The Expression of Stewardship

 

Stewardship is expressed by the willingness of Christians to take active responsibility in the service of the church through a voluntary contribution of time, money, and natural gifts. The key though is that stewardship means more than just the voluntary contribution of money. It means this, but it also means time and natural gifts. These gifts include vocations, passions, gifts, opportunities and talents of all kinds. Stewardship in its fullest sense then is the practice, expression, belief, study, etc., of offering one’s own time, money, and talents in service of others. In the sense of ministry, this is in service to God.

 

When you put these understandings of being a steward and an overall understanding of stewardship together, one’s view of relationship with God, creation, money, possessions and others is forever changed. It also requires a move beyond basic definitions to a deeper understanding. This is where we face questions about how we view money and resources. Do we believe that we live in a sense of abundance or scarcity? What does this mean for our faith and relationship with God? How about our understanding of scripture?

 

Stewardship is about how you understand yourself to be in relation with God. Do you understand God to be a generous loving God who has entrusted more into your care than you could ever deserve or exhaust? Or do you understand God as one who must be appeased by you diminishing your already scarce possessions through giving some to the church, because you really ought to? Is your relationship with God characterized by abundance or by scarcity?

 

Stewardship is also about how you understand yourself to be in relation with the rest of creation. Do you live so that you can make the lives of other people and the created order richer through encounters with you? Or do you live in competition with other people for a finite pool of resources? Is your life invested in others, or is your life invested in yourself?

 

Stewardship rightly understood is about money, but it is also about these very basic spiritual matters. The writers of the Bible understood that money and possessions have a distinct hold on our hearts and what we do with the money that God has entrusted to us has the capacity to affect not only us, but our neighbors and communities. The Bible invites us to use the money and possessions that God has entrusted to us to love our neighbors and by doing so enrich our relationship with God.

 

                                                                                                                         The Board of Stewardship