Here is an archive column from 2004. Enjoy!

 

This Lent, practice stewardship as a discipline

Giving up Krispie Kremes for Lent?  Or maybe that silly addiction to watching American Idol?

There’s nothing wrong with petty sacrifice for Lent. Especially in our pampered, clicker-and-couch culture, any discipline is better than nothing for strengthening willpower, breaking ingrained patterns, revealing weaknesses, raising self-control and increasing self-knowledge.

But in older times, Lent was a somber and penitential time of purification and spiritual journeying from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday in order to prepare Christians for the glory of Easter. New believers, especially, would embrace Lent as a time of preparation for their baptism, traditionally on Easter morn.

In Lent, as anytime, disciplines help disciples (notice how the two words are related?) to break free from the world, live with greater spiritual awareness and walk more closely with God.

This Lent, why not take on stewardship as a discipline? How we use the total of our time, talent and treasure lies at the very core of our walk of faith.  What greater discipline can there be than learning to be good stewards of the one precious life that God has given us?|

If you are not a tither, you can begin by tithing your income for Lent. Then through the season think of weekly things you can do to make better use of your time, your health, your prayer life. “Fast” from TV, radio and the computer one day a week. Read a devotional daily. Plan a weekly service project.

Lent is a time of preparation and penance, but also for freedom from the patterns and habits of the world that imprison us.

--Rob Blezard, webmaster and editor

Reprint rights gladly given for congregations for nonprofit, local use. Just include this notice: Copyright (c) 2004 The Rev. Robert Blezard, www.stewardshipoflife.org. Used by permission.


New This Week:

Stewardship Bible Studies
This resource is all you need to conduct seven Bible studies on diverse issues of stewardship – from stewardship of creation to personal commitment. Good for small-group discussion. Click here for “Stewardship Bible Studies,” from the Methodist Church of Great Britain.


Talk About Money in Your Church
Need to raise the issue of financial stewardship in your congregation? Go for it! This resource gives you FIVE excellent reasons why you should. This is a bonus resource as well – explanations of each of the five reasons has a link to a video segment giving you more. Click here for “Talk About Money in Your Church,” from BuildingChurchLeaders.


The 9.5 Theses of Stewardship
Here are some interesting and creative principles to guide your own, and your congregation’s, stewardship ideas. Good discussion starter for your next council or stewardship committee meeting. Click here for “The 9.5 Theses of Stewardship,” from Gary Moore’s The Financial Seminary.


Living in the House of Love
With the war in Iraq war dragging on five years, recession looming and a presidential election under way, people are more fearful now than ever. How does that affect our people’s financial stewardship? Plenty. Using Henri Nouwen’s image that discipleship calls us to leave the house of fear and enter God’s house of love, this article gives commonsense ideas for reaching people in fear. Click here for “living in the House of Love,” in Circuit Rider magazine, the publication for United Methodist clergy.