Stewardship

Christian stewardship extends to every aspect of our lives - to our time and talent (a more comprehensive discussion of the meaning of this word follows under the category, Tithing), as well as our material wealth. The basic faith assumption is that everything that we have - as well as everything that we are - belongs to God. He blesses us with life and with every good thing. We are the stewards of what He has given to us and thus we have an especially important responsibility to Him in how we live and how we use what He has entrusted to us.

Essential to our stewardship of time, God commands us to keep the Sabbath holy. For Christians, the Sabbath is Sunday, the first day of the week made holy by our Lord's resurrection from the dead on the first day of the week. Faithful stewardship of this holy day means active participation in worship and in church life, the education our children in the faith by enrolling them in Sunday School and taking time on that day to appreciate and value everything that's good and right and true. The day should not be used for work (unless essential such as health care), neither should we allow sports or entertainment of any sort interfere with worship and the proper use of the day.

Our stewardship of talent (talent here meaning an aptitude or skill) means that every gift or ability we have also belongs to God - our intelligence, energy, artistic, academic or athletic abilities, as well as the more spiritual gifts of wisdom, kindness, understanding, compassion, faithfulness and care. Using our gifts and talents to honor and glorify Jesus Christ remains our highest and most holy calling - in all that we say, in all that we do and in all that we are. Using them in church life advances the only organization in the world that has as it sole purpose the proclamation and practice of the Gospel of Salvation and the Christian life.

Tithing

Tithing applies quite specifically to our money. When we speak about talent, we must remember that in the Bible, a talent is a measure of money and / or weight. Our Lord's Parable of the Talents is an instruction about money. In that parable, He makes it quite clear that our responsibility is to maximize our money in service to the Master as faithful stewards.

Tithing is the Biblical standard for financial giving to Christ's Church. The tithe, or 10% of one's gross income calculated before taxes, represents both devotion to our Lord's church and also manifests our faithfulness.

Many years ago, a great minister and man of faith told me, The best indication of a person's spiritual health is his checkbook. He was correct. Truly, how we use our money reveals our priorities, our loves, the persons and things to which we are most devoted and the commitments of our hearts and minds. God commands us to set Him first (The First and Great Commandment). This applies to our money as well as to everything else.

The false teaching of many churches, that somehow money is, in and of itself evil, dirty or abjectly unholy has very little to do with the Biblical revelation. Money, morally neutral, has moral value according to how we use it. The inordinate love for money is, in fact, the root of all evil - an especially powerful hybrid of idolatry and greed. But money itself remains neutral.

Trinity Church recommends the tithe as established in Scripture. Although not a requirement of membership, we value the tithe as a manifestation of devotion and commitment to our Lord's work in this world.

As St. Paul states, the Lord loves a cheerful giver.