Everything is a gift from God!
Stewardship is about being grateful, responsible stewards of the gifts we receive from God. The tradition of giving back to God and to the church comes from the Biblical practice of "tithing," which means to give back a tenth of our earnings to God (Numbers 18:26). The Episcopal Church sees stewardship as more than simply contributing money to the church; it's also about contributing time and talents, and volunteering for ministry and mission. It's about reaching out to build relationships from a perspective of abundance instead of scarcity.
Your church contribution has a spiritual dimension which must be seen in the light of faith as an exercise in stewardship. By our faith, we believe that everything we have is from God. He gave us our life, our talents, our strengths and our treasures. Without Him, we would have nothing. Without Him, in fact, we would not even exist.
We are managers. Because everything is a gift from God, we are only stewards, or managers of all that we have-our life, our talents, our time, our treasures. They all belong to God. So we do not have absolute ownership of anything. It is our responsibility to take care of and make good use of what God has entrusted to us.
If we act as though whatever we have is the result simply of our own efforts, our own work, our own cleverness, our own planning, then we are not only mistaken but we are denying, in effect, that it is God who is the Lord of the universe and all that it contains. We acknowledge God's existence and His ownership of everything by exercising good stewardship. That means managing everything well and responsibly. It also means using some of our time, some of our talents and some of our treasures directly to acknowledge God's existence and to further the knowledge, acceptance and love of God in this world.
"If I have this for myself, then what should I do for God?"
This is the question into which the whole matter of stewardship resolves itself. Stewardship, the correct handling of gifts, is the why of our giving.
As He hath prospered you, so should you return unto Him a fair, reasonable portion of those gifts of time, talent and treasure.
EDUCATION
