Where does it come from? Where does it go?

United Methodists join John Wesley in affirming the divine call to do good works that show God's love wherever we can. We are mutually connected-organized-so that our individual efforts blend with the work of others to be more powerful than any one person alone. Our budgets support our "good works" and express our covenant to connectional service and multiply God's love in tangible ways. As good stewards we invest not only our money, but our time and also our talents. In biblical times, a steward supervised a household or an estate. Today, as God's children, we deem God the source of all we have, seek to hold it in trust for God and desire to be "good stewards of the manifold grace of God." (1 Peter 4:10)

The Bible standard of tithing is for everyone to give is one-tenth of one's annual income, that is paid as a contribution to support the church and its clergy. Can we take this action a little further by taking of one-tenth of our time to further a ministry? Can we go even further by using our talents? St. Paul did a wonderful job with the Warm Nights Program -- let us not stop there. There is much work to be done in the vineyard.