We tend to think of stewardship as giving money to support a church's budget, but there is much more to stewardship than that. A church is an institution and it is vital, for institutions to survive and flourish, that people support its financial requirements. The mortgage and utilities have to be paid. Pastoral and support staff need to be paid along with insurance for personnel and the facility. Essential programming such as outreach, worship, and Sunday School require financial support. Beyond that, a large variety of ministries require some funding – if not in the budget then, inevitably, through an underground economy.

Churches need to budget in order to be financially responsible and they need to support their budgets. Therefore, a faith-based approach to stewardship, based on our needs more than the institution's needs, can seem almost counterintuitive. Such an approach sees stewardship as primarily a spiritual journey. Stewardship decisions about how we invest our treasures, our time, and our talents really need to be a product of that journey. How do we value our time? How about our talents? What does money mean for us? How do we relate to our stuff, our fears, our sense of survival, and our feelings of being loved?

There are many voices in our modern culture that seek to convince us how to spend our time and money. So many worthwhile activities and causes present themselves that it's easy to find ourselves run ragged and financially strapped before we know what has happened! Our lives are being determined virtually from outside ourselves! Good stewardship of time and talents involves making decisions about what we do and how we spend our time based on our own values and priorities rather than because of outside pressures. It is definitely not an easy call, but learning to be good stewards of our talents and of our time and energy is a journey we need to take.

How can we be good stewards of our treasure? That journey needs to begin with the relationship we have with our stuff. Money has value far beyond its face value. For many of us, money represents success, self worth, security, and freedom from fear. The journey of financial stewardship involves beginning to letting go these attachments we may have to our treasures. One example of such attachment is the practice of going shopping or buying the latest gadget to alleviate stress or brighten up the day. These practices become destructive to the extent they begin to displace personal development, introspection, and ministry in our lives.

Faith on this journey means choosing to believe that our lives are much better lived according to the teachings of Jesus than according to many of the values of a consuming culture. Money is a good thing in itself, but becomes destructive when made into a god. All this sounds reasonable on the surface, but our cultural values are deep within us. So, I suggest we start where we can in this process and that we encourage each other in being good stewards of our time, our talents, our treasures, and the relationships that connect us with each other in God.

Thanks for blessing me on the journey.

--Jack Price

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