making sense of stewardship

"moreover, it is required in stewards that one be found faithful."

I have found STEWARDSHIP to be one of the most misunderstood concepts within the practices of Christian churches. In many mainstream denominations "stewardship" is code for financial campaigns. Stewardship is the time in the fall when pastors preach so that parishioners will give. Its the context by which the financial needs of churches have been met over my lifetime.

When criticized that preachers just want people to give more money, terms such as 'whole life stewardship" have been adopted to divert or dilute attention on the financial giving aspect of stewardship. BUT, everybody knows what's going on :-)

I went thru a period where I was particularly "turned off" by the emphasis on "sacrificial giving." This was code for " give til it hurts." It seemed that underwriting this idea was the notion that what I had belonged to me and that I was being sacrificial if I gave "my money" or "my time" to the church instead of spending them on my own needs and interests.

I believe there has been a great deal of damage done by the way people have been led to make sense of stewardship. I believe the proper way to view stewardship is not in determining what part of my stuff do I need to give to God but to understand that I own nothing in the first place. Stewardship is seeing my "stuff" and time not as my possession I am giving partially away, but seeing everything as a gift that I caretake for a period of time.

The Apostle Paul goes on (after saying the quote above) to say some very profound truths -
"For who makes you different from another? and what do you have you did not receive? Now if indeed you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?"

The secret to making sense of stewardship is acknowledging that everything we have is God's gift of Grace to us. Stewardship is about what we do with gifts we have received. Do we "brag" about what we give as if we produced it and it is intended for our benefit or do we freely nurture and share in thanksgiving that which has been given to us because it was entrusted to us for His benefit and Glory?

I believe the way we make sense of stewardship is directly related to the degree Grace has transformed our soul. Even our view of stewardship is a gift ........ How about that!!