God Never Becomes Complacent. Should We?

I have been struggling with this thought for longer than usual.  Perhaps because it didn't fully make sense until it hit me personally.

You know, like when the council at our church met to finalize the capital campaign to fix the roof last week so that it could be presented to the congregation.  We were trying to figure out how to get everyone invested.  It occurred to me later that maybe first we should see how invested we are.

So many thoughts I have on stewardship -- and I am sure that I am not alone in this -- arise when I am trying to convince others how great it is to give.  But the best discussions are the ones that move me.

The thought that has been thus percolating for almost two weeks comes in part from the last article where I talked about the excitement in a new church building its first building and the lack of such enthusiasm often seen in an older congregation.  Perhaps this is tied to the fact that churches in debt are so often growing churches, whereas churches with no debt are stagnating.

Since I just bought a house, I am realizing what it would mean to pay the last payment and own the house.  So this is my question:  Is the problem when we are not in debt at church that we feel as if we own the church and now the expenses should go down and we can give less?  When is it that we feel like we own the church?

When we give, we give to God.  And as stewards we are also charged with managing the money and caring for God's property, but it never belongs to us.  So that day never dawns when we get to give less or get to relax or retire.

When we tie our giving to the needs of the church it becomes too easy to see ourselves as the owners just trying to keep things up and meet expenses.  When we truly give to God out of the abundance God has given us, we will not so easily think we can ease up and give less or ever get complacent.

God never stops giving.  God never gets complacent.  God's abundance is showered down on us every day.

Lord, We give you thinks that you have continued to care for us, when we respond generously and even when we don't.  May your generosity inspire us.  Amen


Copyright © 2006, The Rev. Dana Reardon. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Email her at mspastor@aol.com.



The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI.  A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care.  She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander.  She is still trying to understand the accent.  While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team.  That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.