Licking County CVB
Visitor’s Guide 2011
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150 Years of Echoes and Remembrance – the Civil War and Licking County [1042 words]
Just as the American Civil War left its mark on the United States, you can find traces of that vast conflict all across the landscape of Licking County.
No battles between armies were fought on our soil, but there were many significant encounters that took place in our neck of the woods, leading to those distant battlefields.
Some of the key leaders grew up here, like Generals William Rosecrans and Charles Griffin, both of whom have Ohio Historical Markers in this county. Little Johnny Clem has a statue of his very own, growing up in Newark and at not-quite 10 years of age, ran off to begin a career as “the Drummer Boy of Chickamauga” – a historic journey that only ended in 1916 with his retirement as a Major General, the last Civil War soldier on active duty.
The Newark Earthworks’ Great Circle, just beyond the doors of the CVB’s visitor’s center off OH Route 79 in Heath, was Camp John Sherman in 1862. This 2,000 year old monumental enclosure was put to work as a training encampment for the 76th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, one of the state’s most decorated regiments on the Western Theater of the Civil War.
Standing in the Grand Gateway there, while looking across this immense creation by the hands of Native Americans so long ago, you can also recall that some 900 young men spent weeks learning the arts of war inside the Great Circle. They marched out, down to the railroad, and through Cincinnati onto riverboats, and on to the banks of the Mississippi – when their fighting ended three years later, more than half of them were casualties of war, and only some 350 of them returned to this spot after being mustered out at war’s end.
But it was also here in 1878 that one of the largest reunions of Civil War veterans was held, thousands crowding into the area to listen to Rutherford B. Hayes, James A. Garfield, and William Tecumseh Sherman, reflecting on the sacrifices made and the work still to be done in making freedom a reality for all citizens.
A frightening but memorable moment came when the speaker’s platform collapsed, the dignitaries jumping clear of the wreckage as many were injured, and one man died. Gen. Sherman noted later that “one drunken carpenter” almost succeeded in killing him, where hundreds of thousands of Confederate sharpshooters had failed!
You can find an even quieter point of connection with those returned veterans in Newark’s Cedar Hill Cemetery, where the Grand Army of the Republic, or GAR section stands near one gate with a watchful cannon and row upon row of headstones.
Elsewhere on the grounds are the markers for many other veterans of the Civil War who survived the conflict, and whose stories continued on into the next century, but never forgot the years from 1861 to 1865. Corporal Leonidas Inscho is buried not far away, recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery in an action immediately preceding the battle of Antietam, pressing through a Confederate strongpoint on South Mountain, Maryland. He went on to be promoted into the officer corps, and served in the GAR after the war.
John Shellenberger also received the Medal of Honor as a corporal, and is buried in the Welsh Hills Cemetery near Granville. His peaceful grave is exemplary of many such markers found in almost every community of Licking County, where the full story of heroism and sacrifice takes a little effort on our part to stand near, and look, and learn.
Nearly 5,000 young men (and likely a few hardy, unsung women in the nursing corps) answered the call of duty from Licking County during the Civil War. This number was estimated at the time as over 80% of all able bodied men; when 37,000 was the total population of the county, of which barely 5,000 were in Newark itself. It was said at the Civil War’s close that soldiers of Licking County had served everywhere “from the Potomac to the Rio Grande.” At least 600 of those veterans died in service, and the vast majority of them are buried back here near their homes.
In many county seats across the Midwest, a tall central monument near the courthouse honors the local veterans of the Civil War. You won’t find one of those in Licking County. The returned soldiers and sailors, so active in civic affairs, let alone their GAR chapters, asked that they be honored not just with a piece of stone, no matter how grand, but in a way that served the public good. It was for that reason, and at their request, that the county erected, just off of Courthouse Square, the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Auditorium.
Don’t go looking for it now (it stood where the Licking County Foundations’ office building sits, behind a cheerful fountain plaza dotted with sculpture). After years of productive use, and a few fires and floods, the building had to be torn down. But on the front of the building were two statues, of a Civil War era soldier, and a sailor.
When the building’s façade came down, a cry went up, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars stepped forward. If you head up Union Street from the Great Circle Visitors Center, and turn east on Forry Avenue, just a little ways on to your right is today’s VFW post. In their front yard is an eternal flame, and flanking it, now joined by a World War I doughboy, are those two statues, but now at ground level where you can almost look them eye to eye.
The sailor, attentive perhaps to Admiral Farragut in the rigging at Mobile Bay; the soldier, his cartridge box and canteen slung beneath his knapsack and blanket roll, all three looking out at the passing traffic as if to ask “Will you remember?”
In this 150th anniversary year, the Licking County Convention and Visitors Bureau is proud to partner with local museums and many county historical societies in supporting
www.escapetolickingcounty.com/civilwar
Here you can find listings of programs and speakers and activities throughout 2011 and beyond, including a Civil War encampment at the Great Circle where so many of these stories come together.
In Licking County, we remember!
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Celebrate the Davis–Shai House’s 150 years! [457 words]
150 years ago, Jackson Davis built a beautiful rural farmhouse along the Ohio & Erie Canal.
