Passionate Steward - 10th Anniversary Edition

Recovering Christian Stewardship from Secular Fundraising 55
obligation. She made room for him freely, offering herself, her time,
her innate gifts for motherhood, and the totality of her meager
resources, for the sake of a nascent Promise.
We are called to devote our time, talent and treasure to the
whole life of the Church, not just its buildings and administration.
This includes first of all, people. Revisiting how we individually
and corporately receive seekers and visitors reveals a great deal
about our commitment to individual Christian development and
evangelization. Devoting our time and talent to the Christian
tradition of hospitality, ensuring that our guests receive our very
best care, and meeting their individual needs does not compete with
our corporate needs. It is a crucial aspect of real evangelization.
We cannot expect, or have as an ulterior motive for
welcoming guests, increasing attendance. Rendering the gift of our
time, the first of the triune aspects of stewardship, in the personal,
religious and catechetical development of those who choose to enter
our congregations is essential to individual and communal
evangelization. To this end, establishing stewardship education as a
vocational priority for those who come to share our congregational
life will do much to reverse the reduction of stewardship to the
exchange of money. Time is valuable. How we choose to spend it,
and equally, when we choose to spend it is important. Nothing puts
a newcomer off faster than being mobbed in short order by the
Volunteer Recruitment Committee, the Finance Committee Chair,
or the parish administrator, before being shown true hospitality.
Education and Catechism
The crisis of our diminished understanding of Christian
stewardship must also receive its due attention in Christian
education and development. Few Church, Sunday School or
catechetical programs take stewardship education seriously for our
young. Maybe because stewardship has been reduced over the years
to the idea of a financial transaction, something that many people