Howard and Madeline Scales-Taylor


HOWARD:  When Tom asked Madeline and me to talk to the congregation on Stewardship, my first thought was , why us.  Surely it could not be because we are the largest contributors on Sunday mornings or because we volunteered for mission trips.  I know that my wife will not stay any place that does not have room service; So, why us?  I had to take some time to contemplate on what Stewardship really meant.  Like anyone over the age of 50, I went to my trusty paper dictionary and looked up the meaning of stewardship.  There I found the following definition:  stewardship is “an ethic that embodies responsible planning and management of resources” and it is “linked to the concept of sustainability.”  That didn’t help much.  So then Madeline and I really had to think about what stewardship meant to us.

This thought process led me to reflect on my early formative years in St. Louis, MO at West Presbyterian Church.  West Presbyterian was located in a neighborhood going through what was called Urban Renewal or today some it might be called Gentrification:  whatever the definition of the process, it was a neighborhood in transition . However, regardless of the neighborhood changes that were occurring, the church that recognized the need to invest time, energy and resources in the children of the area.  I was one of those children and I am a beneficiary of that investment.

MADELINE:  Now let’s fast forward 40 years, to 1989.  Howard and I moved to Jacksonville, FL.  Because both of us had been raised in a church family, we knew we needed to locate a church in our new city.  Having been raised Methodist and having convinced Howard to join a Methodist church in LA, we of course, and I say of course, wanted to find a church in Jacksonville and it wouldn’t hurt if that church was Methodist.  Howard however had a different idea.  He needed a church where he could be sure the recessional occurred in time for him to catch the Sunday football games and he knew that was not going to happen at a Methodist church!  Hence a church had to be found in either Ponte Vedra Beach or Jacksonville Beach and that led us to Palms Presbyterian.  We came to Palms once and following that visit we got a call inquiring how we had enjoyed the service and inviting us to return.  That was a little different, so we returned.  What we kept finding was a church where we felt welcomed.  We had found our church home at Palms and we became members.

HOWARD:  Soon we were attending Sunday services and thanks to Carol’s guidance I became a Deacon.   Madeline, our granddaughter Coco and I became more involved and began to understand the work Palms was performing within the church, within the community, within the country and even within the world.  It felt good knowing we were putting God’s visions to work in the world.   I began thinking about the story of the little boy in John 6:9, where the boy comes forward with 5 loaves and 2 fishes and gives them to Jesus to feed the 5000.  I realized that I am like that boy, God works through me.  In fact, we are all like that boy. God asks that we share what we have with others as Jesus shared with the masses.  I have come to realize our ministers provide spiritual guidance to our families through their words and deeds and our choirs inspire us thru song.  Through Sunday school, small groups, lunch gatherings, and other outreach we grow in our Christian experience.  Through these experiences I have had opportunities to see God’s love in action.  By sharing our gifts of time, talent and treasures we express Gods goodness. 
I began to really see how my experiences at West Presbyterian had influenced my life. Those folks were performing God’s work by giving of themselves and directing me.  I had come full circle.  I now understood the meaning of stewardship.  These are not my gifts, I am caretakers of God’s gifts and he expects me to use them to his glory.
 
MADELINE:  Tom, Howard and I want to thank you.  Yes, thank you for forcing us to explore and define our family’s stewardship here at Palms and for allowing us to come before the congregation and share the exercise with our brother and sisters today.  So often we get so busy with the task we forget the why.  Why God calls us to do his work, why we are a members of a church family, why we grow in our experience as Christians, why we are asked to be good stewards of God’s gifts.  Howard and I have re-examined our stewardship and we ask each of you to do the same