Here's a complete resource for a congregation to begin using an asset-based approach to financial stewardship. "This simple program can help your congregation fund God’s mission in a fresh and exciting manner." Available for free PDF download. From ELCA Stewardship.
To explore relationships between prayer and stewardship.
MATERIALS
Copies of the Bible Study Leader's teaching outline
SUGGESTED TIME
25 minutes
NOTES TO THE LEADER
1. Start by asking members of the group to define "prayer." If it is not said, ask them if they have ever heard, "prayer is conversation of the heart with God." In the first paragraph, the writer defines prayer as communication. Since communication happens in all types of situations it is important to emphasize that in prayer the lesser goes to the greater, the steward (manager) is conversing with God (the owner). Just as God gives us everything in our world, even so God gives us faith to believe. In prayer we seek renewal and strengthening of faith by sharing our concerns with God. James Weldon Johnson, the poet, has a character say this: "Oh Lord, we come as empty pitchers to a full fountain."
Read Mark 1:32—39 from paragraph four of the study. In your own way tell the group what is in paragraph three. Jesus shared our humanity, got tired and "drained," and he sought the renewing presence of Him who "neither slumbers nor sleeps." Like Jesus, the people of God live in the presence of conflict between forces of darkness and the Spirit of God. We have the assurance of the ultimate victory of God because of the resurrection—but, here and now, we get tired, discouraged, and tempted. We cannot be sustained only by the memory of an event (the resurrection); we need the assurance that comes through communication with the One who is risen, and through Him with His Father and ours. Background for these observations is in paragraphs five through eight of the study. Point this out and use the material as you see fit. Point out to the group that there are different rhythms in created life: evening and morning, the seasons, the tides; ask them to name some others. Examples: the lunar cycle, activity and rest.
Rhythm is an expression of the order of creation. The Christian steward works within the order of creation, and is subject to it. There is a rhythm in the inner life of persons. There is a time to seek the Lord and a time to do God’s will. Our stewardship is enabled by our acknowledging this order and rhythm and living within it. Set regular times for prayer, Bible reading, and meditation.
You may ask the group what their preferred time is for this period of prayer and what frequency they have found to be most effective (daily, several times a day, etc.).
Ask if anyone cares to share a technique of prayer or meditation that helps orient his or her attention and focus on God. The background for this section is in paragraphs 9 through 12.
Paragraphs 13 and 14 are a concluding summary.
Following them, please use the following prayer: "0 Lord God, heavenly Father, from whom without ceasing we receive exceeding abundantly all good gifts and who daily of thy pure grace guardest us against all evil; grant us, we beseech thee, thy Holy Spirit that, acknowledging with our whole heart all this thy goodness, we may now and evermore thank and praise thy loving-kindness and tender mercy; through Jesus Christ, they Son, our Lord."
The Bible Study
1. Stewardship is the effective management of that which God has entrusted to us. It also involves the furnishing of necessities so that orderly, productive activity can be maintained. In this context prayer is the communication between the steward and the Lord.
2. The New Testament has much to say about this. However, in this brief study we will focus on the prayer life of our Lord Jesus. From him we can learn the most effective way to support and effectively carry out our responsibilities as stewards of God's treasure.
3. Clearly, Jesus felt that he had become human (incarnate) in order to bring the kingdom of God among people—this was his peculiar stewardship task. The gospels show that the life of Jesus was one of hard work in fulfilling this task. And in doing it he was under constant pressure from the thronging crowds. Furthermore, because he was very much a human being, it "took a lot out of him" to minister to the needs (spiritual, mental, and physical) of those who daily pressed in on him.
4. Mark 1:32-39 reads:
That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons. And the whole city was gathered together about the door. And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him. And in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him followed him, and they found him and said to him, 'Every one is searching for you.' And he said to them, 'Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also; for that is why I came out.' And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
Observations About the Passage
5. The conflict between the forces of wholeness and light with the forces of brokenness and darkness can be seen to be centered in Jesus. He is the "eye of the storm." Jesus is no placid Galilean poet meditating amid flower-covered hills, but a person doing battle with everything that mars human life. We should be reminded that our work is not within the comfortable church only, but in the world.
6. Mark sketches the story of the disciples in pursuit of their Master, bringing him the message that everybody was looking for him. This reminds us of the importance of intercessory prayer and of interpersonal human communication.
7. Jesus reveals the passion that burned within him to preach throughout the length and breadth of Galilee in fulfillment of his mission. This tells us that we should be zealous for the kingdom also since the Church is the incarnate Christ in our world.
8. What is the key to Jesus' productive ministry? "And; in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place, and there he prayed." No lying in bed beyond the time necessary for physical refreshment. He went out from the small house so as not to disturb others or be disturbed by them. Jesus could not carry on a ministry of constant self-giving without renewal; and he knew where to find it (alone with God) and when to find it (early in the morning). But with renewal he could face anything—and he did!
9. In Mark 6 there is another story that illuminates the same point. It is the story of the feeding of the 5,000 and the storm on the Sea of Galilee. Again there was intense activity, considerable excitement, milling crowds, even violent nature! How did Jesus keep his serenity in the midst of all that? Such withdrawal gave him peace within and an outward serenity that was infectious to others.
10. There was a rhythm in the life of Jesus: work and withdrawal ... work and withdrawal … work and withdrawal. It was a rhythm he sought not only for himself but also for his disciples (Mark 6:31). It is a rhythm we would do well to learn from him.
11. Jesus, of course, is not the sole witness to the necessity of this form of rhythm in life. Martin Luther once wrote: "I am so busy that I find I cannot do with less than four hours a day in the presence of God."
12. As we learn this form of stewardship, we will be able to cope more productively with the tasks of stewardship presented to us. It is imperative that we maintain contact with the "owner of the world" over which we have been given stewardship.
13. Being born anew is not a single event in a human life—but it is a repeated event. As sleep is the refreshment that brings newness to the physical body, so prayer is the refreshment that brings newness to the spiritual life.
14. Neither should we forget that the rhythm, like all else, is a gift of the God who loves us in Jesus Christ. Pray, then, that God would help us establish this rhythm in our lives that we may be more orderly and productive in our activities of the kingdom.
The Rev. Bryce W. Shoemaker prepared this study in the 1980s while a pastor in the Lutheran Church in America, one of the predecessor bodies of the ELCA. He died in 1987.
