Our Mission Statement

– Our mission is to provide easily accessible and sustainable cost improvements to faith based organizations. We believe the savings of both time and money can translate to additional resources available for ministries and outreach.

Our Principles

– The financial resources entrusted to all of us belong to God … the one who bestowed these gifts. Efficient management of God’s resources supports HIS will to advance ministries and outreach.
– Collective participation creates Cost Stewardship opportunities for all … large and small. Organizations working together are fundamental to supporting our mission.
– We extend our programs to not-for-profits to help fund ministries of human services … especially to those who provide services to special needs children and adults.
– Commercial businesses that are friends of church and that also share our vision, mission and principles are welcome to join with our churches on some of the programs. If we can help your costs and you can help the church group volumes, this will be a win-win for all.

Our Customer Goal

– Our customer goal is simple. We believe our efforts will cause you to share positive thoughts and references to others. Anything short of that means we have failed to meet your needs.

Biography

Monte Chamberlin, Founder of www.coststewardship.org

Monte was formerly a top-50 executive and twenty four year veteran of Thomson Multimedia, an $11BB multinational company specializing in consumer electric products and digital media services. Thomson was formerly known as GE Consumer Electronics and RCA.

His core competency is Finance … he managed finances for the $1.5BB TV Americas Profit Center. Half of his career was spent in non-financial management including New Product Introduction and Program Management, Production Planning and Logistics, he was the executive leader of a global supply chain planning and process initiative and worked for the parent company in Corporate Planning and Strategic Planning groups.

Monte is leveraging his prior Corporate relationships and skills to help our churches develop real and sustainable cost management improvements. He has with passion and acumen developed group strategies, agreements and vision to lower our church operating costs so we can reapply those savings to ministries and outreach.

He currently is the Finance Chair at The Promise United Methodist Church in Fishers, IN and was the co-director of their Stewardship Campaign. Monte serves as a Board Member of the Franklin United Methodist Community, enjoys coaching multiple youth sports and feels blessed to be part of an active and participating family with his wife and three children at the Promise Church.

Special Thanks

The Cost Stewardship Initiative has gone from concept to reality is a very short period of time. This was only made possible by some very special efforts from some very special people. My thanks go out:

Pastor Rusty Allanson … The Promise UMC - for his encouragement to move boldly forward in faith to launch the Cost Stewardship initiative. He has reinforced that just “doing the right thing” is the path to choose and God’s plan for our churches and my life will find a common and productive intersection.

Marcia Chamberlin … my wife – Whether driven by a calling, an inspiration or an intuition … Marcia encouraged me to go all out with energy and passion to make this work. While I have stepped away from traditional business and income to follow this path, I thank her for giving her trust and support to making this a part of our personal and church family’s futures. It’s a faith walk test for us both.

Aaron Seamon … friend of family and church – Aaron has travelled with me in multiple states supporting, evaluating and testing options for our churches. He through his side business “Dreaming Tree Enterprises” did a wonderful job setting up our website. Also as technology leader at the Promise UM, he has grown to be a wonderful ally of our and other churches seeking technology change.

David VW Owen and Jennifer Gallagher … INUMC David (Exec Assistant to the Bishop) and Jennifer (Treasurer) have invested their time and trust in opening the doors to try the Cost Stewardship concept. While they both have their plates very full with the recent mergers of the Indiana Conferences, they graciously have given their time to advance this cause.

Pastors Kevin Raidy (Bloomfield) and Chris Gatledge -Both Pastors have been true advocates of the Cost Stewardship cause. Kevin is offering his business and pastoral talents and Chris has very positive advocate and advisor as well. It is great to see Pastors embrace this concept in a way that is founded in their desire and a creative way to strengthen church ministries and outreach.

Bobby Hancock and Richard Halsted … Shared Church Services and OutTouch Ministries – Bobby and Richard both have and will continue to do wonderful things to support churches thru the many services they offer. They are a source of inspiration to me and should be for many others. They graciously tender their talents to support thousands of churches in fantastic ways.

Devin Andonian … Office Depot –Devin has turned her normal world upside down to make our church launches a success. The start-up requirement for our +1200 churches far exceeds anything she has faced and we thank her for her commitment to making this work.