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.
Dear Pastors and Steward Leaders,
Every month for over a decade, this feature has been shared with you to help change how the teaching and practice of stewardship is viewed and carried out in The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. We have endeavored to strike a balance between the theology of stewardship and its practical applications.
This month, I want to make this encouragement much more personal. One of the great, yet hard lessons I needed to learn over the years is that stewardship is not all puppy dogs and rainbows. There have been times of great stewardship growth for me. But there have also been some incredibly low valleys in the stewardship journey on which the Lord has been leading me over the past 55 years of my life as a baptized steward of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
The idolatry of “MINE!”
As a Christian and as a pastor, I struggle with stewardship at times. But this should not surprise us. The Old Adam within each of us so often rears his ugly head. When that happens, our hands start to close around the very things which the Lord has entrusted to us. The Old Adam thinks we own things. One of the earliest words a young human learns is “MINE!” My blanket. My toy. My life. My faith. My house. My car. My career. My ministry. My congregation. MY. MY. MY.
But this ownership mentality is nothing short of idolatry. Yes, pastor and steward leader, you are an idolater by nature. When you think anything belongs to you and may be used however you want it to be used, you are guilty of idolatry. You are not fearing, loving and trusting in God above all things. The people who sit in the pews, classes and meeting rooms at your congregation are guilty of this. So are you.
Stewardship starts with repentance
For stewardship to be taught properly, it must start with the Law. It must convict before the Gospel can pardon. That conviction must start with you, my dear friend. The first hearer of the sermon is the preacher. The Word of God, rightly distinguishing Law and Gospel, can never only be “for them.” If judgment begins with the household of God, within that household it starts with the leaders.
Any approach to stewardship that doesn’t begin with Spirit-wrought repentance within the pastor and steward leaders is doomed to fail. It is only when the pastor and steward leader fully embrace their own need for repentance that they may effectively lead, as stewards of God’s great treasure of the Gospel, other selfish idolaters to that which will set them free.
We are stewards of our Baptism. The steward should drown the Old Adam “by daily contrition and repentance” (SC, Baptism). All that clings to the fallen steward, all sin and evil desires, are washed away DAILY, and give way to the new man, who has emerged to live as a faithful steward “in righteousness and purity forever” (SC, Baptism).
Faithful stewardship starts at the font. It starts at the font, FOR YOU. Then through you, your hearers and those you lead in the stewardship journey are called to remember their Baptism. This is what makes the teaching and preaching of stewardship a pastoral function. It is not about paying the bills, balancing the budget, or anything else which we might have counted as stewardship over the years. Stewardship is first a call to repentance — for me first!
Take some time and consider your own stewardship story. Mine is a tapestry, with checkered past, baptismal renewal, divine comedy and new directions all woven together. The Lord of the church has used His holy Word to break down and rebuild me as a steward of the treasure of the Gospel.
He has done the same for you. Reflect on the times when you have fallen far short. Remember your Baptism and the call and commission that it is. Your Baptism restores you as a steward, not just of the created order. You are a steward of the Gospel, using the created order to point people to Jesus.
May the Lord bless and keep YOU in your baptismal grace of stewardship of the Gospel, so that He may use you to shepherd the stewards under your care!
Pastor Nathan Meador
LCMS Stewardship ministry features may be reprinted with acknowledgment given to The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
