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August 7, 2007
A word from Paul
Paul Littleton has agreed to be a guest contributor to this blog. This is his first post. And we're excited to include his voice in the conversation as we try to sort out the role stewardship and giving play in the life of the believer and in the practice of local church ministry.
If you type “steward” into the search bar on Wikipedia the most basic statement it will return is: “a servant who manages another's property.” Often when we think of stewardship we think of tithing – giving a tenth of our income to the Lord’s work in the church. But the English word “steward” means much more than that. A synonym for “steward” is “manager” or “governor.” It conveys the reality that the things over which we are stewards are not our own, but belong to someone else.
In the case of Biblical stewardship that someone else is God. Biblical stewardship teaches us that we should not think that 90% of our stuff or time or anything else we have belongs to us and the other 10% is God’s. Biblical stewardship teaches that 100% of all that we have and all that we are belongs to God. The question we have to answer is, “How are we using God’s stuff?” What are we doing with it? Are we giving 10% to the church and then using the other 90% to feed our materialistic impulses? If that’s the case then we are not being obedient to Biblical stewardship.
In the gospels Jesus tells a number of parables about talents (or in Luke 19, minas). The nobleman didn’t give out ten minas and tell his servants that they were free to do whatever they wanted with 90% if they would only be faithful with the other 10%. They were called upon to be faithful with all of it.
A steward in medieval times was the manager of the nobleman’s properties. He was given a generous tract of the nobleman’s land upon which to live. His job was to manage all of the nobleman’s economic affairs – the farming of the land, the local market, collection of revenues, etc. The steward would have never thought of these things as his own. They all, including the land upon which he lived, belonged to the nobleman. He would only do with those things what he was convinced would please the nobleman.
It is no mistake, then, that when English translators looked for a word to describe the relationship between us, our stuff and God that they chose the word “stewardship.” Our stuff is not our own. We are managing what God has given us – be it our resources, our time, our families or the earth. May use 100% in ways that would please God.
Posted by bstroup at August 7, 2007 8:40 AM
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