STEWARDSHIP AS A SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE

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STEWARDSHIP AS A SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE
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Spiritual Discipline

• Spiritual disciplines are practices that we
  willingly pursue in response to a God who created
  us, saved us, and guides us. Spiritual
  disciplines draw us closer to God, deepen our
  understanding of who God is, and help make us
  into people God desires us to become.

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Stewardship as a discipline

• Stewardship can be a spiritual journey we take
  individually and in community in which we seek to
  move from a perspective of scarcity to one of
  abundance with ever increasing generosity and
  gratitude.

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Why do people give?

• As a response to Gods grace
• As a response to Christs example
• As a response to human need
• As an expression of thanksgiving to God
• A form of sacrifice to God
• Concrete proof of our love to God and neighbor

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Bible we give to God

• As an act of worship
• As a way of participating in Gods reign
• As an act of resistance
• As a way of bearing witness
• To grow in grace
• Satterlee Preaching and Stewardship

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Worship

• When we give to God in worship, it is an
  expression of love and devotion to the God who is
  so good to us.
• We make God, not ourselves the center of our
  devotion
• Thanks and praise replace self-interest and guilt
• Diminishment of the offering?

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Participate in Gods mission

• Making disciples
• Taking up our cross and following
• Forgiving and reconciling
• Worshipping God
• Loving God
• Proclaiming the nearness of Gods reign

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Act of Resistance Bear Witness

• Resist powers at work in world opposed to God
  cultures of affluence and the power of money
• Resist moneys claim to offer us security
• Publicly renounce idolatry of wealth
• Giving is a concrete way of living out the new
  life given to us in Christ
• Bear witness to God as giver and provider and
  ourselves as stewards

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Grow in grace

• Giving as a way by which God enters our lives and
  shapes us in a way that our imaginations, our
  thoughts and our words cannot.
• Respond in gratitude and follow a path to freedom
  from economic powers that may bind us

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Some spiritual disciplines of stewardship
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Imitation of God and Christ

• Key identity God as triune giver
• God as servant
• God as gracious
• Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ
  and stewards of Gods mysteries 1 Cor 41
• Like good stewards of the manifold grace of God
  serve one another with whatever gift you have
  received I Peter 410

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GRACE
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EXPRESS GODS LOVE CONCRETELY

• Love of God and neighbor
• Show the justice, mercy and loving kindness God
  requires of us, embody Gospel values
• In more than words

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Adult converts

• Converted not only to God, but a new vision of
  the world of peace of wholeness
• I am called to bear witness to what God is doing
• When I embody gods love I experience (receive)
  love and there is less room for fear
• Be led by Gods purpose

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Trust - Henri Nouwen

• Every time I take a step in the direction of
  generosity, I know I am moving from fear to love.
  
• generous giving helps me deepen my trust in God

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Trust

• Abundance of Gods grace
• That God will provide daily bread
• Live with the assumption that God has abundant
  resources and cares for us I shall not want
• Bring into a closer relationship with God
• Fear drives out faith Peter walking on water
• Who do we trust?
• Like Nouwen choose not to live in fear but
  experience love a joy minutes at a time

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GRATITUDE JOY

• Joy in giving created to give generously
  mission trips
• Joy of sufficiency , not demands of luxury
• Experience joy when god reaches out in love and
  mercy

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GRATITUDE

• In Islam, sign of atheism almost as bad as shirk.
• God source of all we are, all we have, all we
  will be. It is hard to feel fear when grateful,
  but love and joy are easy.
• Recognize the reality of Gods love