Stewardship

The second definition of “stewardship” according to Miriam Webster reads:

the conducting, supervising, or managing of something; especially : the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care.

As Lutheran Christians, we believe that all we have has been entrusted to our care—our very selves, our time, and our possessions. We believe that the gifts we’ve been given are for the sake of the word. Stewardship is about how we manage all that’s been entrusted to us.

Each fall we have a specific focus on stewardship, but it’s really a life-long discipline of heightened awareness and intentional practice. It includes our use of time, of money, of leisure, of work, of resources. Stewardship invites reflection on our gift-giving, our financial practices, the cars we drive, the choices we make on a daily basis,… It also includes a responsibility to be in touch with the ways in which we’re gifted, and a calling to use that giftedness for the sake of the world.

“Stewardship: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care”

Unless the king should come again?’ said Gandalf. ‘Well, my lord Steward, it is your task to keep some kingdom still against that event, which few now look to see. In that task you shall have all the aid that you are pleased to ask for. But I will say this: the rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. For I also am a steward. Did you not know?’

― ‘The Lord of the Rings’, Book V, Chapter 1, J.R.R. Tolkien