This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. (I Corinthians 4:1 – ESV)
When speaking of stewardship, Christians most often are referring to the call upon Christians to manage their financial assets, being mindful that those funds are not so much their own property as God’s, and that as individuals and families they need to use them for God’s purposes.
We raise that subject in this edition by way of a collection of articles from some of the leading experts on stewardship education, so that you can be one of the leaders who sensitize and strengthen fellow church members’ responsiveness to this central call of God.
Often we broaden the topic by calling believers to be good stewards of their time, talents and treasures. That is, we urge prayerful management and generous sharing of those two other major resources: our calendars and our abilities (skills and spiritual gifts).
The Scriptures press us further. The first directive from God to humans entailed the care of all life on the planet: “Be fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth and subdue it.” This creation mandate, when reaffirmed by the Reformers, added impetus to the Renaissance and helped to launch the Industrial Revolution. In recent decades, it also has prompted the development of a Christian theology and exercise of environmental stewardship.
The Apostle Paul takes the subject to an even broader and higher level: being servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. On one hand, such a commission entrusts us with a huge privilege and authority. On the other hand, it carries an equally huge obligation and burden.
When speaking of the mysteries now made clear, he counts himself (I Corinthians 9:17) among those whom Peter (I Peter 4:10), referring to his first letter’s recipients, calls “stewards of the grace of God.”
Now that is an enormous trust placed in our feeble and slippery hands!
Do you get how huge a deposit of trust God has invested in God’s people? The very mission of God! Opening eyes to the mysteries of God by way of bestowing the undeserved mercy of the Sovereign – indeed, promoting and participating in the spread of the reign and realm of God – can only be accomplished as we who are called Christ’s body proclaim, enact and exercise the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit. God’s highest trust, and with it, God’s highest calling to stewardship is pressed upon the community of faith via Christ’s Great Commission to make disciples of the nations.
And so the really big questions about stewardship press upon us all.
How true is our proclamation?
Are we lifting up the good news of Jesus and his love or are we offering bland substitutes?
How earnest are we in seeking out those straying sheep – even the one-in-a-hundred that the good shepherd will relentlessly pursue?
How much of ourselves are we making available for worldwide service to God and God’s mission?
How quickly do our hearts break and our hands take action when facing injustice?
To what degree are we investing our own equity into the needs of others? Into finding the prodigals, liberating the enslaved, opening the eyes of the blind? Into the care of the imprisoned, the widows, the orphans? Into the care of the planet? Into building up the community of faith? Into spreading the reign of God throughout the world God has made?
And to what degree are we just hoarding the equity to look out for our own needs and wants? What are we holding back to prepare for the proverbial “rainy day”?
God’s call to stewardship is comprehensive. The widow who brought her mite to contribute to the temple treasury was giving her all. How about us to whom have been entrusted time, talent, treasure – indeed the mysteries of the grace of God itself?
