Hiya, my identify is Miguel Escobar, and that is my first publish for Church Anew. I function a transitional deacon (quickly to be a priest) within the Episcopal Church, and I write recurrently about Christianity’s difficult relationship with cash.
As we method “stewardship season,” I wish to query the language of stewards and stewardship. To be clear, this isn’t a critique of fundraising. I serve a small Spanish-speaking congregation, and I do know firsthand how very important annual pledge drives are for a workable parish finances. My concern, slightly, is theological. My query is whether or not stewardship remains to be one of the best framework for what we’re doing this season.
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The Oxford Dictionary of Christianity defines stewardship as each “the administration of property by a servant on behalf of its proprietor, and significantly in fashionable instances, the organized pledging of a particular amount of cash to be given recurrently to the Church.”1 In america, the late nineteenth century must fund missionaries resulted in a “stewardship awakening”, which led to the ‘Each Member Canvass’, and “a course of by which American Protestant Church buildings established denominational companies to help parishes’ annual stewardship programmes.”2 Stewardship grew to become a agency fixture of mainline Protestantism and “from the Twenties stewardship theology was utilized to all elements of life, usually outlined as time, abilities, and treasure.”3
Regardless of the relative newness of this theology, stewardship now dominates what the mainline church teaches about cash. In surveys and focus teams for his guide, Speaking {Dollars} and Sense: Main Theological Discussions on Cash, the Rev. Brendan Barnicle notes: “Stewardship has turn into a routine a part of church life. The truth is, primarily based on the surveys for this guide, it may be too common. Many individuals solely consider the theology of cash when it comes to stewardship.”4 He surmises that stewardship aligns with an American cultural choice for native options, individualism, and favorable view of wealth.5 An Episcopal priest and former funding banker, Barnicle is anxious that mainline Christians see the first software of their religion to finance when it comes to how a lot cash they provide to the church.6
Writing within the early Nineteen Thirties, Reinhold Niebuhr warned in opposition to this type of narrowing. In “Is Stewardship Moral?”, Niebuhr critiques stewardship as a naïve framework that permits churchgoers to keep away from the broader moral teachings of Jesus on wealth.7 Niebuhr affords the instance of “the pious businessman” who’s each trustworthy and beneficiant, two virtues which “give him the satisfaction of being a Christian.” But this pious businessman “regards his energy in his manufacturing facility a lot as kings of outdated regarded their prerogatives.” “Any try on the a part of the employees to realize a share within the figuring out of coverage, significantly the coverage which impacts their very own livelihood, hours and wages, is regarded by him as an try and destroy the divine order of issues.” The doctrine of stewardship fails to assist this businessman see his broader ethical obligations however solely serves to “sanctify energy and privilege because it exists within the fashionable world by sure concessions to the moral precept.”
Niebuhr could have had figures like John D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan in thoughts. In the course of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, enterprise leaders made huge fortunes that they attributed to God. Whereas dubbed a “robber baron” by the broader public, Customary Oil founder John D. Rockefeller referred to as himself God’s “sensible and accountable steward”. Rockefeller “believed that God had entrusted him to make use of his cash as solely he noticed match.”8
This instance of J.D. Rockefeller brings us again to the definition of a steward as a servant who manages property on behalf of his proprietor. Within the Gospels, we encounter such examples of stewards, although they’re hardly commendable. Within the parable of the Unjust Steward, the steward is dominating and exploitative of the laborers in service of his grasp. On the marriage ceremony in Cana, it’s the prudent steward who can’t see the miracle unfolding in entrance of him. In each circumstances, stewards are the foils of God’s grace. Is that this actually who we wish to be figuring out with?
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In some ways, my critique is that stewardship works too nicely for the mainline church as it’s right this moment. Isn’t it telling that of all of the characters of the Bible, the mainline chooses to establish with the center supervisor? At my most cynical, I fear that stewardship appeals as a result of it permits us to consider ourselves as mini-J.D. Rockefellers, granted by God with wealth and energy to attain God’s functions. The missionary and colonialist roots of stewardship converse to a time when white rich denominations noticed themselves as burdened by the particular duty of being positioned in cost, the managers performing on God’s behalf to Christianize an uncivilized world.
Particularly essential for me, I’ve discovered that “stewardship” doesn’t translate nicely for intriguing causes. In 2010, whereas doing a Spanish-language presentation on stewardship (mayordomía), I used to be met with baffled expressions by members. A participant later shared {that a} steward – mayordomo – was an exploitative supervisor, just like an overseer on a farm (just like the unjust steward within the Gospel of Luke). Whereas I’ve since realized that the phrase doesn’t all the time carry this adverse connotation, the interpretation issue factors to stewardship as a advantage of managers, whereas the Gospels supply a imaginative and prescient of God’s Kingdom from the angle of the managed.
