Stewardship Integrity: Faithful Competence

In his recent book, De-sizing the Church: How Church Growth Became a Science, Then an Obsession, and What’s Next, Karl Vaters includes a thought-provoking chapter entitled “Integrity is the New Competence.” Vaters writes regarding integrity:

Simply put, when someone is living with integrity, their everyday behavior matches their highest ideals. No one but Jesus ever lived this way, of course. But when Jesus called us to follow Him, integrity was the core of that calling.
(De-sizing the Church, p. 143)

Vaters asserts that the call to integrity in the life of a Christian is all over the Scriptures.

Ephesians 4:1: “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”

Luke 16:10: “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.”

James 4:17: “So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.”

James 1:22: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

Vaters’ main focus is a critique of the rise and fall of the church growth movement. However, what he emphasizes is crucial for both stewards and steward leaders. Teaching stewardship in a manner that aligns with the Holy Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions is challenging enough; adding a lack of integrity only makes it harder. This would be like the steward leader shooting themselves, and the ministries they serve, in the foot.

Vaters’ definition of integrity aligns with how Luther’s Small Catechism talks about integrity, especially stewardship integrity. While integrity is evident throughout in the six chief parts, the life of the steward is especially on display in the Table of Duties. Here we see the intersection of faith and the life of one called to be a disciple of Jesus.

Integrity is demonstrated in life. When there is a disconnect between the confession of the lips and the actions of life, there is a stewardship issue. Therefore, any faithful teaching of stewardship starts not with the activity of the steward, but with their identity. Human beings and baptized Christians are created and redeemed to be stewards of all that the Lord has made in a way that glorifies Him. The disconnect between identity and activity is where we find sin. Sin is addressed through Spirit-wrought repentance!

No stewardship program will create this repentance. No steward can generate that repentance within themselves. It only comes from direct contact with Jesus. Word and Sacrament ministry is where the repentance that leads to stewardship integrity begins. A biblical example of this transformation in stewardship integrity is found in the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19.

In that familiar account, Zacchaeus seeks an encounter with Jesus out of curiosity but receives much more than he bargained for. Jesus calls the broken tax collector to repentance and new life. But notice the lack of a three-week sermon series, a commitment card process or a pledge drive. We have no record of Jesus asking Zacchaeus for anything, yet we see a repentant and transformed tax collector embracing a generous new life of integrity. At the end of the exchange, Jesus comments on how salvation had come to Zacchaeus’ house!

This is the power of the Holy Spirit working through the Word to create the integrity essential to the faithful steward. The Word leads us to live a faithful life, managing all of life’s resources for God’s purposes. It is the Word that leads people to be faithful with the little they have been given to show that the treasure of the Gospel is at work in and through them. It is the Word that convicts us of the sin of not practicing the stewardship for which we have been created and redeemed.

It is also the Word that lives out this new stewardship integrity. While perfect stewardship is beyond even the most sanctified among us, faithful stewardship is not. Here is where faithful stewardship and stewardship integrity intersect. As redeemed stewards, we confess that what we have belongs to the Lord and is to be used for His purposes. We also confess that we sin and fall short of God’s desires. The forgiving and restoring presence of Jesus brings salvation and integrity to the repentant steward.

The integrity we seek is found in one place: the altar. Confession and absolution, preaching, and the reception of the Lord’s Supper are all elements that create the integrity needed to be faithful in the stewardship entrusted to us. Integrity is not a human creation; stewardship integrity is about God working in and through us.

The creation of faithful individual stewards is incumbent upon the faithful corporate stewardship of the local congregation and its leaders. Corporate stewardship rooted in repentant integrity is the new competence. Stewardship leaders who seek the grace of God not only for themselves but also for their leadership failures find themselves on the brink of the newest and most lasting kind of competence: stewardship integrity!