Adult
• 4 Sessions of Learner’s Materials
• 4 Sessions of Teaching Materials
• Handouts
1. 1 Chronicles 29:10-16
2. Mark 12: 41-44
3. 1 Corinthians 12:4-31
4. Genesis 41:14-40
"When churchgoers hear ‘stewardship,’ they think, ‘Give money’" (McNamara, 2). Can you identify with this statement? Do you think other people in your church respond to the call of stewardship in this manner? But perhaps the more important question at this point is this: are you looking forward to four weeks’ worth of sessions devoted to the analysis of stewardship, what it means for us both as individuals and as a faith community?
Jim Highland, president of Master Resources, laments, "Many churches offer only a brief emphasis on stewardship in the fall that determines the congregation’s ministry potential for an entire year" (ABP Report). The particular approach to stewardship that we will take throughout the course of these sessions, however, seeks to re-acquaint believers with biblical stewardship. Help your learners come to perceive stewardship as a fundamental component of faithful discipleship, rather than nothing more than a brief month-long emphasis restricted to talk of the church budget.
When unleashed upon a church, biblical stewardship has the power to call forth and challenge the ministry and mission potential of an entire congregation. According to Paul Dietterich, it is "the faithful, wise, and responsible management by the church as a stewarding community of the multitude of gifts God entrusts to our care" (10). And meanwhile, as Patrick McNamara so aptly states, stewardship is "an invitation to members of a congregation to commit resources of time and talent and money out of thankfulness and a desire to return God’s gifts in order to advance his kingdom in their community and beyond" (177).
The scope of this unit invites you to reflect upon your own experiences with stewardship in the church. The important thing is to be honest as well as open to God’s challenge, the challenge to become an active steward on behalf of the Kingdom. Weigh the possibilities of what it means to be a biblical steward against the backdrop of your previous experiences. And finally, try to picture yourself as a member of a viable stewarding community, rather than the target of any capital campaign run by your church.
Associated Baptist Press News Reports Downloaded from the Web, reporting on a "Money Matters Conference," March 9-10 of 1998, sponsored by the Baptist Center for Ethics.
Paul M. Dietterich, Newsletter of The Center for Parish Development, vol. 3, no. 2 (Fall 1996).
Patrick H. McNamara, More Than Money: Portraits of Transformative Stewardship (Bethesda MD: Alban Institute, 1999).
by Frank Granger
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