Stewardship

Jess: Alright, it’s finally here: the long-neglected, long-awaited post on stewardship. I promised Andrew that we would write this over a month ago, but all the holiday stuff got in the way, and here we are…finally fulfilling a pretty simple promise.

Stewardship is a word that the church likes to throw around a lot, and generally neglects to actually explain. I don’t know if this is based on an assumption that everyone already knows what it means, or because we just don’t have a good grasp on it. In the Lutheran church (and maybe others), we like to bring out “stewardship,” talk about it for a few weeks, hope people give us some money, and then put it away till the next fall.

Before I get too deep into my argument about how I think we abuse the concept of stewardship, I’ll give a couple of definitions of it. The term comes from the occupation of “steward,” someone who was in charge of property or certain tasks. Wikipedia says stewardship, “is an ethic that embodies responsible planning and management of resources.” The church frequently only talks about stewardship in the sense of “making sure you pledge a good amount of money to the church so we can make our budget.” And therein lies my problem.

I don’t know any pastors who like talking about money, and I think that’s where some of the problems develop. Pastors, who benefit from the (monetary) stewardship of parishoners and who are dependent upon the generosity or obligation of said parishoners, have a hard time saying, “we need your money.” I don’t know anyone who likes listening to sermons about money, either. It’s kind of like how no one likes to talk about sex in the church—it just seems dirty.

I am convinced, however, that a real, lasting effort toward a holistic approach to stewardship would change this attitude drastically. If we spent the whole year talking about stewardship as a way of life, as something that we do with each passing day, people will start to understand its scope. Yes, we will still have to have the “money talk” each year. Yet it will be in the context of a long-term discussion of our stewardship of all aspects of our life: financial, environmental, emotional, our talents, our time, physical, etc.

Stewardship is a way of living. We are called to be good stewards of the earth. God told Adam and Eve, “‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ God said, ‘See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.’ And it was so.” If we have dominion over all the earth, we have a duty to care for it all. This is environmental stewardship. Although we talk about his at the seminary, it is not usually a topic of importance within the church.

All that we have is from the Lord. Stewardship is about caring for all that God has entrusted to us with love and respect for the One who created the earth and all that is in it. Yes, this includes our money, but financial stewardship is not all-encompassing. Perhaps if we started emphasizing this in our churches, people would recognize that coming and painting the halls of the church, spending time with shut-ins, teaching the children, limiting our use of natural resources, and offering some of our financial resources to the church are all parts of our stewardship, our care and thankfulness for all that God has created.

Wes: First off, ditto to everything that Jess said up there. She's one smart double-chocolate chip cookie. The following are small portions of a sermon I gave on stewardship. I promise I'm not (just) being lazy. I worked hard to formulate my thoughts on this, and want to put forth my best work for you, our loyal blog reader.

Stewardship is the practice of right utilization of the gifts and resources that our generous God has given to our care. For those in the church, it means giving to God--in some form and fashion--all that God has given to us so that it might truly bring glory to the Almighty. Our offerings of our resources and money are ways that we tell God how much we love him. They are acts of worship. Our offering is very dear to God because it shows that we are willing to give of our resources and ourselves to show our love to God. Our tithes and offerings are a tangible sign of our desire to live wholly for God. It is a spiritual discipline, an act of faith.

Now, when most people think of spiritual disciplines, they think of things like prayer, or fasting, or reading the Bible. They are good practices for the faithful Christian, and are usually acts that, like learning to play a musical instrument, take time and practice to master. So what can we mean when we say that tithing, giving of our resources to God, is a spiritual discipline? Well, just like how praying (especially out loud in public) is something most people have to work on before they are accomplished at it and comfortable with it, giving is something that we might not be particularly comfortable with at first. Giving, especially when we cannot immediately see how we benefit from it, is something that goes against worldly understanding. Giving our tithe and offering to God is not something that can be understood by the world. It takes a fair measure of faith to be able to give to God in this way, especially in financially troubling times such as this.

But this is something that we are called to do. In fact, from the earliest biblical times, the primary way that people worshipped God was not by the singing of praise songs or listening to sermons. The primary act of worship was building an altar and offering the fruit of one’s labors upon it to God. Scripture tells us that from as early as Adam’s children, Cain and Abel, God’s people were giving their best from crop and herd to God.  Abraham and Jacob were the first to build altars and sacrifice their best to the Lord to show obedience and honor to God. Moses recorded God’s words on tithing in Leviticus: “A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.”

Now, as Christians, we are not bound by the Law of Moses, but we do see it as a guideline for how to live a holy life. That is why we still practice tithing and many other acts as described in the Torah. We should give God God’s tithe first (tithe actually means “first-fruits”) and then use the rest of our money and resources as we see fit.

So why is it that today we have people saying things like, “I give of my time and energy so I don’t need to give God my money”? This should be like saying, “I give a lot of money to the church so I don’t really need to pray or go to worship.” It is unacceptable. We as faithful disciples of Christ need to answer his call to engage in all forms of spiritual disciplines, not just the ones that tend to come easier to us. It might not be easy at first, but the more that we give, the more we will want to give. Working on giving is an act of discipleship. The more we work at it, the better we are at it.

Reverend Virjilio Vasquez-Garza was my District Superintendent when I declared my intent to enter the ministry. He is a wonderful person and a very wise man of God. I learned from another pastor friend that while growing up in Mexico, Virjilio, from his first pay day on, always gave a portion of his earnings to God. He would wake up early on Sunday mornings, take out his offering, and iron the bills so that they would be as crisp and clean as possible. He was proud of his offering, and would place it each week in the offering plate with great reverence, knowing that he was helping, in some small way, to fund the work of the Lord in his community.

Virjilio understood that discipleship is more about the need of the disciple to give than it is about the need of the church to receive. He was able to engage in worship through his financial faithfulness to God, giving joyfully even when he did not have any extra. He answered God’s call to be a good steward of God’s world and its resources.

That is what stewardship means. It is much, much more than giving a regular offering to the church. As Christians, we are stewards here on earth of God’s resources. Stewardship is giving back to God what is God’s and taking care of what God has entrusted us with. Our goal is to determine what God wants us to go with the resources we have at our disposal.

A good friend and colleague of mine, Ryan, went to visit a church in Rwanda and was greeted by the pastor and the congregation in the same manner. Everyone came up to him and grasped his hand while placing one arm over the other. After he had met everyone and shaken everyone’s hands, Ryan asked the pastor, Nathan Amoede, about this handshake, for he had noticed they did not shake each others hands in this way. Pastor Nathan told him that they had shaken his hand using the sign of highest respect, acknowledging him as a holy person. Soon after this conversation, the service started. When it came time for the offering, the plates were not passed row by row. Instead, Nathan placed a basket at the front of the church and the people, after they had prayed and spent some time hearing from God, walked up to the front of the church and placed their offering in the basket while placing one hand over the other arm, the same exact way that they had greeted Ryan.

When they gave their offering, they were not simply giving money to the church, they were grasping hands with the Almighty, partnering with God in the work of the Kingdom. What an amazing way to understand the offering time!

Well, that is plenty from us today! So what are your thoughts on stewardship and tithing? How do you understand your giving to God?


We look forward to hearing from you, and until then, you stay classy, World Wide Web!




-wes and jess