This Gothic Revival brick home was long a landmark for first canal boats, then for horse drawn carts along the towpath up from the Licking Summit reservoir (now Buckeye Lake), then for cars zipping through the 20th century, back from the drive-in theater south of Heath.
By 1995, the house was hemmed in by multiple lanes of traffic and increased demand for retail along Route 79. It looked as if another historic gem would be lost in the dustbin of history.
What happened instead was a remarkable public private partnership, where the Shai family and the City of Heath worked together to preserve and relocate this wonderful building. One bright spring morning in 1996 it began heading due west of its former site, over a mile away to a new home at 301 Central Parkway.
Re-established on literally a more solid foundation, the Davis-Shai House became a meeting place and activity hub for the Heath community that had long looked for a shared center point. Volunteers began to plan events, to raise funds for further enhancement and renewal of the building, so soon their Victorian Christmas Open Houses, Valentine’s Day teas, and other history-themed luncheons led to the formation of the Heath Community Arts Council, which manages the facility and co-ordinates fundraising.
Their most recent success was made both necessary and possible by the amazing growth of interest in their programs: a major expansion just concluded, dedicated in 2010 with an elevator, new meeting rooms, and a tripling of both their kitchen and banqueting space.
The Fairview Room can seat up to 140, and along with additional smaller rooms and fully accessible restrooms, the possibilities are nearly endless. Modern amenities, up to and including the latest communications technology, warmly co-exists with a classic structure that honors local history and heritage.
Heath’s official “historic landmark” structure, so congenial within, has also been beautified without by an unprecedented public effort – most of the landscaping recently installed came about as the result of a special grant, earned through an internet campaign where local residents showed their support of the Davis-Shai House in sufficient numbers to earn an additional $250,000. This internet campaign finished out the dreams of the council members in a way that was beyond their imagining just a few years ago – let alone what Jackson Davis might have imagined in 1861!
At their website www.davisshaihouse.com the Heath Community Arts Council maintains a schedule of upcoming events and programs, both daytime and evening activities, planned for both children and senior groups – see the schedule for details. They also welcome community groups or businesses interested in using the facility for their meetings, by arrangement.
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A Vineyard In the Countryside [525 words]
You wind along the township road, curving back and forth with a rhythm that can only be explained by a history that begins long before automobiles and engines were the rule.
Another wooded bend, and a bright flag bearing a glass of wine flutters next to a vast stone, carved to reassure you that, yes, you’ve found “The Winery at Otter Creek.”
Crunching off the asphalt, you enter the surrounding woods, and the track arches up to cross on wooden beams a watercourse you can only assume is Otter Creek itself (and it is).
Over the stream, and on to a fork where the hillside between the two roads is lined, row by row up above you, with vines curling and straining as if to catch the best of the sunlight coming down. You’re barely minutes away from almost any spot in Licking County or Columbus, but you can already feel yourself slowing down, and your thoughts going to Tuscany or Provence or some sunny hillside you’ve always imagined: but you’re right here in Licking County.
Jeff Chrisman, one of the four owners and vintners here**, has a family tie to the land; his grandmother grew up here. As he talks about the journey back to this place, and what barn gave up which piece of wormy chestnut that now makes a glowingly beautiful countertop, you can feel the connections. The doors of the tasting room, the beams overhead, all bring some history into this building that the owners themselves erected just a few years ago.
Outside, there’s a different sort of connection in the planters by the walk; they’re 185 gallon cypress wine vats, picked up from what was once Willow Hill Winery where now is Columbus International Airport. After long service at that historic Ohio winery, they still are part of wine making here at Otter Creek.
There’s something about wine that lends itself to that kind of intertwined reality, when the seasons and the sunlight and the process of crushing and fermentation put the essence of a year now past into a glass in your hand. Out on the patios behind the tasting room, overlooking a pond central to the different slopes of grapevine all about, you feel a connection to the land yourself as you sip, and think about which of their varieties you’ll take home.
The Traminette and Catawba wines are very popular**, but whether for tasting samplers for enjoying the atmosphere on site sip by sip, or to buy a case to take home, all ten varieties are quite popular.
They make all the wine they sell at The Winery at Otter Creek; most of the grapes are grown there, as well, except for the chardonnay and cabernet varieties that don’t find Ohio winters all that welcoming. “I’m just trying to make wine in central Ohio,” says Jeff modestly, but the Chrisman and Evans families are making something more, here by the banks of Otter Creek in Licking County.
For hours and special events, including musical entertainment, check their website at www.thewineryatottercreek.com - try not to get lost in the pictures. Go on out and see it for yourself!
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Granville Chamber of Commerce 2010
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Granville Poised for Future
In a community with a rich sense of history, Granville has much to look forward to through the coming decade.
2010 will see the completion of the State Route 161/16 expressway, connecting the Columbus outerbelt and airport to the very doorstep of Granville’s southern entrance. An already short drive to catch a flight to Washington or Dallas or New York will be as near for the village as many Ohioans drive to the grocery.
Granville and our surrounding countryside has long been an attractive residential option for downtown Columbus workers, going back to industrialist John Sutphin Jones in the 1920s, when he renovated what is now the Bryn Du Mansion, from a Civil War era stone farmhouse into the 1920’s showplace and now lovely meeting space owned by the Village of Granville. Today the circle of connection extends across central Ohio, and through Columbus International Airport, there is a growing number of area residents who actually work out-of-state, but choose to make a Granville address their home.
