at home and abroad. Bless our annual canvass, and stir up the wills of all our people to do according to their ability as good stewards in your service.

Amen.

For Good Stewardship – Forward Movement

O Lord, you have taught us that you will require much from those to whom much is given: Grant that we whom you have called to so goodly a heritage may share more abundantly with others what we so richly enjoy, and in serving them may know the glory of serving you.

Amen.

For the Right Use of Money – Forward Movement

Lord of our lives, teach us how to use our money and our possessions. Deliver us from stinginess and wasteful extravagance; inspire our giving with the spirit of true generosity. Help us always to remember your generous love for us, that we may be wise and faithful stewards of the good gifts you have given us.

Amen.