Stewardship Vs Generosity - Apples to Cauliflower

Since we've had our first Sunday of discussion, I'll share with you my opinions about "generosity" and "stewardship." Generosity is an aspect of character, the author says. Stewardship is  a responsibility. The author tells us stewardship sounds "weighty, dutiful and legal." How sorry I am that the author's experience with this word has been so negative.

For humans, stewardship is not an option. We are all stewards. The only question is what type of stewards we will be. Whatever our faith beliefs may be, we have responsibility for our actions in relation to the earth, our own gifts, talents, and possessions. Our only decision is what we do with that responsibility. It's like being a citizen. Those of us fortunate enough to have been born citizens of the United States are given certain privileges and responsibilities at birth. We can choose to participate in our processes or not, but we don't choose whether we have the responsibility for doing so - that is our birthright.

I agree that those who are new to the church may not be ready to examine stewardship. They may first need to learn about having generous hearts. But to remove stewardship from the conversation would be to leave those who are on a spiritual path in kindergarten. While we want our language to be available and attractive to those who didn't grow up in the church, we need to be equally dedicated to helping them continually progress in their faith and not leave them at the quick and easy phase of spiritual growth. We never know for sure where anyone is on the path, so we need to continually offer a variety of types of language and faith formation opportunities.

The author leaves us with a set of questions I hope were discussed on Sunday. He asks us to examine ourselves and determine which term is most useful to us, acknowledging that using both terms wisely helps us reach those at different places on the journey of faith. For me, this challenge means keeping myself aware of where others are and keeping my language accessible. But I won't be doing my duty as a steward to leave anyone at a superficial level of faith development. For me, being a steward is not weighty, dutiful or legal. Stewardship is a way of life that enables my every day to have meaning and purpose, whether I'm having a deep spiritual conversation or scrubbing the church floor. If I live this way, I won't have to try to explain what the words mean. I'll be able to say with Gandhi, "My life is my message."