Stewardship Week: Tuesday
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
1 Corinthians 12:7
Today is Tuesday, October 13th, 2026. On this date in 2010, rescuers brought thirty-three miners to safety after they spent sixty-nine days trapped underground in Chile. One by one, they rose through a narrow passage in a specially constructed rescue capsule. After weeks of uncertainty, all 33 were alive and on the surface. The rescue depended on people with very different abilities. Chilean rescuers led the effort, while help came from beyond their country. NASA specialists offered advice about health, nutrition, psychological support, and the rescue capsule’s design. Engineers and medical professionals brought their knowledge to the effort. No single person could have accomplished that rescue alone.
There is something deeply moving about people bringing what they have to a task too large for any one of them. One person’s knowledge becomes another person’s hope. Separate abilities become a shared opportunity to give someone a future. The Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 12:7, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” Notice those words: the common good. The gifts God gives us are meant to bless more than ourselves. They help build a community in which people are strengthened and cared for. This is part of what we mean when we describe The United Methodist Church as connectional. We belong to one another. Congregations join their prayers, resources, and service so that ministry can reach beyond what any one church could accomplish. Our faith is personal, but it is not meant to be lived in isolation.
The same is true here at St. Andrew. A person who prepares a lesson, a volunteer who welcomes a family, a musician who helps us worship, and a member who gives faithfully all contribute to a shared ministry. Their work may look different, but together they help people encounter the love of Jesus Christ. Sometimes we wonder whether what we offer really matters. Someone else has more experience, more money, or more time. Yet God has not asked us to become someone else. He invites us to offer what He has entrusted to us.
Our Stewardship slogan, “Faithful Today, Fruitful Tomorrow,” invites us to participate, not to carry the whole future on our own shoulders. This week, consider the gift you could contribute to our shared ministry. It may be a commitment you are ready to make through your 2027 pledge card. No one has to contribute everything, but each of us can offer something. What a blessing to discover that, through God’s grace, our gifts belong in a larger story of hope!
Let us pray:
Dear God, thank you for joining us together in Christ. Free us from comparison, help us recognize the gifts you have given us, and teach us to use them for the good of others. Amen.
Rev. Geoff Beakley
