"The promotion of the practice of stewardship is important for the mission of the Church and for the spiritual well-being of each individual Christian. Everyone benefits from the sacrificial gift one makes of his time, talent and treasure. Therefore, please accept my encouragement for your efforts and my prayers that your upcoming conference will be a stimulus to the practice of stewardship in the Church."Â His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI (From the letter of His Eminence Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, then Cardinal Prefect, The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Vatican City, dated 20 June 1997, to His Excellency, The Most Reverend James Patrick Keleher, S.T.D., Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas and Episcopal Moderator of the National Catholic Stewardship Council.)
Stewardship is becoming a word more commonly heard in parishes. Yet, there is nothing new about Stewardship. I believe if you are already living a good Christian life, you are already being a good Christian Steward.
To be a good steward is to be a good caretaker of the gifts God has given us. When we here someone speak of sharing our gifts, we often assume they are asking for money. Don't rush to make assumptions. To be frank, stewardship does include what we do with our money but it involves more than that. Even when stewardship refers to money, it is not solely about the amount we give but the attitude we have give with.
God gives each of us different gifts and calls us to use them in different ways. As stewards, we are to use our gifts not for personal gain but for the good of all. This can include our career or how we use our free time. Stewardship commonly is looked at in three areas
Time - Do we use some of our time for the betterment of our community? One may respond that I don't have any free time. What are you doing with your time? We have our commitments and we can't rearrange our lives overnight but that doesn't mean we can't change our commitments at all. I would also suggest to examine how you might be using your time already to serve your community. Do you volunteer anywhere, a soup kitchen, tutoring, a shelter, or, of course, your parish?
Talent - We each have things we are good at. These are our talents and are given to us by God. Think about how you can use your talents to help. For instance, a doctor could volunteer at a clinic. A mathematician could volunteer to tutor. Are you talented at sports? Perhaps you could volunteer at a camp.
Treasure - This is where money is part of stewardship. However, it is not simply a matter of writing a check or putting a few dollars in the collection. It is the attitude we give with. God is creator and everything has its origin in him. God does not expect us to give our whole paycheck to the church. God does ask that we live with an attitude of gratitude showing our thanks for all (not just the money) God has given us. We share our thanks by sharing it with others.
Stewardship thus is a way of life. While the Old Testament does speak of tithing (10%), stewardship isn't about giving a set percentage. It is concerned with the attitude we give with. 10% is a good rule of thumb, some of it to your church and some to other charities. The Golden Rule from Matthew 7:12 tells us to treat others as we wish to be treated and Jesus tells us the Greatest Commandment is to love God and after that to love your neighbor (Matthew 22:34-39). We show our love by sharing what we have.
We are only beginning to understand what it means to be a steward in our Christian faith. The rewards of living stewardship for a parish are there. Parishes who have been successful have been able to increase both the number of ministries and the collection in their parish.
Since stewardship is an emerging idea we need to educate people. As I said before, many people think stewardship is just another way of asking for money. Whenever we introduce something new in the parish we need to communicate to the people. A model of communication presented by St. Rita's parish at a Diocesan Stewardship Conference describes the steps we need to first lead ourselves through and then the people of our parish. We need to move through the following steps:
- Unawareness
- Awareness
- Comprehension
- Conviction
- Action
We do this by:
- Educating
- Communicating
- Motivating
- Participating
- Celebrate
Only then can we have a successful stewardship effort.
In living stewardship, check out my presentation "Attitude of Gratitude".​
Updated 1/28/21
