"Just to Say Thanks"

One of them, when he saw that he had been healed, returned and praised God with a loud voice. He fell on his face at Jesus' feet and thanked him.

— Luke 17:15-16

Give thanks with a grateful heart.

— Henry Smith, "Give Thanks"

Count your many blessings, name them one by one, / And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

— Johnson Oatman Jr.

"Just to Say Thanks"

When our son Kendall was in the fifth grade, our bishop appointed me to serve as a district superintendent. This meant that we would have to move to a new community.

My wife and I sat down with our two children and informed them that I had been appointed to a new position and we would have to move to another community.

Our son Kendall folded his arms and said, "I am not going to move. My best friend in the whole world lives here. I like my school, my church, and my room. For the first time in my life, I have a girlfriend. I am not moving."

We explained that we were a family and we would all have to move together even though it would be hard for all of us. "Besides," I said, "we are selling this house."

Kendall was adamant: "Then I will rent my room from whoever buys it!" He was determined not to leave his home and friends, but ultimately we all moved together as a family.

When we arrived at the district parsonage, Kendall and I went to a large family room downstairs. There in the middle of the room was a large table and on it was an electric train and track set up and plugged in. All we had to do was turn it on and the electric train started travelling around the tracks.

On the table was a large hand-printed sign that read: "For Kendall, from the Rueben Job family." Bishop Rueben Job was the former district superintendent who had just moved out of the district parsonage. Bishop Job knew how hard it was for Kendall to move to a new home, so his family decided to give their grown son's electric train to Kendall to ease his pain of moving to a new community.

Kendall was shocked. He said, "I don't even know these people. Why are they being so nice to me?"

Later that day a local United Methodist pastor and his son, John, who was the same age as Kendall, came over to help us unpack. Kendall and John became immediate friends and they spent the day playing with the electric train and exploring the neighborhood.

The next day, Kendall came into my home office with his hands cupped and filled with coins. He plopped the coins down on my desk and said, "Here, Dad, give this to God." I was surprised because Kendall had never done anything like that before.

I asked him why he wanted to give his money to God. Kendall shrugged and said, "Just to say thanks."

I asked, "Thanks for what?" He said, "You know — the train, John, and my new room."

Kendall had experienced some unexpected gifts and was filled with gratitude. He suspected God was responsible for giving him these wonderful gifts, so he wanted to say thanks to God by giving some of his money to God.

I thanked him for expressing his gratitude to God with a generous gift to God. Then I asked him, "How did you decide how much you were going to give to God to say thanks?"

Kendall said he opened his bank and counted out all his money on his bed and then decided to give God half of it. I didn't tell him you only have to give 10 percent!

Our son realized that he had been given some unexpected generous gifts from God and he wanted to express his gratitude to God by giving some of his money to God, "just to say thanks."

The real motivation for giving some of our time, talent, and treasure to God is ultimately just to say thanks for all the gifts God has already given to us.

When we think about it, everything we are and have is a gift to us from the hands of our generous God.

We did not create the marvelous and miraculous body in which we live. Our bodies were created by God through our parents and given to us for our journey here on earth. We did not create the spark of God's spirit that God placed in each of us we call our soul or the image of God within us. Our eternal soul is a gift from God.

We did not create our spouses, partners, children, parents, grand-children, or friends. All the people we care for were created by God and given to us.

We did not create the ground we walk on; the air we breathe; the sun that gives us life; the birds, flowers, and animals; the food we eat; and every-thing that enables us to live on this earth. Everything in creation is a gift from the hands of our generous God.

We did not create Jesus Christ who came and lived among us to teach us how to trust God totally, surrender ourselves into God's loving hands, and discover an eternally meaningful life through his life, death, and resurrection.

The truth about life is that everything we are and everything we have is a loving gift from the hands of a kind and generous God.

We give some of our time, talent, and treasure back to God not out of obligation, guilt, or a need to meet a church budget. We give to God "just to say thanks" for all that God has first created and given to us.

Gratitude to God is the fundamental scriptural reason and our motivation for giving our time in worship, our talent in service, and our financial gifts to support God's ministry in the world.

From Stewardship Campaigns to Gratitude Campaigns

When we give out of gratitude we transform the annual local church stewardship campaign into a Gratitude Campaign. When gratitude becomes the focus of our campaign we change the pledge card or estimate of giving card into a Gratitude Card, and we transform Stewardship or Consecration Sunday into Gratitude Sunday. A stewardship campaign is usually based on the idea that God is the creator of all we are and have, and we are therefore obligated to be good stewards of God's creation. A Gratitude Campaign recognizes that all we are and have is a gift from God, but we give back to God out of gratitude not obligation.

Stewardship campaigns are often based on Jesus's parable about the landlord who went away leaving his servants in charge of his property. In Matthew 25:14-30 Jesus told a parable about a landlord who gave three of his servants different amounts of money (talents) to manage while he was gone. When the landlord returned, he rewarded or punished each servant according to how they used or failed to use the money he had given them. It is true that we are all given differing amounts of resources in this life and are ultimately accountable to God for how we use or misuse them.

However, the primary image of our relationship to God in the New Testament is not that we are hired servants responsible to an absent landlord but that we are children of a loving heavenly Father who is never absent but is always present with us.

In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), when the wayward son "came to his senses" he decided to return to...