I am so grateful to have been able to go away for a few weeks in October, not only to see a certain special someone, but also because this was my study leave. I was refreshed, encouraged and inspired by this time set aside for reading and exploration.

In the coming weeks, I hope to be able to share some of what I learned with you all.

One of the books that I read in my time away was Holy Currencies: Six Blessings for Sustainable Missional Ministries, by Eric F. Law – very appropriate, I thought, as we were about to begin our stewardship month.  

In this book, Law reminds us that the resources that we have been entrusted by God is more than just money. In his model, he identifies 6 “holy currencies:” relationship, gracious leadership, wellness, truth, time & place, and money. The flowing of these, each currency constantly being traded and transformed into other currencies, he calls the “cycle of blessing.”

The goal, Law suggests, either as an individual follower of Jesus or as a church community isn’t to have as much as possible of any of these currencies. Rather, it is to allow them to flow, to intentionally have them recirculating for the benefit of the world and the upbuilding of the Kingdom of God. He makes a case that when a church allows the transformational ‘cycle of blessing’ to flow, often in creative ways, this recirculation results in resources returning to the church community as well.

In other words, sustainability (in all resources), is intimately linked with generosity and mission.  

During our stewardship month, I hope that this image may grab our imaginations and inspire us to live into this ‘cycle of blessing’ in creative ways, to choose intentionally generosity and mission, and ground ourselves always in the constantly self-giving love and grace of God.

Thanks be to God!

CG+