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Hands-on serving

Heart and Treasure

“I just know in my heart that things will work, because of the strength of people pulling together,” says Georgeann.

She had rolled 30 feet of heavy canvas onto her living room floor. Surveying the glaringly blank fabric, she wondered to herself, “Now, why did I say yes to this?” But with optimistic resolve, she took brush in hand and began painting the banner which would become the centerpiece for stewardship worship some years ago. “Once I got into it, time just flew past. I enjoyed what I was doing.”

No one is more surprised to find Georgeann Kreiter on the Stewardship Team than Georgeann herself. She had assumed that stewardship was about money, which seemed a little distasteful. But instead, a myriad stewardship projects have ignited Georgeann’s artistic imagination and grown her understanding of faith community.

She has painted a 30-foot bread banner, built a giant salt shaker and a wooden-block church, created a photo wall of witnesses and trimmed an oversized carpenter’s level, masterminded a giant congregational weaving — all inspired by biblical images about trusting God and responding in faith. She’s one of the people behind the hearts and hands that will soon form a massive liturgical arts installation in the sanctuary.

Georgeann is “not really a contemplative person,” she says. Instead, she expresses herself and her faith in hands-on doing. She has a gift for visualizing how small efforts can become great acts of congregational love.

These works of art and faith are not about Georgeann — or any other individual — but an outgrowth of a community of people who are on a journey together. “This is the most amazing church,” she says. “You put out the word and people come to do whatever needs to be done. And you’re buoyed up by that happening.” Even when an artistic vision seems impossible, Georgeann says, “I just know in my heart that things will work — because of the strength in people pulling together. It takes all the parts of the Body.”

In the whir of scissors on fabric or the aroma of a hot-glue gun, Georgeann focuses on the work in her hands. “I may not see the connection at first. Often the project takes on a life of its own. It becomes God working through us,” she says.

“Sometimes the purpose gets created through what you’re doing.”
She snips. She dabs hot glue. She encourages others to snip and dab. And all the while, she grows her heart. Strips of fabric become a colorful weaving that represents the Body of Christ. Cloth hands and hearts are transformed into a Tree of Life. A six-foot salt shaker inspires us to be “salt-seasoning” for God.

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” the scripture tells us. When Georgeann puts her passions and time and talents and finances to work, her heart expands. She is transformed.

“Those things you work hardest at and you believe in — that’s where your heart is,” she says.

That’s why you’ll find Georgeann in the Book Corner displaying gifts that express culture from around the world — in her living room painting banners — in the midst of massive congregational art projects — in the center of her family and five grandchildren — in her garden and her home.

Georgeann Kreiter may be a hands-on woman. But her gift is more about growing than about doing. She acts her way into new ways of faithful thinking. On every imaginative road she travels with Christ’s Church, she grows in her relationship with God and with God’s people.

Wondering what Georgeann looks like? She’s the woman on the left, top of the screen. — Go here>>

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"Let me keep my mind on what matters...which is mostly standing still and learning to be astonished. " ~Mary Oliver