John 20:24-31

This lent, we’ll be doing a series on Stewardship. Christians throughout the ages and still today have observed Lent with a temporary change in lifestyle—either giving something up (e.g. certain foods or luxuries) or taking something on (e.g. renewed commitment to prayer). Many find this a meaningful way to examine the patterns and practices of their lives in light of what Christ has done for us. Our Lenten series on stewardship will involve a similar kind of self-examination.

The first thing that naturally comes to mind when Christians use the word ‘stewardship’ is money. And while that will certainly be part of this series, stewardship is much more than financial. As others have put it, stewardship is everything we do after we say we believe. A steward is someone entrusted with something that belongs to someone else. To call the entire Christian life a life of stewardship is to recognize that absolutely all we have—our money, our possessions, our time, our health, our energy, our influence, our abilities, our jobs, our families, our relationships, you name it—all of them are gifts from God entrusted to us. Thus we are accountable to God for how we have ‘stewarded’ absolutely everything in our lives. Stewardship is everything we do after we say we believe.
(*The topics and texts for this series were inspired by Pastor Jack Roeda of Church of the Servant in Grand Rapids, Michigan.)