The Granville Area Chamber of Commerce, now with an office on Broadway in the historic core of the village, not only sees visitors from more than 30 states around the nation, but international guests dropping by as well. They’re drawn by academic involvements up on the Denison University campus, business interests with research and marketing offices nearby, or just tourists drawn to a beautiful place.
Unless you choose to first visit Granville through the Chamber’s website (which is also becoming more and more common as an initial impression for our visitors) you are likely to come north off of the expressway, on Main Street towards College Hill, with Denison’s Swasey Chapel perched high above you. Before you is displayed “the four corners” of the original 1805 public square now framed by the steeples of four churches.
That classic entranceway is steadily being enhanced by the planning efforts of the village and township in close co-operation, and the interested involvement of local businesspeople. The Main St. bridge over Raccoon Creek is now paralleled by a pedestrian/bicyclist bridge that adds one more link to our countywide “rails to trails” bikeway network. This was built through the combined efforts of village, township, and chamber support. Retail and office buildings appropriate to the architecture and atmosphere of the community are planned to add to the entrance experience into the village proper, and the River Road district on the southern edge of the village is proving to be a vital and busy addition to downtown development, while helping expand opportunities without adding density in too small an area.
When you walk the scenic streets of the village, you can’t miss the outline of what everyone calls “the college” in Granville, though it’s been Denison University since around the Civil War. Founded in 1831, the absorption of other higher educational institutions led to the term university, though there aren’t graduate programs at this four-year, undergraduate, private liberal arts college. As a residential campus, almost all of Denison University’s 2,100 students live “on the hill,” but they come down to the village not only for the buildings of the lower campus and the Fine Arts Quad of the college, they also come to shop, socialize, and participate in the life of the community.
Denison’s students, faculty, staff, and administration are deeply engaged in all aspects of life around this place. Seth Patton, Denison’s vice president for finance and management observes: “Granville's citizens are remarkably committed to their village. The number of people and amount of time involved in the development of the 2010 Comprehensive Plan are nothing short of amazing, and they speak volumes about the character of the community. Denison University has been fortunate to call such a desirable community its home for nearly 180 years.”
The connection to the community is so strong for students that one element of the new Granville Area Comprehensive Plan, moving to completion in 2010, calls for a “Come Home to Granville” outreach initiative. In the plans for smart growth and continued support of new business investment into the Granville area, alumni often think about returning to town, while other schools know their students can’t wait to move on.
One of the goals of the Comprehensive Plan is to “foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place.” With over two centuries of tradition from Welsh and New England settlers imprinted on the landscape and street names and civic institutions, it’s easy to take “a strong sense of place” for granted – but that’s exactly what community leaders are keeping in mind. They know that the unique qualities that make Granville stand out need tending and care just like the blossoms of the annual spring Daffodil Festival in the College Town House, or the maples that give the Granville Kiwanis their sap for syrup on the pancake breakfasts.
There’s still plenty of room in the village for innovation and new looks, as Monique Keegan showed with her reinvention of an old gas station at 446 E. Broadway into Enjoy Co. Her firm is a design and style business that regularly is found on the pages of national magazines, with a shop on east edge of village just before you look out across the Donald Ross designed Granville Golf Course.
”Timeless modern is a style that defines so much of what makes this village special,” Keegan notes, “not just history in the past but how what is old is still useful and beautiful in new circumstances.”
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COMMUNITY
When you walk along the snowy sidewalks of the first Saturday of December “Candlelight Walking Tour” hosted by the Granville Area Chamber of Commerce, the jingling of a horsedrawn carriage, harness covered with glowing blue light, creates a strong impression of a changeless, nearly timeless place. It can be hard to realize that this spot, where you cross the street to greet Santa Claus, will be the very place where, in a few months, you’ll be mopping your brow as you wait for cotton candy and a giant pretzel during a summer street fair.
Times change, and Granville stays constant by changing with them, but shaping each moment in a style unique to this four seasons village. Part of the secret of Granville is how we use public space for, well, public purposes – our most joyous celebrations are hidden in plain sight, intimate and personal while open to all, with enough side streets and nooks and crannies to give everyone a point of refuge from the hustle and bustle that’s still not far away.
If you drive around the village on a regular basis, you learn both back streets and the main drag pretty quickly, because the central stretch of Broadway through the village, as wide as its name implies for turning around ox-carts in the early 1800s, is often a stage and setting for civic events today.
In cold weather and warm, under bright fall skies or with spring rains, much of life in Granville is lived outside, or at least as much of it as Ohio weather lets us get away with. Sidewalk café seating, blues concerts, and farmer’s markets all enjoy the open air and yet intimate feel of time spent together outdoors.
Public spaces and community gatherings define Granville for what it is: a place where people get to know their neighbors, and still learn more about them as the years go by. A lawyer turns out to be a quilter, hanging new work during a street sale; an investment adviser is seen among a barbershop quartet singing at the community picnic (yet another event that spreads along the length of Broadway). We’re used to the village barber having been the fire chief and one of the volunteer firefighters winning Olympic medals, but there are authors and artists tucked in among the accountants and architects in Granville, where everything is exactly as it seems, only more so.
