Vol.8 • No.8 • August 2010
Stewardship Means Getting Out of the Rat Race
Last month I had the privilege of participating in stewardship conferences sponsored by two Protestant denominations. Rethinking Stewardship: Our Culture, Our Theology, Our Practices was the theme of a conference held in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, July 19-21, 2010, and sponsored by Luther Seminary. Grace, Gratitude and Generosity
was the title of the 2010 Stewardship Conference sponsored by The
Episcopal Network for Stewardship (TENS) which was held in Indianapolis,
Indiana, July 30-31. Both conferences called attention to the
challenges associated with teaching and practicing stewardship in an
affluent, consumer-oriented society. In fact, "consumerism" was clearly
identified as the chief obstacle to living Christian stewardship today.
Mark Allan Powell, one of many excellent speakers at
the Lutheran conference is a professor of Old Testament studies and an
author of many books on biblical and stewardship themes. Reverend Powell
challenged the participants - most of whom were stewardship committee
or pastoral staff members in Lutheran congregations - to change the
focus of their teaching about stewardship in three ways: 1) from talking
about how much we give to talking about how we live, 2) from talking
about obligation (guilt) to talking about privilege (good news), and 3)
from a sense of duty to an experience of delight (the joy of giving).
Powell stressed that stewardship is not the means to an end (increased
participation or financial support). Stewardship is an end -- a life of
faithful Christian discipleship.
David Lose, a homiletics professor at Luther
Seminary, offered similar insights into the challenges facing Christians
who wish to practice stewardship as a way of life. Professor Lose
observed that three cultural shifts have taken place in our society that
have fundamentally changed the Christian experience of stewardship.
First, we are now encouraged to give not out of a sense of obligation
but as a matter of choice. Free decisions rather than a sense of duty
motivate most people today.
Second, Lose pointed out that whereas in earlier
generations people received their identity (their station in life or
vocational calling) from their family, their church or their society,
today people are urged to choose who they are, or want to be, from a
seemingly infinite array of possible choices. In this context, Christian
life becomes just one of many options, and stewardship as a way of life
can seem to be a very remote and discretionary option -- even for
Christians.
Finally, Lose notes that tradition does not have
nearly the power it once had. In our contemporary culture, personal
experience is much more valuable than the received wisdom of past
generations. That's why Christian values, including the stewardship
virtues of gratitude, accountability and generosity, frequently take
second place when compared to the "new" experiences and opportunities
that seem to be promised by our secular culture.
Speaking to Episcopalians meeting in Indianapolis,
Reverend Dr. Walter Bruggemann, a scripture scholar and author with
self-identified "Calvinist leanings," said that stewardship represents a
fundamental choice between two ways of living. "Stewardship is the big
either/or," Bruggemann says, "between living a life of covenantal
fidelity and obligations or living as an autonomous agent who is
unencumbered by obligations to God or to anyone else." Bruggemann sees
stewardship as a choice that Christians make to "get out of the rat
race" and to live lives of quiet fidelity to the Gospel.
Most of the speakers at the Lutheran and Episcopal
conferences agreed that stewardship is countercultural—an antidote to
the poisons of consumerism, materialism and individualism that have
thoroughly infected our society. "Affluenza" was a term used by more
than one speaker to characterize the negative influences of our affluent
society on the simple life of responsibility for others that Christians
are called to live on a daily basis.
My contribution to both conferences was a reflection on the U.S. bishops' pastoral letter, Stewardship: A Disciple's Response,
and the stewardship message of the late Archbishop Thomas J. Murphy.
Our Catholic theology adds a profound Eucharistic and sacramental
dimension to the important biblical stewardship perspectives espoused by
our Protestant sisters and brothers. We believe that all of creation is
the gift of a good and gracious God. Disciples of Jesus Christ are
called to receive God's gifts gratefully, cherish and tend them in a
responsible way, share them generously with others out of justice and
love and return them to the Lord with increase. Christian stewards do
not reject money or material things. We develop and share them for our
own good and for the benefit of others.
This is the spirituality of stewardship taught by the
American bishops' in their stewardship pastoral. As Catholics, we
embrace a countercultural way of living that rejects the "isms" of our
time (relativism, materialism, individualism, consumerism) -- without
ever condemning our culture or the material gifts and possessions that
we need and enjoy. With all our brothers and sisters in the one Body of
Christ, we Roman Catholics wholeheartedly affirm the Lord's admonition:
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the rest
will be given to you (Mt 6:33).
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