Greeting Siblings in Christ,
On September 28, 2025, we begin a four-week stewardship program. This time of learning about stewardship will mark the beginning of a year-long theme entitled A Listening Faith, which will be a year of listening. Our focus this year will be to learn the sacred art of listening. So, throughout the year, we will be using resources made available through the Northwestern Ohio Synod to discuss what it means to “ Listen to God, Listen to Ourselves. Listening to Others, and to Listen to the Community.” During this time, we will briefly be introduced to these different types of listening that were mentioned above.
This stewardship program serves as a reminder for us to stop and listen. It is a reminder for us that we are invited to listen, and this invitation comes from God. God’s invitation to listen is a gift that permeates the Scriptures. From the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). To the Psalms, “Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer” (Psalm 61:1). To the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock” (Matthew 7:24). To the words the Exalted Jesus repeats to the seven churches in Revelation, “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Revelation 2-3). God longs for us to hear, so God invites us to listen.”
However, what does listening have to do with stewardship? Well, in Isaiah 55, the prophet expands on this invitation from God saying “Incline your ear and come to me; listen, so that you may live…”(v. 3). Stewardship is how we live, especially within our context. Stewardship is our grateful response to God’s invitation for us to listen to ourselves, to the community, and most importantly to God so that we may learn how to live out our calling here in this world.
When we listen, we are able to reflect on our callings and hear how we are called to respond to voices around us, for there is much that we can learn in many voices speaking to us. Thus, these voices speak to us and together with the word of God, we are more clearly able to hear, for God’s word makes all things known. For as Jesus said in Luke 8, in the Parable of the Lamp on a Stand:
“16 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. 17 For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”
Thus, we listen and as we do so we learn to hear. Then, in our listening, we can respond authentically and gratefully with resources that God has given us and to live a life in Christ. So, let us use this time of listening as a time of discernment, as a time to reflect on what we are being called to do as God’s chosen and beloved stewards. May God's voice lead us and guide us in all that we do so that we may come to hear the voices of the world. In Jesus, the Word, we listen and pray, Amen.
Peace and Blessings, Pastor Ethan Doan
On September 28, 2025, we begin a four-week stewardship program. This time of learning about stewardship will mark the beginning of a year-long theme entitled A Listening Faith, which will be a year of listening. Our focus this year will be to learn the sacred art of listening. So, throughout the year, we will be using resources made available through the Northwestern Ohio Synod to discuss what it means to “ Listen to God, Listen to Ourselves. Listening to Others, and to Listen to the Community.” During this time, we will briefly be introduced to these different types of listening that were mentioned above.
This stewardship program serves as a reminder for us to stop and listen. It is a reminder for us that we are invited to listen, and this invitation comes from God. God’s invitation to listen is a gift that permeates the Scriptures. From the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). To the Psalms, “Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer” (Psalm 61:1). To the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock” (Matthew 7:24). To the words the Exalted Jesus repeats to the seven churches in Revelation, “Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches” (Revelation 2-3). God longs for us to hear, so God invites us to listen.”
However, what does listening have to do with stewardship? Well, in Isaiah 55, the prophet expands on this invitation from God saying “Incline your ear and come to me; listen, so that you may live…”(v. 3). Stewardship is how we live, especially within our context. Stewardship is our grateful response to God’s invitation for us to listen to ourselves, to the community, and most importantly to God so that we may learn how to live out our calling here in this world.
When we listen, we are able to reflect on our callings and hear how we are called to respond to voices around us, for there is much that we can learn in many voices speaking to us. Thus, these voices speak to us and together with the word of God, we are more clearly able to hear, for God’s word makes all things known. For as Jesus said in Luke 8, in the Parable of the Lamp on a Stand:
“16 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. 17 For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they think they have will be taken from them.”
Thus, we listen and as we do so we learn to hear. Then, in our listening, we can respond authentically and gratefully with resources that God has given us and to live a life in Christ. So, let us use this time of listening as a time of discernment, as a time to reflect on what we are being called to do as God’s chosen and beloved stewards. May God's voice lead us and guide us in all that we do so that we may come to hear the voices of the world. In Jesus, the Word, we listen and pray, Amen.
Peace and Blessings, Pastor Ethan Doan
