Stories of Stewardship



"The Gift of My Time" by Caitlin Gilbert

When most people hear the word "stewardship", their minds automatically go to one word - money. As a high school student with not as much money as time, stewardship has a completely different meaning to me. To me, stewardship is giving back to the church and the community with my time. The easiest way for me to give my time is by being an acolyte, but a person can also do other things, such as helping out with the lawn maintenance, or joining one of the numerous committees that our church offers. Giving back to the community is just as easy. A person can volunteer at the homeless shelter or the women's shelter. No matter where you volunteer, you will be greatly appreciated by those who you help. Stewardship doesn't necessarily have to be based on how much money a family or an individual makes, but on how much time they are willing to give.



"The Antidote" by Connie Griner

A Stewardship Parable (Sort of...) - While vacationing one summer, my husband was taking time to organize his fishing "stuff" into neatly labeled drawers in a plastic bin. My pre-teenaged nephew, Brian, watched the process with interest, particularly the nifty little label maker that Gene was using. "I'd love to have one of those label makers," he said. "It would only have to print one thing...MINE... MINE... MINE... MINE!"

Although it was said (mostly) in jest, Brian's comment has stayed with me over the years as a reminder of how easy it is to slide down the slippery slope of materialism. I view the process of stewardship as the antidote to my materialistic tendencies. A good steward can enjoy the "things" offered to us by our consumer-driven economy, but with a sense of gratitude for one's good fortune, and with the moderation that acknowledges (either explicitly or implicitly) that the needs of others matter too. Or in the words of Mary Poppins, "Enough is as good as a feast!"



"All We Have Comes from God" by Betty Brown

Stewardship is a thoughtful and thankful consideration of all the gifts we have been given; our lives, our families, friends, time, talents and material possessions. It is realizing that all we have comes from God.

Learning how to be good stewards is a life-long process. As we grow in this area, we can be inspired and motivated by the accomplishments of so many of you in our church family that provide excellent models of stewardship. We are reminded by your examples that making stewardship a way of life on a daily basis is our responsibility and we should constantly seek ways to best use our time and resource’s to benefit those around us.



"See Through the Maze" by James Hedrick

One meaning of stewardship is “to wisely and lovingly care for that over which we have authority.”  Some days most of us probably feel as though we don’t have authority over anything.  The forest of deadlines, schedules, commitments and responsibilities can make it difficult to see the time and talents that we’ve been given, as well as the trees and treasures around us.  The challenge can be to see through the maze and recognize that the time, talents, trees, and treasures are still there, as well as to appreciate that they are different for each of us.  If we can do this, then we can choose to live in a way that demonstrates that these gifts and opportunities are ours in order that we may use them for the benefit of both He who has given them to us and for our fellow man.



"A Wonderful Challenge" by Steven House

Stewardship can only proceed from a conviction that we belong to God.  The One who made us has given into our hands a wonderful challenge - to work with God as co-creators who can decide how best to utilize all God’s blessing to bring the Church, and through the Church all people, to the joyful knowledge, that the earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it (Psalm 24:1). 



"The Joy of Stewardship" by Steven House

One of my favorite passages is the “Parable of the Talents” (Matthew 25:14-28). This parable is used to teach many different lessons. There are over 123,000 references on Google for this parable, which is 2,365 years of Sunday sermons on the topic.

For me the story has always been about work…about the talents and abilities that God gives us. In Verses 20-21 we read - "The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, Lord, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.' "His Lord said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.'
My first response to this is always, oh great, I will be put in charge of many more things. Just what I need, more work. Isn’t work a four letter word?! In this parable, however, the key is that with the work comes great joy. Verse 21 - You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your Lord.

Imagine hard work and joy, imagine nose to the grindstone and deep gladness. What if we took delight in doing the hard work to get the job done. What if the saying was TGIM – Thank God it’s Monday - and tonight I am going to a meeting at church….. to Vestry …I can’t wait. How would our work change, how would our commitments change, how would our world change? It’s a downright subversive and revolutionary thought, isn’t it?

The parable of the talents also teaches us about stewardship. It is a call to make positive use of the many gifts—even monetary ones—that God provides. We need to use whatever "talents" God has given us. It might be money or ability.

In Psalm 24:1 we read - The earth is the LORD’s and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Likewise, the theologian Abraham Kuyper wrote, “In the total expanse of human life there is not a single square inch of which the Christ, who alone is sovereign, does not declare, ‘That is mine!’” The words of the psalmist and the theologian are consistent with the parable in Matthew. God has a claim on “our” possessions and lives…and our abilities. Nothing we have belongs to us, not even ourselves. God owns everything, and we are God’s stewards (Psalm 8:6).

Christian stewardship begins with the understanding that we are entrusted with someone else’s belongings. We are managers, or stewards, of God’s property. But as we read in Matthew, stewardship must be more than work or a duty: it is a joyful and thankful response to God's gifts and graciousness to us.