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.
The calendar page has turned to the month of August. The seasoned steward leader starts to feel the season closing in quickly. For most, if the plans are not already well under way, it is most certainly time to get them ramped up for the fall stewardship emphasis.
For generations, the fall season has been the prime target for stewardship. Some of that is a nod to our cultural connection to the agricultural cycle. Fall means harvest. Bringing in the sheaves also coincides with bringing the tithes and offerings. There are still congregations that are tied to this agrarian ethos, but most are not.
Yet, there is still an autumnal connection to stewardship. This is practical. With the fall comes the budgeting process, and the traditional stewardship emphasis is directly tied to this. For either reason, many a steward leader is starting to feel the itch as August comes, and beyond it waits intensified stewardship work.
Raising the stewardship stakes: identity over activity
While this is the pattern, it is unfortunate. We need to raise the stakes! This mentality destroys stewardship! It puts the emphasis on the activity of the steward and not the identity of the steward.
Instead of intentionally connecting the steward to the free and joyous activity of the child of God, and God’s family, the church, in managing all of life and life’s resources for God’s purposes, it puts the onus on what needs to be done. This makes burdensome Law out of what is intended to be liberating Gospel.
What is needed for steward leaders AND stewards is a stewardship transformation. There needs to be teaching that leads to the repentant spirit of a true steward. The stewards have been created in the image of God to reflect the Creator within creation.
But sin has corrupted that identity. While marred by sinful failure, the steward was never released from the task of stewardship. Therefore, stewardship is indeed a burden. It is a pre-fall vocation carried out in a fallen world by failed stewards.
Image-bearers of the Perfect Steward
But God did not leave the steward there. He sent a perfect steward, Jesus. Follow the life and Passion of Jesus and you will see the Second Adam live out the role of Second Steward. He managed all His life and life’s resources to redeem the fallen stewards from the death that their idolatry deserved!
The stewards that are being led through stewardship emphases this fall are redeemed stewards. They are baptized into Christ. They bear the image of Christ, who is the image of the invisible God. As these image bearers, we are stewards of the Gospel.
We bear that stewardship not to justify ourselves, but to share the freedom of being stewards of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Without this connection to the Gospel, stewardship can never be free and joyous! But Jesus has connected it for us! This is what stewardship transformation looks like!
A stewardship transformation in a tree
You will find a perfect example of this in Luke 19. There you find the stewardship transformation of our good friend Zaccheaus. The wee little man was trapped in the burden of the Law. It separated him from his neighbors. Worse, it separated him from the Lord. He would not be accidentally mistaken as a stewardship example. In fact, most would see excluding him as the best possible stewardship.
But then, the tree incident occurred. Jesus invites Himself to Zaccheaus’ house for dinner. This scandalous activity of the Second Steward most certainly brought with it eyerolls, side glances, and even outright contempt. But Jesus was working on a stewardship transformation of which any steward leader would love to be a part.
Look how Jesus teaches stewardship. He does not preach a three-week sermon series. He does not hand out a giving chart with percentages and stairsteps asking Zaccheaus and the other sinners to consider as they are filling out their commitment cards. Zaccheaus is truly transformed, but not by the program! Only one thing moves the self-absorbed, corrupt, traitorous civil servant to understand something clearly at last. It is the presence of Jesus!
This is what led the tax-collector-turned-faithful-steward to repentantly promise half of his goods to the poor (whom he had not defrauded because of their poverty) and then double the legal restitution required by Levitical law. This stewardship transformation leads to salvation! Only the Gospel can do that!
Connect to reflect
This is a lesson for steward leaders heading into stewardship season. It is not about the program. It is about getting the stewards under your charge to Jesus. Make sure your emphasis is about WHO the steward is, not what they do. Connect them to the One they have been created and redeemed to reflect: Jesus! Connect their stewardship the font which gives them their identity. Connect their stewardship to the altar where they receive the grace upon grace they are called to reflect in the world.
Steward leader, take the time to make these connections for yourself as well. You may not be Zaccheaus, but you need that stewardship transformation, just like the stewards under your care. As August leads to stewardship preparation, keep Jesus as the center!
LCMS Stewardship ministry features may be reprinted with acknowledgment given to The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.
