"Stewardship" is a word that is often associated with the annual fund drives and capital fund raising campaigns of local churches. It is a word that often means only the wise use of money and the giving of money. And it certainly is true that in this culture the stewardship of money and possessions is one of the toughest theological problems modern, western Christians face.
At the United Methodist Foundation we use the word "stewardship" as a metaphor for the whole of the Christian life. The entire Christian message points the people of God to use all that they have for the benefit of God's work in the world. Thus, while we are definitely needing to scrutinize our uses of money and possessions, our talents, skills, experiences, time, energy and many other gifts are also to be used for God's work in the world. Everything we have is a trust from God.
Thinking of stewardship in this way results in the Foundation's emphasis on endowment building for local churches. The Annual Conference mandate for the United Methodist Foundation is that:
- we are to help local congregations receive and administer planned and deferred gifts;
- we are to help local churches set up and market endowment funds;
- and we are to run investment pools so that local churches can receive market level returns for reasonable rates of risk on their endomwment and other funds.
Strategy One -- Discover the Biblical roots of Stewardship
This is not popular with many United Methodist laity, but it is effective if done in the right spirit and with the right techniques.
There are so many Biblical stories and images and paradigms for stewardship that one shouldn't have any trouble knowing where to begin. And, perhaps for that very reason, where you begin doesn't matter. But one must begin. But why?
When we get back to Biblical basics and lift these essential stories, images and paradigms up to our people, then it isn't a matter of somebody's own personal contemporary theory. It becomes a matter mandated from the Creator, and evidenced directly by Jesus, God's Son.
When we go to the Bible, it's doubly hard to ignore what's being said. In fact, when we refuse to take the time, energy and trouble to lift up these Biblical roots of stewardship, we can so much more easily avoid the whole "stewardship problem."
Which is what a lot of contemporary American Christians would like to do. One of the toughest theological problems we have as western, American Christians is dealing with possessions and money. It is a never-ending struggle against the advertisers and those who say we must acquire materials possessions as a measure of our self worth.
Therefore, in our churches, in our Conference, and across our nation, we cannot spend too much time on emphasizing the Biblical roots of Stewardship.
What's the "right spirit" or the "right technique?" Experience teaches that when we go at this from the standpoint of "learning together" it seems to have more impact on the people who are studying. Group Bible study around stewardship themes is effective when people have an opportunity to discuss together what they think, what they are reading, and how the reading is changing or not changing their ways of looking at stewardship issues.
People are often more receptive to examining their own practices and habits in light of Bibilical mandates when they have discovered those mandates and their meaning for themselves. A very simple formula, really, is to put 5 people in a room with Bibles, give each person a passage to read aloud to the others and give a short interpretation, and then let the discussion begin.
The group discussion leader might have at the ready some questions as "starters" such as:
- What does the passage tell us about stewardship?
- How does the passage speak to your/our personal stewardship habits or practices?
- What do you think the author intended this passage to mean?
- Who, in this passage, could be said to be the "steward?" Who is the "master?"
- What is the steward's assigned role or responsibility?
- What are some of the characteristics of teh most desirable relationship between the steward and the master?
- What actions does the steward take in this passage?
- What kind of judgment falls on the steward as a result of the actions taken?
- Will we be judged on our stewardship at any point? By whom? With what likely results?
The real payoff for discovering the biblical roots of stewardship is that the members of the church are more aware of, involved in and ready to act on their interpretations of the biblical mandates when they have an opportunity to connect with them. As long as members can easily postpone or avoid real contact with biblical material, the longer they will perpetuate the patterns that lead to declining stewardship. But when they are helped to really grapple with and apply these mandates in their own lives, the stewardship of the whole body comes alive and interest and action.
Strategy Two -- See Stewardship as integral to a person's spiritual journey
Many church members today seem to feel that "stewardship" is something we do once a year, has to do with money and "raising the budget" and otherwise is irrelevant. A lot of clergy persons seem, by their actions at least, to believe the same thing.