There may be some secrets tucked into the brick stretches of street and 1812 structures wrapped around the retail core of the village, but they tend to be the sort that reveal themselves to be even more than you had expected, rather than a sudden turnabout.
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Granville Poised for Future
In a community with a rich sense of history, Granville has much to look forward to through the coming decade.
2010 will see the completion of the State Route 161/16 expressway, connecting the Columbus outerbelt and airport to the very doorstep of Granville’s southern entrance. An already short drive to catch a flight to Washington or Dallas or New York will be as near for the village as many Ohioans drive to the grocery.
Granville and our surrounding countryside has long been an attractive residential option for downtown Columbus workers, going back to industrialist John Sutphin Jones in the 1920s, when he renovated what is now the Bryn Du Mansion, from a Civil War era stone farmhouse into the 1920’s showplace and now lovely meeting space owned by the Village of Granville. Today the circle of connection extends across central Ohio, and through Columbus International Airport, there is a growing number of area residents who actually work out-of-state, but choose to make a Granville address their home.
The Granville Area Chamber of Commerce, now with an office on Broadway in the historic core of the village, not only sees visitors from more than 30 states around the nation, but international guests dropping by as well. They’re drawn by academic involvements up on the Denison University campus, business interests with research and marketing offices nearby, or just tourists drawn to a beautiful place.
Unless you choose to first visit Granville through the Chamber’s website (which is also becoming more and more common as an initial impression for our visitors) you are likely to come north off of the expressway, on Main Street towards College Hill, with Denison’s Swasey Chapel perched high above you. Before you is displayed “the four corners” of the original 1805 public square now framed by the steeples of four churches.
That classic entranceway is steadily being enhanced by the planning efforts of the village and township in close co-operation, and the interested involvement of local businesspeople. The Main St. bridge over Raccoon Creek is now paralleled by a pedestrian/bicyclist bridge that adds one more link to our countywide “rails to trails” bikeway network. This was built through the combined efforts of village, township, and chamber support. Retail and office buildings appropriate to the architecture and atmosphere of the community are planned to add to the entrance experience into the village proper, and the River Road district on the southern edge of the village is proving to be a vital and busy addition to downtown development, while helping expand opportunities without adding density in too small an area.
When you walk the scenic streets of the village, you can’t miss the outline of what everyone calls “the college” in Granville, though it’s been Denison University since around the Civil War. Founded in 1831, the absorption of other higher educational institutions led to the term university, though there aren’t graduate programs at this four-year, undergraduate, private liberal arts college. As a residential campus, almost all of Denison University’s 2,100 students live “on the hill,” but they come down to the village not only for the buildings of the lower campus and the Fine Arts Quad of the college, they also come to shop, socialize, and participate in the life of the community.
Denison’s students, faculty, staff, and administration are deeply engaged in all aspects of life around this place. Seth Patton, Denison’s vice president for finance and management observes: “Granville's citizens are remarkably committed to their village. The number of people and amount of time involved in the development of the 2010 Comprehensive Plan are nothing short of amazing, and they speak volumes about the character of the community. Denison University has been fortunate to call such a desirable community its home for nearly 180 years.”
The connection to the community is so strong for students that one element of the new Granville Area Comprehensive Plan, moving to completion in 2010, calls for a “Come Home to Granville” outreach initiative. In the plans for smart growth and continued support of new business investment into the Granville area, alumni often think about returning to town, while other schools know their students can’t wait to move on.
One of the goals of the Comprehensive Plan is to “foster distinctive, attractive communities with a strong sense of place.” With over two centuries of tradition from Welsh and New England settlers imprinted on the landscape and street names and civic institutions, it’s easy to take “a strong sense of place” for granted – but that’s exactly what community leaders are keeping in mind. They know that the unique qualities that make Granville stand out need tending and care just like the blossoms of the annual spring Daffodil Festival in the College Town House, or the maples that give the Granville Kiwanis their sap for syrup on the pancake breakfasts.
There’s still plenty of room in the village for innovation and new looks, as Monique Keegan showed with her reinvention of an old gas station at 446 E. Broadway into Enjoy Co. Her firm is a design and style business that regularly is found on the pages of national magazines, with a shop on east edge of village just before you look out across the Donald Ross designed Granville Golf Course.
”Timeless modern is a style that defines so much of what makes this village special,” Keegan notes, “not just history in the past but how what is old is still useful and beautiful in new circumstances.”
* * *
COMMUNITY
When you walk along the snowy sidewalks of the first Saturday of December “Candlelight Walking Tour” hosted by the Granville Area Chamber of Commerce, the jingling of a horsedrawn carriage, harness covered with glowing blue light, creates a strong impression of a changeless, nearly timeless place. It can be hard to realize that this spot, where you cross the street to greet Santa Claus, will be the very place where, in a few months, you’ll be mopping your brow as you wait for cotton candy and a giant pretzel during a summer street fair.
