STEWARDSHIP

is personal responsibility for taking care of another person's property or financial affairs or in religious orders taking care of finances. Historically, stewardship was the responsibility given to household servants to bring food and drinks to a castle dining hall. The term was then expanded to indicate a household employee's responsibility for managing household or domestic affairs. Stewardship later became the responsibility for taking care of passengers' domestic needs on a ship, train and airplane, or managing the service provided to diners in a restaurant. The term continues to be used in these specific ways, but it is also used in a more general way to refer to a responsibility to take care of something owned by someone else.

Stewardship is a disciple’s response, a call to conversion. A life of stewardship calls us to share a part of ourselves--our time, our gifts, our resources. Thanks be to God!

Stewardship is a theological belief that humans are responsible for the world, and should take care of it. It can have political implications, such as in Christian Democracy.

The only means I have to respond to God is through what I am and what the only means I have to respond to God is through what I am and what I have.-- The Rev. Canon Albert J. Colton

Give all thou canst; high heaven rejects the lore Of nicely calculated less or more.” --William Wordsworth

The pledges and offerings we present at the altar every Sunday. The pledges and offerings we present at the altar every Sunday celebrate love, freedom, compassion, simplicity, and life. Let us rejoice

Each one of you has received a special grace, so like good stewards each one of you has received a special grace, so like good stewards responsible for all these different graces of God, put yourselves at the service of others.1 Peter 4:10

St. Paul knew well that proper giving glorifies God and produces healthy Christians. “You will glorify God by your obedience in acknowledging the gospel of Christ, and by the generosity of your contribution . . . 2 Corinthians 9:13

STEWARDSHIP?

by M. Linda Steffey Lord.... What have your creatures doneTo be so

persecuted? They are hunted to extinction,Trapped, abused, electrocuted! Their heads hang on wallsThey are slaughtered for their tusk

While still alive stripped of their fur And tortured for their musk!

I hope you don't regret, Lord...For giving man free willThere are times he acts like GodAnd has the right to kill! Is it for greed he tortures?Is it for thrill he kills?Shooting animals, his own kindWhen will he get his fill?

Thy animals are magic, Lord...Their beauty unsurpassedThey were here long before usBut wiped out with a blast!We have lost so many speciesPollution, trapped and shot!We don't consider life lost...Just the dough we got!

I love all creatures living I see God in each one Whatever man does to them To God..this has been done!

Man must fall upon his knees And mend his greedy ways... Re-examine how he treats life And give all life better days... (c) M. Linda Steffey 1998