Editor’s note: Monthly articles from LCMS Stewardship Ministry are hosted here on The Lutheran Witness site. Visit the “Ministry Features” page each month for additional stewardship content.
What is the difference between an athlete and a champion? What is the distinction between one who competes in business or academics and the one who achieves at the highest levels? Certainly, no athlete becomes a champion or the greatest of all time without talent. No student or business leader achieves their loftiest goals without opportunity. There is a line of demarcation between the elite and those who compete. It is discipline.
It is discipline that leads the champion golfer to pound thousands of range balls a month. It is discipline that led the hall of fame hitters to take swing after swing in the batting cage. It is discipline that leads the virtuoso to practice their instrument hours on end. Discipline is the necessary effort that makes excellence possible.
But discipline is not any fun. It is tedious. It is boring. It requires a repeated effort, which is the cause of sweat, aches and sometimes even tears. Discipline is not pleasant. But it is necessary to move beyond average into the territory of extraordinary.
Those with a history in team sports know that coaches need to set the culture of discipline. When the team is not coached in the disciplines of detail and effort, the team’s performance will suffer. The blessings of talent may go a long way, but there will always come a point where discipline and lack of diligence will lead to errors, breakdowns and defeat.
But the coach can only do so much. In individual sports, the athlete must provide a drive for discipline. Teams can only rise as far as the culture of discipline that the players are willing to participate in. No amount of coaching can overcome a lack of discipline.
The discipline of stewardship
Faithful teaching and practice of stewardship within the local congregation also requires consistent discipline.
Congregations that wish to cultivate faithful stewardship need to commit to the regular discipline of teaching and preaching stewardship. This preaching and teaching of stewardship needs to be more than a three-week sermon series that is the forerunner of the first draft of the budget.
Stewardship discipline means that stewardship of all of life and life’s resources is regularly taught when the lectionary calls for it. There needs to be regular, year-round opportunities for the individual stewards to be encouraged to put in the arduous work of serving, caring, studying and giving of themselves for the glory of God and for the benefit of their neighbor.
Stewardship discipline should include an annual, intentional commitment process. These commitments are faithfully made when properly framed. Commitments respond to the two main stewardship questions:
- How has God blessed me?
- How is He calling me to respond?
This discipline of the individual for the sake of the whole is essential. Both individual and congregational stewardship is stewardship of the Gospel!
The fruits of discipline: repentance and faithfulness
Discipline is required because faithful stewardship goes against our sinful human nature. Human beings are not content to be managed by anyone, including God. We have the desire to own, possess and control.
But at its root, this is idolatry. Idolatry is a sin which challenges us all. We think that our money is ours. We think that our skills are ours. We think that our time is ours. But none of that is true. It all belongs to the Lord.
The discipline of the Law calls us to repentance and leads us back to being stewards, rather than owners. While not pleasant, it is essential if we are to be the stewards that the Lord has created and redeemed us to be. The repetitive, consistent call to repentance and new life can be tedious and painful. But it is what makes us stewards!
LCMS Stewardship ministry features may be reprinted with acknowledgment given to The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
In the congregation that I joined last year, surprisingly little has been said about stewardship as such. People simply recognize and appreciate the value of supporting one another in doing worthwhile things for the sake of the Kingdom, often thanking one another sincerely and spontaneously for their efforts, and cheerfully involving new people on ministry teams that are, as a matter of official policy, encouraged to exercise initiative in their area of service.
It is obvious that money is needed to sustain the good work, but there is no annual solicitation of pledges and there is no passing of the plate on Sunday morning. During the conventional time in the worship service when an offering would be taken, congregants here are simply reminded briefly of the helpfulness of their contributions and advised that their gifts and offerings may be placed in a plate at the door or sent online.
The ongoing cultivation of faith, trust and joy seems to be part of the appeal of this little church to others, and it influenced my own decision to become a member. By God’s grace, while average attendance has been “only” about 50 for while, the congregation has grown by 14 members over the past two years. Their one permanent pastoral position has been vacant the entire time.