Times change, and Granville stays constant by changing with them, but shaping each moment in a style unique to this four seasons village. Part of the secret of Granville is how we use public space for, well, public purposes – our most joyous celebrations are hidden in plain sight, intimate and personal while open to all, with enough side streets and nooks and crannies to give everyone a point of refuge from the hustle and bustle that’s still not far away.
If you drive around the village on a regular basis, you learn both back streets and the main drag pretty quickly, because the central stretch of Broadway through the village, as wide as its name implies for turning around ox-carts in the early 1800s, is often a stage and setting for civic events today.
In cold weather and warm, under bright fall skies or with spring rains, much of life in Granville is lived outside, or at least as much of it as Ohio weather lets us get away with. Sidewalk café seating, blues concerts, and farmer’s markets all enjoy the open air and yet intimate feel of time spent together outdoors.
Public spaces and community gatherings define Granville for what it is: a place where people get to know their neighbors, and still learn more about them as the years go by. A lawyer turns out to be a quilter, hanging new work during a street sale; an investment adviser is seen among a barbershop quartet singing at the community picnic (yet another event that spreads along the length of Broadway). We’re used to the village barber having been the fire chief and one of the volunteer firefighters winning Olympic medals, but there are authors and artists tucked in among the accountants and architects in Granville, where everything is exactly as it seems, only more so.
There may be some secrets tucked into the brick stretches of street and 1812 structures wrapped around the retail core of the village, but they tend to be the sort that reveal themselves to be even more than you had expected, rather than a sudden turnabout.
Stewardship reading – short takes
Michelle Singletary, “The Power To Prosper,” Zondervan
If you listen to NPR or read the Washington Post, you’ve probably run into the columnist who writes “The Color of Money” and know her as a thoughtful and practical adviser for young people in general and people of color in particular on the subject of personal finance. This year, she’s chosen to gently put her faith commitment to the foreground, in taking a ministry she’s worked on for years at her DC area Baptist congregation and turning it into a book, “The Power To Prosper.” At the heart of Singletary’s program is a 21 day “financial fast” which began as a Lenten effort to help people who were in a personal money meltdown.
She began to realize that this was a spiritual discipline that could benefit anyone (and certainly any Christian), and the three week break from non-necessary shopping and use of any credit or debit cards has become an annual tradition in her church. For more information on the fast, her program, and the book, you can check out her website www.michellesingletary.com. When she talks about how, at the root, the primary obstacle people in debt have to overcome is fear, you get a sense of why faith has to be part of the solution for overspending, compulsive consumption, and lack of savings. One way she suggests for someone to break those bonds and pick up a new vision? Giving. “The Power To Prosper” lets you make up your own mind as to where that giving should go, but the need for a commitment beyond satisfying your own need to accumulate is at the heart of this very powerful book.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123103495_pf.html
http://www.michellesingletary.com/ProsperityPartners/ppresources/FinancialFast08v2.doc
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Mark Bittman, “Food Matters,” Simon & Schuster
This New York Times columnist and cookbook editor may not seem, at first blush, to be a stewardship author, but what Bittman’s writings all hinge around is the importance of making choices that look at actual costs, not just prices – and when Bittman talks about cost, he’s referring to your health, your budget, the local ecosystem, and the planet. At his website, www.markbittman.com, he states that this book “explores the links among global warming and other environmental challenges, obesity and the so-called lifestyle diseases, and the overproduction and overconsumption of meat, simple carbohydrates, and junk food.” Bittman’s outline “presents a series of easily adaptable strategies—along with meal plans and recipes—for eating sanely, judiciously, and consciously. Eating this way will not only cut back on greenhouse gas production but will help become generally more healthy and probably lose weight.”
There are also recipes, meal plans that don’t require a full-service greengrocer or French market nearby to allow you to prepare and serve cheaper, healthier meals. “Food Matters” is largely about food, but it’s an approach to an experience that most of us are fortunate enough to deal with at least three times a day, and to make of those experiences an occasion to consider stewardship.
http://www.markbittman.com/books/food-matters
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Michael Pollan, “In Defense of Food,” & “Food Rules,” Penguin
Continuing just a bit further in this vein, Michael Pollan has a wide presence online (www.michaelpollan.com) and in print, with his most recent pair of books asking extremely pointed questions about cost, value, self, and what we eat. He also carries a very strong ethic of stewardship for the planet, and for our fellow humans aboard this Spaceship Earth, into the question of “what should we eat tonight?”
His seven word formulation has become famous in its own right, and deservedly so.
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Peeling back the claims of marketing and an artificial scientism to suggest we eat food, not ingredients (even the idea of “nutrients” comes in for trenchant criticism, let alone “vitamins”), Pollan argues that our understanding of food should start with stuff we can see and touch in fields near our homes, and should be processed and prepared as close to where we live as possible, and as openly and transparently as can be managed.
The connections between a box of cereal and farmers, the ties between our bodies and the natural world around us, are all a potential basis for a more holistic and deep conversation inside faith communities about what stewardship really is, and can become.
http://www.michaelpollan.com/about.php
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Herb Miller, “New Consecration Sunday Stewardship Program,” Abingdon
This is a little bit more back to the meat & potatoes of stewardship education; subtitled “with Guest Leader Guide & CD-Rom,” the “Consecration Sunday” format seems as if it’s been around since it might have first come out inscribed on scrolls, carried by donkey to congregations, but over the last thirty years Miller has steadily revised and updated the program plan into what are now the “New Consecration Sunday” materials.