Stewardship, though, is a lifelong process of development. An 82 year old woman once related that before she was age 76 she never gave a dime. What she had she considered hers and hers alone to do with whatever she wanted. But she said that about the time she turned age 76 she woke up one morning and started to think very highly of the idea of giving away all that she had. And in the next ten years before her death at age 86 she did exactly that. Her evaluation of that? "I suddenly came to the realization," she said, "that I was part of the human race, and that one thing I could do while I was still alive was to help make things better for some other people"
So stewardship can be seen as a part of the individual's spiritual journey; a part of the inner development and maturity that takes place. Philanthropy is, then, a remarkable achievement of the more mature person, not "mature" by age necessarily, but in terms of their growth toward other persons.
One of the advantages of seeing stewardship in this way is that we can see that the person who isn't ready to give of their substance and gifts today may well be ready tomorrow. Thus, whether we are asking for money or time, talent and energy, we can have the faith that today's "no" may turn out to be tomorrow's "yes" if we can wait long enough for God to "grow" that person in their stewardship journey.
Another advantage of seeing stewardship as integral to a person's spiritual journey is that we can continue to make each person in the local church aware that the church's endowment fund is a good way to express one's stewardship through an estate gift. Thus the endowment will grow, and the future mission of that church is ensured by each gift that members give. There is a profound connection, then, between the person's individual spiritual journey and the well-being and success of God's work in the world long after eacho of us is gone.
Strategy Three -- Learn the relationship of the Christian person to possessions and money
Each pastor, not only as chief fund raiser in the church, but as spiritual shepherd, should take note of and keep track of each parishioner's progress in their relationship to money and possessions. Why?
First, where a person is on the subject of money and possessions is an indicator of their overall progress in their spiritual journey. The reason being that in this culture money and possessions is one of the hardest things we have to deal with. By knowing where each of the church members is in this journey, the pastor knows hor to nurture growth and discovery in those individuals.
Second, the individual struggles parishioners are having with money and possessions provide good "fodder" for preaching, celebrating and teaching on the subject, both in and outside the pulpit. Not that one speaks directly to individual people in public about their spiritual journey, but if a church pastor knows some things that are needed by several memmbers of the congregation then the examples, stories, paradigms and symbols that that pastor lifts up will be designed to meet those needs directly.
The real benefit of this strategy is that all the resources of local church members can be assessed, along with their present proclivity to share those resources. These, then, can be matched against the mission work that the church needs or wants to do within the community, and an assessment can be made as to how much missional work can likely get done given the spiritual pilgrimages of the church's members.
In short, you match resources and proclivity to give against the task to be done, in order to see how much of the task can liekly be accomplished at this time. Then church program budgets and volunteer staffing are more nearly matched to the resources available.
Issue One -- Change what you're doing if you want different results than you're getting now
It is interesting to hear local church finance committee members, or trustees, sit around a table and say, on the one hand, "Things need to change around here or we're in big trouble," and then turn right around and confront the first action suggestion with "Well, we've never done that before. That probably won't work around here."
The only way to change the results we're now getting is to change the way we do things. If we keep on doing things just as we've always done them, then we will get the results we've been getting all along. So, if we don't like the results we're getting, we need to change what we're doing. Many churhc members find it a frustrating experience to expect things to change while we're still doing what we've always done. Why is this a Stewardship Issue? Because it calls into question our use of time, energy, talent, skills and experience. These are gifts of God, just like money and possessions. If we're using them unwisely, that is, unproductively, then we need to change that behavior.
If you look back at the Isaiah ch. 22 passage involving that minor king if Israel, Shebna (see the Endowment Primer for the reference and further explication by clicking here), you can see that God appreciates it when we turn out productive results. Shebna, you'll remember, busied himself making his own rock-cut tomb out on the hillside, and got a "pink slip from God" for not correctly governing and looking after the needs of God's people. This and other biblical passages help us know God expects good results.
