Passionate Steward - 10th Anniversary Edition

44 THE PASSIONATE STEWARD
The challenge of fulfilling this responsibility is especially
daunting at present. The very same factors which have conspired to
bring about a decline in church attendance—and therefore, the need
to do more with less—have also shaped the attitudes of those who
continue to be regularly observant within the corporate Church. The
faithful bring with them assumptions influenced by the strong
secularization of society—including an anti-institutional bias. The
Church is not immune to the exaltation of the individual over the
community, nor to the spirituality of conspicuous consumption
which has taken hold of the public imagination. The succession of
moral scandals within the household of faith has at times
fundamentally undermined the trust of believers and unbelievers
alike. The erosion of trust and confidence in the integrity and
leadership of the corporate Church has led many parishioners to
abandon the pews. Consequently, it is a smaller Church that must
answer the call to good stewardship. Finally, this is a smaller
Church which sometimes feels itself to be under siege, and
lamentably, sometimes from within.
The challenges facing those who remain observant in the
Church have been forcefully defined by historical, political and
geographic factors, stemming from as early as the first waves of
immigration to the New World. The Church in the New World never
enjoyed anything like the monolithic stability of the Church in
Europe. With the urbanization of North America, and the
subsequent migration to the suburbs, the one constant in the North
American experience has been change itself, and the need to adapt.
If we are to promote good stewardship amongst the faithful, we
shall have to examine our historic decisions, and come to terms with
the impact of ancient choices on modern challenges.
The Urban Experience
The settlement of the New World and the spread of Christianity
across its shores created a unique situation for the Church. In terms of