Stewardship: Our Faithful Response To God’s Generosity

God's Bounty

Christian stewardship begins with humble acknowledgment that everything belongs to God. Therefore, we are God’s stewards we own nothing. All that we manage are gifts from God to be used in service to God. The church should continually affirm this truth in our stewardship of the resources we have been entrusted.

Stewardship Is More Than Tithing
Oftentimes though, we narrowly equate Christian Stewardship with tithing and giving in the church. We generally place most of our emphasis during our Stewardship drives on improving tithing, and financial commitment. We neglect such areas as self-care, care of others, time management, handling our personal material resources, and taking care of the environment.

Stewardship should be our joyous response to God’s self-giving. In God’s example of sacrificial giving, we learn how to give in return. Thus, a wholesome approach to Stewardship considers giving back to God. When we give up our lives wholly to God then we will not be stingy in our devotion to God, lagging in our commitment and tight-fisted with our financial and material resources. This is true for individuals as well as for the congregation on a whole.

The Individual As Steward
Members of a congregation as well as the pastor are expected to exercise faithful stewardship. Christians by virtue of their faithful stewardship, teach the world true generosity. Unfortunately, we are not in a good position today where that example is concerned. Lack of commitment to giving of the best we have to God is one of the major killers of a church’s ministry.

Giving of ourselves and resources to God, should be a joy to us. Instead, many see it as a burden to evade. Even pastors and church leaders are guilty of this. Recent stories in the media about financial accountability on the part of pastors have cast a bad light on sections of the church.

Moreover, our own lack of generosity, transparency and accountability silences us. We are no longer in a position to be critical of politicians and public officials who do not wish to be held accountable for use of public funds.

Contaminated River

Our Stewardship Of The Environment
Some of us did not awake to the realities of what is happening in and to our environment until recent ‘noise’ in the media about Global Warming. Yet, not all Christians embrace the seriousness of our predicament concerning the environment. Nonetheless, globally many congregations have joined in to promote church and community awareness on environmental issues.

The World Council of Churches (WCC) Vancouver assembly in 1983, led the way for the beginning of global discussions among Christian communities on their unforgettable theme, “Justice, Peace and the Integrity of Creation”. I became fully aware of the program about a decade after its launch.

The core affirmation of the theme is that God is Creator of all life. To make that affirmation and show disrespect for, exploit, or otherwise degrade non-human life forms on the earth is a denial of that which we affirm. It makes care of the environment a necessity, not an option, for all faithful Christians.

Stewardship Education
There is still a lot more to learn and stewardship education should become an area of priority in the ministry of the church. The purpose of this educational ministry is to develop understanding and commitment to individual and corporate Stewardship.

Every year, old members – not new ones coming in, still say they don’t understand what Stewardship is all about. Is it that we are not teaching stewardship in our churches? Or is it that our members are only grasping at excuses not to be more committed to giving their all in service to God? Whatever the reason, only when we teach should we demand greater responsibility.

Anticipate our contribution to this Stewardship Education process. We will bring you informative articles and resources to aid in your personal and church stewardship development.

So please stay tuned for those updates.

Marvia