Stewardship

“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of God’s varied grace.”
— 1 Peter 4:10

You make a difference! Together we all make the difference!

Many people ask the question “What do you mean by Stewardship?” Very simply put, the practice of Stewardship is putting God’s priorities before our own.

We personally invite you to learn more about Stewardship at St. Andrew’s and join us as we experience the joyful appreciation of God’s gifts through giving of our Time, Talents, and Treasure.

[tab:Stewardship is Spirituality]

Stewardship is living out a commitment to be Christ-centered rather than self-centered. This conversion is the result of our total self being focused on God as the Creator and giver of all good gifts. Profound gratitude, justice and love become the fundamental motives for giving back to God.

Christian stewardship can be identified by several meaningful characteristics, according to Stewardship, a national newsletter:

• Christian stewardship provides spirituality that a lay person can take home from Church, exercise at work, and express through personal involvement in both the community and the Church.
• Christian stewardship successfully bridges the material world around us and the world of the Spirit within us.
• Stewardship gives joy! Those who voluntarily give their time and abilities for work in the parish will always experience joy if they give them for Christ. They are not, however, guaranteed freedom from frustration.
• Stewardship is not job-oriented or project-minded. It is a way of life for a lifetime.
• Christian stewardship takes a positive view of money. It sees money not only as a medium of exchange but as a symbol of the person who has it. We reveal something of who we are by the way we acquire it, use it, and share it.
• Christian stewardship helps us to become aware that God is the ultimate giver of the gifts we have. Our gift to God should be from the top — not from what may be left over.
• Stewardship teaches Christians to be concerned about where and how to share their parish financial overflow. Stewardship is not giving just to meet the needs of the budget.
• Jesus Christ is God’s greatest gift to us. Stewardship tells us to share a portion of our time, talent and treasure so that the Gift, Jesus Christ, may be given to those who do not know Him.

[tab:Theological Points]

• Stewardship expresses a basic attitude of gratitude to God for God’s many gifts to us and the trust we have in God as the ultimate source of our security.
• As stewards we are called to use these gifts to further God’s creative and redemptive purposes; as stewards we use God’s gifts for God’s purposes.
• God’s creative and redemptive purposes are most fully revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of God’s son, Jesus. The basic pattern of Jesus’ work is found in the paschal mystery. It is a pattern of giving life for the sake of others, and in the giving, finding life more fully realized for ourselves and for those to whom we give.
• The Church is a gathering of disciples who nurture and encourage one another in discipleship. The practice of discipleship in and through the Church is one of the primary ways we are called to follow Jesus. It is the whole Church, the Body of Christ that is responsible for carrying on the work of Christ in the world today.
• Our sharing in the Paschal mystery of Jesus brings us to the notion of sacrifice as a sign of gratitude, praise and trust in God. Sacrifice means giving from our substance — so we are changed by our giving.

[tab:As A Way of Life!]

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.
— Luke 12:48

• Stewardship is a complete lifestyle, a life of total accountability and responsibility acknowledging God as Creator and Owner of all. Stewards as disciples of Jesus Christ see themselves as caretakers of all God’s gifts. Gratitude for these gifts is expressed in prayer, worship, offering and action by eagerly sharing these gifts out of love of God and one another.
• Stewardship is based on the spiritual principles of the Old Testament and the teachings of Jesus; and where it has been implemented, both givers’ and receivers’ lives have been changed. Stewardship is a way of life, a way of thanking God for all His blessings by returning a portion of the time, talent and treasure allotted to us.
• Stewardship is living out Christ’s instruction to “love one another as I have loved you”.
• Stewardship is caring. Stewardship is responsible management of our God-given resources of time, talent and treasure. It enhances our relationship with God and one another.
• Stewardship builds happy, healthy families. Stewardship renews Christ’s Church.
• Stewardship pleases God because the good steward is careful of creation, is respectful of justice and charity, and is prayerful at all times.

[tab:Bishop's Letter]

Stewardship:
A Disciple’s Response – 1992 U.S. Bishop’s Pastoral Letter

 

To Be a Christian Steward

What identifies a steward? Safeguarding material and human resources and using them responsibly is one answer; so is generous giving of time, talent and treasure. But being a Christian steward means more. As Christian stewards, we receive God’s gifts gratefully, cultivate them responsibly, share them lovingly in justice with others, and return them with increase to the Lord.