As Miller has long affirmed, “Consecration Sunday” is a multi-week format that “approaches financing the ministries of your congregation by teaching stewardship from a spiritual perspective rather than a fundraising perspective. It focuses on the question, "What is God calling me to do?" rather than, "What does the church need in order to pay its bills?"”
Central to the model is a six week plan that Miller states, over and over, should be followed without deviation. The fact of the matter is that the model is very simple, can be followed by almost any size or type of congregation as the material is presented, and has an absolutely stunning track record of dramatic increase for congregational and mission giving . . . when followed. The meal served by an outside group (“catered”), an outside speaker/leader who meets twice with your congregational team and preaches the final Sunday morning, and the arrangement of a celebration meal prepared for by thorough calling to church members – all of this works well, but are often adjusted or modified with results that Miller rightly warns will greatly reduce the effectiveness of the outcomes.
A major plus to “Consecration Sunday” is that it is adaptable over time as an annual effort for a congregation, and it is, as our tech friends say, “scalable” – you can continue to use the basic model even as a church grows.
The most recent materials include a Team Member Manual, recommended for each member of the implementing team, and other supportive materials like “Estimate of Giving “ cards.
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Douglas LeBlanc, “Tithing – Test Me In This,” Thomas Nelson
As a journalist and reporter, LeBlanc felt a need in his own faith journey to read more about how the ancient Biblical discipline of “tithing,” or setting aside a tenth of one’s income for God and the work of the church, worked in people’s lives today. He couldn’t find one, and decided that his hunger was God’s way of saying “So, you’ll write one yourself?”
LeBlanc traveled across the country, interviewing liberal Episcopalians, inner city Baptists, even members of communities not often thought of in association with tithing, like Eastern Orthodox and even a rabbi. What he tries to document is the spiritual impact this practice has had for those who tithe, and he captures a taste of the richness that most of those he interviews report within their own experience.
This is not a theological or exegetical analysis of the basis of tithing, but a series of stories that go into situations of economic struggle, natural disaster, or initial excess; a very real strength of the book is how LeBlanc grounds the experiences of the tithers both in their community and family context, not simply as a private, personal choice. If you are interested in stewardship education, this book is a must read. For a congregational study or discussion, LeBlanc’s narrative is a very cheerful challenge to the status quo for everyone in the room.
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Robert Schnase, “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations,” Abingdon
A United Methodist bishop, Schnase looks at five areas of church life that culminate in “Extravagant Generosity,” the focal point of stewardship education in this book. But what you really can’t do is skip over “Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, and Risk-Taking Mission and Service,” since they are presented as various aspects that come together to make a fruitful congregation.
It’s no surprise that a book by a UMC bishop would be heavy on the Methodism, and there is much reference to the denominational mission statement “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” On the other hand, you could do worse than to borrow that priority! Bishop Schnase arrives at his presentation of extravagant generosity by arguing that this simply cannot be a matter of money only, but of hospitality to strangers, praise in all things, preparedness for challenges, and a willingness to reach out beyond your own comfort zone.
The weaving together of these themes is efficient and effective, making this a relatively short and comprehendible read, such that a number of congregations, even beyond the Methodist target audience, have chosen to make sharing and studying this book their new member orientation program.
* * *
Charles R. Lane, “Ask, Thank, Tell,” Augsburg Fortress
Aimed primarily at congregational leadership, this is a very short, very thorough study of stewardship and the spiritual principles undergirding giving, sharing, relationships, and faith. Lane points out that the Bible always highlights “the intimate connection between how a person handles financial matters and that person's relationship with God.”
With Bibles close at hand to look up the references, this slim volume is carefully designed to help church leadership experience a major transformation and attitude adjustment to how they talk about finance, money, and planning. For a wider study, this book does not outline a plan or program, but is offered as a useful (necessary?) first step to converting hearts and minds before getting into pragmatic and programmatic planning.
How can you not love a book that opens with the line: Stewardship has been kidnapped and is being held hostage by a sinister villain named “Paying the Bills”!
* * *
C.K. Robertson, “Transforming Stewardship,” Church Publishing
This is an energetic, but ultimately very Episcopalian approach to stewardship planning and education. Part of a popular series of “Transforming” books, almost pamphlets, from The Episcopal Church’s publishing house, this is a quick read and good general overview, if somewhat breezily presented, of the current demographic and financial situation of the mainline Protestant churches in general and Episcopalianism in particular.
Almost aimed more at longer-term church planning and re-visioning of congregational models and purposes, there is relatively little about stewardship as a general reader might expect. The need for “holistic stewardship” is frequently affirmed in this short book, but not very much about how to get there from the here that most churches are currently experiencing.
* * *
Mark Allan Powell, “Giving to God: The Bible’s Good News About Living a Generous Life,” Eerdmans
If you are looking for a more liturgical, sacramental, worship-centered approach to stewardship education and communication, this is the book for you. As a New Testament professor at a Lutheran seminary, Powell has an academic background that does show from time to time, but this book is neither overlong nor unnecessarily dense.
