Our History

 

1920 - The United Stewardship Council of the Christian Church in the United States and Canada was formed in response to a call to cooperate in developing resources to encourage Christian financial stewardship.

1950 - The Council was invited to become one of seven general agencies of the newly formed National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (NCCC).

ECSS and AME Stewardship Seminar
(St. Louis, 1962)

Denominational Stewardship Directors
(Chicago - 2003)

1980 - The Ecumenical Center for Stewardship Studies was formed and became a related movement of the NCCC. It was established to provide learning and teaching opportunities in Christian stewardship for theological educators, students, pastors, laity and stewardship professionals.

1985 - The Ecumenical Center for Stewardship Studies become one of six stewardship forums of the Commission on Stewardship.

Our Services and Works

In the early 1950's COS began publishing The Journal of Stewardship, an annual publication of articles and statistics on stewardship for the churches in Canada and the United States. It served the church from 1948 through 1998. A year later, Giving magazine was lanched to complement a growing number of resources for growing stewards.
In 1976 many within the organization felt the need for a conference in which the ideas and information could be shared about the many aspects of stewardship, especially the budding new field of gift planning. This developed into the North American Conference on Christian Philanthropy (NACCP), which continues to gather every two years.
The "Winter Event" or Leadership Seminar is an annual gathering of persons working in stewardship ministries. It provides a forum in which theological insights and practical resources for stewardship may be explored.