Text Mining Stewardship Sermons

Authors

Rosanna AndersonFollow

Abstract

Preaching about stewardship is a perennial concern for pastors. The advice that many mainline books on stewardship offer is for pastors to become more comfortable with talking about money. Another recommendation is to follow secular fundraising practices and speak about giving in positive terms like opportunity rather than obligation. But are pastors following this advice? How are pastors actually asking for financial support during their stewardship sermons?

Having read and published reviews of numerous books with theories about what pastors and church leaders could do to increase financial giving, I set out to find empirical information about what preachers are actually saying in mainline churches to inspire generosity. By understanding and describing connections in a broad survey of recent stewardship sermons, I hope to contribute to the discussion from the point of view of what is rather than what should be. I collected and analyzed a large set of stewardship sermons in order to gain perspective on trends in this specific genre of preaching.

Author Bio

An ordained Presbyterian Church (USA) minister, Dr. Rosanna Anderson is the pastor for the First Presbyterian Church of Springfield, Tennessee. She has served churches in New York, New Jersey, and Tennessee. Until 2021, Dr. Anderson was on the denominational staff of the United Methodist Church specializing in stewardship and intergenerational ministries. She received her MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1998 and DMin from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary in 2019.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Anderson, Rosanna (2021) "Text Mining Stewardship Sermons," Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry: Vol. 7: Iss. 2, Article 1.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/discernment/vol7/iss2/1