What will be challenging for some churches in making use of this wonderfully heartfelt, deeply faithful approach to giving and budgeting, and to “the offering” itself as an act of the church, is the ecclesiology. If your congregation is very “low church” in worship style and self-understanding, this book could push some of the wrong buttons, or at best, leave the readers cold & unmoved.
On the other hand, if your faith community appreciates the value and place of liturgy in weekly worship and as the heart of where believers gather, Powell’s analysis will give your church new ways of integrating and enlivening stewardship that will bear much fruit. The discussion materials built into the book are quite useful, and the study will carry itself along into energy and action – if this is an approach that speaks to your context!
Michelle Singletary, “The Power To Prosper,” Zondervan
If you listen to NPR or read the Washington Post, you’ve probably run into the columnist who writes “The Color of Money” and know her as a thoughtful and practical adviser for young people in general and people of color in particular on the subject of personal finance. This year, she’s chosen to gently put her faith commitment to the foreground, in taking a ministry she’s worked on for years at her DC area Baptist congregation and turning it into a book, “The Power To Prosper.” At the heart of Singletary’s program is a 21 day “financial fast” which began as a Lenten effort to help people who were in a personal money meltdown.
She began to realize that this was a spiritual discipline that could benefit anyone (and certainly any Christian), and the three week break from non-necessary shopping and use of any credit or debit cards has become an annual tradition in her church. For more information on the fast, her program, and the book, you can check out her website www.michellesingletary.com. When she talks about how, at the root, the primary obstacle people in debt have to overcome is fear, you get a sense of why faith has to be part of the solution for overspending, compulsive consumption, and lack of savings. One way she suggests for someone to break those bonds and pick up a new vision? Giving. “The Power To Prosper” lets you make up your own mind as to where that giving should go, but the need for a commitment beyond satisfying your own need to accumulate is at the heart of this very powerful book.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123103495_pf.html
http://www.michellesingletary.com/ProsperityPartners/ppresources/FinancialFast08v2.doc
* * *
Mark Bittman, “Food Matters,” Simon & Schuster
This New York Times columnist and cookbook editor may not seem, at first blush, to be a stewardship author, but what Bittman’s writings all hinge around is the importance of making choices that look at actual costs, not just prices – and when Bittman talks about cost, he’s referring to your health, your budget, the local ecosystem, and the planet. At his website, www.markbittman.com, he states that this book “explores the links among global warming and other environmental challenges, obesity and the so-called lifestyle diseases, and the overproduction and overconsumption of meat, simple carbohydrates, and junk food.” Bittman’s outline “presents a series of easily adaptable strategies—along with meal plans and recipes—for eating sanely, judiciously, and consciously. Eating this way will not only cut back on greenhouse gas production but will help become generally more healthy and probably lose weight.”
There are also recipes, meal plans that don’t require a full-service greengrocer or French market nearby to allow you to prepare and serve cheaper, healthier meals. “Food Matters” is largely about food, but it’s an approach to an experience that most of us are fortunate enough to deal with at least three times a day, and to make of those experiences an occasion to consider stewardship.
http://www.markbittman.com/books/food-matters
* * *
Michael Pollan, “In Defense of Food,” & “Food Rules,” Penguin
Continuing just a bit further in this vein, Michael Pollan has a wide presence online (www.michaelpollan.com) and in print, with his most recent pair of books asking extremely pointed questions about cost, value, self, and what we eat. He also carries a very strong ethic of stewardship for the planet, and for our fellow humans aboard this Spaceship Earth, into the question of “what should we eat tonight?”
His seven word formulation has become famous in its own right, and deservedly so.
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Peeling back the claims of marketing and an artificial scientism to suggest we eat food, not ingredients (even the idea of “nutrients” comes in for trenchant criticism, let alone “vitamins”), Pollan argues that our understanding of food should start with stuff we can see and touch in fields near our homes, and should be processed and prepared as close to where we live as possible, and as openly and transparently as can be managed.
The connections between a box of cereal and farmers, the ties between our bodies and the natural world around us, are all a potential basis for a more holistic and deep conversation inside faith communities about what stewardship really is, and can become.
http://www.michaelpollan.com/about.php
* * *
Herb Miller, “New Consecration Sunday Stewardship Program,” Abingdon
This is a little bit more back to the meat & potatoes of stewardship education; subtitled “with Guest Leader Guide & CD-Rom,” the “Consecration Sunday” format seems as if it’s been around since it might have first come out inscribed on scrolls, carried by donkey to congregations, but over the last thirty years Miller has steadily revised and updated the program plan into what are now the “New Consecration Sunday” materials.
As Miller has long affirmed, “Consecration Sunday” is a multi-week format that “approaches financing the ministries of your congregation by teaching stewardship from a spiritual perspective rather than a fundraising perspective. It focuses on the question, "What is God calling me to do?" rather than, "What does the church need in order to pay its bills?"”
