Stewardship is partnership with God, but it has other faces too. It touches all of life, and challenges us to faithful responsibility with God's resources.

Stewardship - What we do with what we have - has scriptural guidelines applying it to the church's mission and ministry. But the key to Christian Stewardship lies in the work of the Holy Spirit on the heart.  This divine-human union produces love, gratitude, and loyalty - for God and His creation.

The word "stewardship" sums up the meaning of Christian life.  Biblical writers use to describe several elements of faith:  Peter said,  "Each of us, as good (stewards) . . . must use for the good of others the special gifts we have received from God."

1Peter 4:10 TEV

God calls everyone into partnership, and this yields a proper perspective of God.  We can be more effective in working among God's people, the un-churched, and natural creation, by remembering He owns everything.  We're not "all by ourselves."  Stewardship is God's way of raising Christians as stewards.  Stewards manage the many entrusted gifts of this life - the environment, time, talents, possessions, money, our bodies the gospel, the church, spiritual gifts, etc., we become partners with God.  What a partnership! God's unlimited resources supplement our limited means - enabling us to do what He asks. 
 

When Jesus called us to follow Him we became disciples - and stewards, too.  We accept God's gift of creation,  redemption, and the indwelling Holy Spirit.  And as Christian stewards, we take full responsibility for managing these God-entrusted gifts.

In our crime-ridden age, violent death lurks on every hand, divorce weakens the family structure, and joblessness saps the souls of millions. We conclude that nobody cares, and life declines in value.

But Christian stewardship restores value to individuals.  God made us and redeemed us.  He valued each person so much that He left heaven and laid down His life-just for us!

Eden and Calvary trumpet the worth of the individual.  God made us for a purpose, and saved us with His own blood.  He entrusts us with great responsibility. If God values us so highly, shouldn't we value ourselves as well?

Stewardship is practical. It is faith in action:  the believer's response to the redeeming grace of the Lord Jesus Christ!  Christian stewardship gives hands and feet to faith so it can live and act.  Stewardship touches every part of the life - our attitudes and actions, our convictions and commitments, and our desires and deeds.  Christian stewardship is faith made practical.