On the other hand, look at the maidens who brought the extra oil. Their stewardship was rewarded by being able to join the bridegroom for the wedding feast. Similarly, the two stewards who had the five talents and the two talents, and who turned up with ten talents and four talents respectively. They were rewarded with the words, "Well done, good and faithful servants. You have been faithful over a little, I will set you over much. Welcome to the joy of your master!"
Changing how we go about things might make a differnece in the results we get. For example, here are some things that could make a positive difference in the stewardship of your church's members:
- Letting people "witness" in Sunday morning celebration about how their own stewardship of some aspect of their lives paid off for them.
- Starting Finance Committee meetings with real, soul-searching prayer, and with the statement of a vision for their work and accomplishment.
- Getting the Stewardship Committee active in Finance Committee meetings and in the meetings of the Board of Trustees, when decisions are made as to the needs for and uses of money.
- Deciding not to set the church's annual operating budget until all the pledges are in from the members. Then cutting or expanding church programs in response to the generosity of the members.
- Emphasizing personal stewardship of money and possessions, rather than "raising the budget" during the pledge drive.
- Coupling a drive for persons to steward their talents, skills, experiences, time and energy to the church's work at the same time as the pledge drive.
- Making "stewardship" a year-long emphasis, rather than talking about it only when we want money from our people.
Issue Two -- Asking for money, using pledges, being open about the church's needs and the benefits to parishoners
There seems to be a lot of ambivalence on these subjects, especially as regards the pastor's role in fund raising.
One of the reasons for this seems to be that we have placed the pastor in a position where he or she is the chief executive officer of a major community business, while at the same time he or she is the spiritual shepherd for a group of souls who belong to Christ.
The church is a very unique charity. It has a message that is so much more powerful than any other charity, yet is has a singular "problem" that no charity has.
On the one hand, the church's "problem" is that it is composed of those who are seeking Christ, seeking God's way for their lives. They are, therefore growing in their understandings, and are not, in the ultimate sense, "perfected" in Christ. The pastor is their spiritual shepherd on whom they rely for guidance, especially in their stewardship of all that they have.
Many lay persons seem to see in this situation an occasion whereby that spiritual shepherd, if he or she knew the extent of a parishioner's resources versus the state of their generosity, might give more or less spiritual nurture or attention based on that knowledge. Therefore, these lay persons express the sentiment that the pastor should not know the giving habits of the parishioners.
This interrupts and blocks the pastor's effectiveness, however, as the CEO of the organization when it comes time to assess the likely gifts that might be expected from the parishioners for a given pledge drive or capital campaign.
Now, on the other hand, the thing that is so unique about the Christian church as a charity, is that it has such a compelling message: "Give up everything with which you have been entrusted to God's use." In the church we examine our motives over all that we have and are continually challenged to do the most that we can, with all that we have, for God's work in the world.
This is an issue at which the leadership of each local church must take a good, hard look. Somehow we have to get these elements together in new ways that allow us to be more productive:
- Each member of the church is a pilgrim on a spiritual journey that is leading to greater understanding of God's purpose in our lives.
- The pastor of the church is our spiritual shepherd and mentor, in charge of seeing that we get good spiritual nurture for our journey.
- The pastor of the church is also the CEO of a major community organization. And one of the major tasks that the pastor has is to give leadership to the need of that Body of Christ for the funds that help it to do its mission. Another key task of the pastor is to administrate this major community organization.
- An individual's giving, in all areas, is a sign of where they are on their spiritual journey with regard to stewardship of all that they have. So their financial giving is a year-to-year indicator of where they are with regard to money and possessions.
- If the pastor has full knowledge of the individual's whereabouts on their spiritual journey, then that pastor/administrator/spiritual shepherd/fund raiser might be better able to figure out, in a given year, what the likely financial resources of the Body of Christ might be.
