Virginia Episcopalian Magazine Summer 2014 Issue | Page 21

Spiritual Stewardship
Kendall Martin

“ How do we bring our first gift to
God? How do we give of ourselves?”
These are the questions the Rev. Sven
vanBaars, rector of Abingdon Church,
White Marsh, contemplated as his parish
started the conversation of expanding
annual stewardship beyond the financial
and into the spiritual.

The parishioners at Abingdon
wondered how they could contribute
beyond annual pledges and volunteer
hours. The conversation morphed into
their diocesan giving. While Abingdon
has steadily increased its monetary
support to the Diocese, with the hopes
of increasing support by 1 percent
each year, the parish considered how
its time could be even more valuable
than monetary support. And so the

idea was born to give 10 percent of
average Sunday attendance to diocesan
leadership roles.

In addition to committing to a
percentage of people who would
volunteer for diocesan roles, Abingdon
had to determine which volunteer roles
would qualify. It decided that, in order
for the time volunteered to count, the
individual had to be primarily giving to
the ministry of the Diocese, rather than
receiving from it.

Currently, average Sunday
attendance is about 130 people with
about 13 serving in diocesan leadership
roles. Now in phase two, Abingdon
is in the process of assessing where
the energy and gifts are lining up, and
matching individuals to the commissions

and committees where parishioners
feel the most energy and commitment.
At the feast of Pentecost, the parish
hosted an outreach fair where each
ministry provided information on what it
does and how one can get involved. One
of the ministries represented was the
Diocese, with the intention of describing
the many ways parishioners can be
involved at that level.

“The more we can make real the
ministries of the Diocese to the people,
the easier it will become. The long-term
hope is to continue to build bonds
between what we do in a parochial
ministry and what we do in diocesan
ministries,” said vanBaars. t

Members of Abingdon Church at the
April Dandelion Festival in Gloucester, Va.

Summer 2014 / Virginia Episcopalian

19