Central to the model is a six week plan that Miller states, over and over, should be followed without deviation. The fact of the matter is that the model is very simple, can be followed by almost any size or type of congregation as the material is presented, and has an absolutely stunning track record of dramatic increase for congregational and mission giving . . . when followed. The meal served by an outside group (“catered”), an outside speaker/leader who meets twice with your congregational team and preaches the final Sunday morning, and the arrangement of a celebration meal prepared for by thorough calling to church members – all of this works well, but are often adjusted or modified with results that Miller rightly warns will greatly reduce the effectiveness of the outcomes.
A major plus to “Consecration Sunday” is that it is adaptable over time as an annual effort for a congregation, and it is, as our tech friends say, “scalable” – you can continue to use the basic model even as a church grows.
The most recent materials include a Team Member Manual, recommended for each member of the implementing team, and other supportive materials like “Estimate of Giving “ cards.
* * *
Douglas LeBlanc, “Tithing – Test Me In This,” Thomas Nelson
As a journalist and reporter, LeBlanc felt a need in his own faith journey to read more about how the ancient Biblical discipline of “tithing,” or setting aside a tenth of one’s income for God and the work of the church, worked in people’s lives today. He couldn’t find one, and decided that his hunger was God’s way of saying “So, you’ll write one yourself?”
LeBlanc traveled across the country, interviewing liberal Episcopalians, inner city Baptists, even members of communities not often thought of in association with tithing, like Eastern Orthodox and even a rabbi. What he tries to document is the spiritual impact this practice has had for those who tithe, and he captures a taste of the richness that most of those he interviews report within their own experience.
This is not a theological or exegetical analysis of the basis of tithing, but a series of stories that go into situations of economic struggle, natural disaster, or initial excess; a very real strength of the book is how LeBlanc grounds the experiences of the tithers both in their community and family context, not simply as a private, personal choice. If you are interested in stewardship education, this book is a must read. For a congregational study or discussion, LeBlanc’s narrative is a very cheerful challenge to the status quo for everyone in the room.
* * *
Robert Schnase, “Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations,” Abingdon
A United Methodist bishop, Schnase looks at five areas of church life that culminate in “Extravagant Generosity,” the focal point of stewardship education in this book. But what you really can’t do is skip over “Radical Hospitality, Passionate Worship, Intentional Faith Development, and Risk-Taking Mission and Service,” since they are presented as various aspects that come together to make a fruitful congregation.
It’s no surprise that a book by a UMC bishop would be heavy on the Methodism, and there is much reference to the denominational mission statement “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.” On the other hand, you could do worse than to borrow that priority! Bishop Schnase arrives at his presentation of extravagant generosity by arguing that this simply cannot be a matter of money only, but of hospitality to strangers, praise in all things, preparedness for challenges, and a willingness to reach out beyond your own comfort zone.
The weaving together of these themes is efficient and effective, making this a relatively short and comprehendible read, such that a number of congregations, even beyond the Methodist target audience, have chosen to make sharing and studying this book their new member orientation program.
* * *
Charles R. Lane, “Ask, Thank, Tell,” Augsburg Fortress
Aimed primarily at congregational leadership, this is a very short, very thorough study of stewardship and the spiritual principles undergirding giving, sharing, relationships, and faith. Lane points out that the Bible always highlights “the intimate connection between how a person handles financial matters and that person's relationship with God.”
With Bibles close at hand to look up the references, this slim volume is carefully designed to help church leadership experience a major transformation and attitude adjustment to how they talk about finance, money, and planning. For a wider study, this book does not outline a plan or program, but is offered as a useful (necessary?) first step to converting hearts and minds before getting into pragmatic and programmatic planning.
How can you not love a book that opens with the line: Stewardship has been kidnapped and is being held hostage by a sinister villain named “Paying the Bills”!
* * *
C.K. Robertson, “Transforming Stewardship,” Church Publishing
This is an energetic, but ultimately very Episcopalian approach to stewardship planning and education. Part of a popular series of “Transforming” books, almost pamphlets, from The Episcopal Church’s publishing house, this is a quick read and good general overview, if somewhat breezily presented, of the current demographic and financial situation of the mainline Protestant churches in general and Episcopalianism in particular.
Almost aimed more at longer-term church planning and re-visioning of congregational models and purposes, there is relatively little about stewardship as a general reader might expect. The need for “holistic stewardship” is frequently affirmed in this short book, but not very much about how to get there from the here that most churches are currently experiencing.
* * *
Mark Allan Powell, “Giving to God: The Bible’s Good News About Living a Generous Life,” Eerdmans
If you are looking for a more liturgical, sacramental, worship-centered approach to stewardship education and communication, this is the book for you. As a New Testament professor at a Lutheran seminary, Powell has an academic background that does show from time to time, but this book is neither overlong nor unnecessarily dense.
What will be challenging for some churches in making use of this wonderfully heartfelt, deeply faithful approach to giving and budgeting, and to “the offering” itself as an act of the church, is the ecclesiology. If your congregation is very “low church” in worship style and self-understanding, this book could push some of the wrong buttons, or at best, leave the readers cold & unmoved.
On the other hand, if your faith community appreciates the value and place of liturgy in weekly worship and as the heart of where believers gather, Powell’s analysis will give your church new ways of integrating and enlivening stewardship that will bear much fruit. The discussion materials built into the book are quite useful, and the study will carry itself along into energy and action – if this is an approach that speaks to your context!
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