A local church's leadership might, therefore, give serious consideration to giving the pastor complete access to the financial records of the church including the giving records. So that when money and possessions, time, talent, skills and energy are asked for, a reasonable "ask" might be accomplished that is appropriate to each church member's spiritual stewardship journey.
Issue Three -- Recognition of donors and gifts can change your church's financial life
There are two maxims of the past that have proven singularly unhelpful in dealing with the financial needs of today.
1. The first maxim is "give in secret and your heavenly father will reward you in secret." When citing this, what we fail to remember is that Jesus was dealing here with people who were being ostentatious and showy in their giving; people who were putting others down because they weren't as good because they couldn't give as much.
Then we take this out of the context of that situation and try to place it in the context where we are considering how to say "thank you" to those who have given generously of their money, possessions, time, talent, skills and energy, and it just doesn't work. In fact, we need to say "thank you" to everybody who gives something. First, we need to do that because we are grateful to them for their generosity. Second, we do that in order to lift up the generosity of some so as to motivate and inspire others.
It is not the case that to say "thank you" to someone is somehow making that person better than anybody else, or better than those who haven't come to that point in their spiritual pilgrimage. It is the responsibility of the Body of Christ to recognize everyone who gives, at the level appropriate for them. It is appropriate to say "thank you" to anybody who gives of what they have so that the work of Christ in the world might go on.
Jesus tried to wash Peter's feet. But Peter protested that it was he, Peter, who should be washing the Lord's feet. But Jesus said, "If I do not wash you, you have no part in me." Recognition of the gifts and graces of our church members is very much like washing feet. It makes us more a part of the Body of Christ. Which leads us into the second maxim.
2. The second maxim has to do with occasional anecdotal evidence that "people don't want to be recognized for their gifts" that may have come from isolated instances where people, as Shakespeare said "protest too much."
Have you ever read Eric Berne's "Games People Play," which was popularized in the 1970s? Well, one of the "games" church people play has to do with a kind of assumed modesty that is, at heart, of a passive-aggressive nature. Here's the structure of this game and how it works, as seen from inside the church member:
- I gave something to you folks.
- Now you come to me, you want to thank me.
- That threatens me to a certain extent. You're getting too close, and your "thanking" me might be putting yourself in a place where you are "superior."
- So I refuse you. I refuse to let you praise me, recognize me or thank me in public. I am self-sufficient. I don't need your praise or your thanks.
- Therefore I am not a part of this Body. I have my own reasons. I am not vulnerable to you. You can't interfere. I am protected from you.
- I have escaped the necessity to share my life with this group. I have affirmed that I am not vulnerable in this group.
This is a game that is fairly widespread in the church in this writer's experience, as it is observable in many other circles of society. It is not unique to the church by any means. It is part of the human condition, the "sinful nature" the self-willed aspect of humanness. It is a way to fend off the caring and nurture that the Body would give us. It is a way not to get involved. It is a way to spurn and be "more than" or "superior to" others in the Body who wish to praise and thank us for what we have done.
But it is a game, and we have to recognize it for what it is. It must have nothing whatever to do with how the Body of Christ actually makes its recognition policy. The Body can't be dragged down by the passive-aggressive games of those whose spiritual journey has not progressed far enough to allow them to be vulnerable and be thanked.
Once we can get past these two hurdles to saying "thank you," we can discover the benefits of doing so. When we say that to individuals, we confirm them in what they have done. They feel successful. They feel like they're making progress and have done "the right thing." They are therefore motivated to give more.
"Nothing succeeds like success" is a truism confirmed many times over. When people feel affirmed, feel successful, feel they are part of a group that's successful, they do even more. People will double and re-double their efforts to be on a winning team, to feel successful. So when we say "thank you" and recognize what people have done, we know that their appreciation for this will be shown in renewed generosity.
