Stewardship: The Church

Kimberly Hiles / Trinitytide, 2023, Issue 8

“As each one has received a gift, use it to serve one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.” (1 Pt 4:10)

Stewardship is a core Christian practice in scripture. The idea of stewardship begins in the garden, with Adam and Eve being charged with working and keeping it. The first crisis of human stewardship comes with their decision to consume the only fruit in the garden kept solely to their Creator. There is one essential stewardship question that must be asked: Will we use the God-given resources entrusted to us to serve God’s mission or for our own consumptive purposes?

Stewardship is a response to the mission of God. A steward is one who safeguards resources and uses them responsibly. To say it another way, stewardship involves generously giving one’s time, talent, and treasure. But Christian stewardship goes beyond this definition. Christian stewards recognize God as the origin of life, the giver of freedom, and the source of all things. We are not passive beneficiaries of God’s gifts. We cooperate with God in our own redemption and in the redemption of others. 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 of Jesus for guidance in living as Christian stewards who receive God’s gifts gratefully, cultivate them responsibly, and share them lovingly in justice with others, returning them with an increase to God.

Any conversation about faithful stewardship must begin with a proper understanding of the Baptismal Covenant, which describes our personal participation in the mission of God, including commitments to the community and its common life, resisting evil and turning away from our participation in it; offering the world the gospel of Jesus Christ as an alternative to its story of entitlement, consumption, and conflict, embodying the gospel in acts of service and to work for justice, peace, and the dignity of persons. God’s mission is to make all things new—to transform us, redeem us, and restore us to joyful and useful participation in His work. It is God’s mission to transform the church as well, to redeem and restore our common life so that we might live as stewards of God’s abundant gifts and invite others into that stewardship – for the sake of the world He loves.

“Almighty God, whose loving hand hath given us all that we possess; Grant us grace that we may honor thee with our substance, and remembering the account which we must one day give, may be faithful stewards of thy bounty; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." —A Prayer for Faithfulness in the Use of this Word’s Goods, BCP

Kimberly Hiles is a healthcare professional and candidate for the office of Deaconess in the Reformed Episcopal Church.