Disciples as Stewards

Let us begin with what it means to be a disciple – a follower – of our Lord Jesus Christ. As members of the Church, Jesus calls us to be disciples. This has astonishing implications:

• Mature disciples make a conscious decision to follow Jesus, no matter what the cost.
• Christian disciples experience conversion-life-shaping changes of mind and heart — and commit their very selves to the Lord.
• Christian stewards respond in a particular way to the call to be a disciple. Stewardship has the power to shape and mold our understanding of our lives and the way in which we live.
• Jesus’ disciples and Christian stewards recognize God as the origin of life, giver of freedom, and source of all things. We are grateful for the gifts we have received and are eager to use them to show our love for God and for one another. We look to the life and teaching of Jesus for guidance in living as Christian stewards.

Stewards of Creation

The Bible contains a profound message about the stewardship of material creation: God created the world, but entrusts it to human beings. Caring for and cultivating the world involves the following:

• Joyful appreciation for the God-given beauty and wonder of nature.
• Protection and preservation of the environment, which would be the stewardship of ecological concern.
• Respect for human life — shielding life from threat and assault, doing everything that can be done to enhance this gift and make life flourish.
• Development of this world through noble human effort — physical labor, the trades and professions, the arts and sciences. We call such effort work.

Work is a fulfilling human vocation. The Second Vatican Council points out that, through work, we build up not only our world but the Kingdom of God, already present among us. Work is a partnership with God — our share in a divine-human collaboration in creation. It occupies a central place in our lives as Christian stewards.

Stewards of Vocation

• Jesus calls us, as his disciples, to a new way of life — Christian way of life — of which stewardship is a part.
• But Jesus does not call us as nameless people in a faceless crowd. He calls us individually, by name. Each one of us — clergy, religious, lay person; married, single; adult, child — receives a personal call, a personal vocation. God intends each one of us to play a unique role in carrying out the divine plan.
• The challenge, then, is to discover and understand our role — our vocation — and to respond generously to this call from God. Answering the call of Jesus Christ — the Christian vocation — entails the practice of stewardship. In addition, Christ calls each of us to be stewards of our personal vocations, which we receive from God.

Stewards of the Church

Stewards of God’s gifts are not passive beneficiaries. We cooperate with God in our own redemption and in the redemption of others.

We are obliged to be stewards of the Church — collaborators and cooperators in continuing the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, which is the Church’s essential mission. This mission — proclaiming and teaching, serving and sanctifying — is our task. It is the personal responsibility of each one of us as stewards of the Church.

All members of the Church have their own roles to play in carrying out its mission:

• Parents, who nurture their children in the light of faith;
• Parishioners, who work in concrete ways to make their parishes true communities of faith and vibrant sources of service to the larger community;
• All Catholics, who give generous support — time, money, prayers, and personal service according to their circumstances — to parish and diocesan programs and to the universal Church.

Obstacles to Stewardship

People who want to live as Christian disciples and Christian stewards face serious obstacles.

In the United States and other nations, a dominant secular culture often contradicts religious convictions about the meaning of life. This culture frequently encourages us to focus on ourselves and our pleasures. At times, we can find it far too easy to ignore spiritual realities and to deny religion a role in shaping human and social values.

Catholics have entered into the mainstream of American society and experienced its advantages, many of us also have been adversely influenced by this secular culture. We know what it is to struggle against selfishness and greed, and we realize that it is harder for many today to accept the challenge of being a Christian steward. It is essential, therefore, that we make an effort to understand the true meaning of stewardship and live accordingly.

A Steward’s Way

The life of a Christian steward models the life of Jesus. It is challenging and even difficult, in many respects, yet intense joy comes to those who take the risk to live as stewards. Women and men who seek to live as stewards learn that “all things work for good for those who love God.” (Romans 8: 28)

After Jesus, we look to Mary as an ideal steward. As the Mother of Christ, she lived her ministry in a spirit of fidelity and service; she responded generously to the call.

We must ask ourselves: Do we also wish to be disciples of Jesus Christ and Christian stewards of our world and our Church?

Central to our human and Christian vocations, as well as to the unique vocation each of us receives from God, is that we be good stewards of the gifts we possess. God gives us this divine-human workshop, this world and Church of ours.

The Spirit shows us the way. Stewardship is part of that journey.