Stewardship Newsletter Archive
 Sign up to receive this free email
newsletter about once a week.
|
| |
Stewardship Reflections on Luther's Small Catechism Part 5: How can we respond to our call as stewards following what God commands?
Greetings,
This is part of a series of reflections on Luther's Small Catechism.
Rev. Erica Kennedy frames the budget process as an opportunity instead of an obligation. As tax season comes closer and we prepare our documents to be sent in to the IRS, it is a good time to do a review of expenditures and adjust our spending habits.
Grace & Peace,
Jerry Hoffman
How can we respond to our call as stewards following what God commands?
Imagine you are on a beautiful beach. A hundred yards or so out in the water someone has set out some ropes and buoys. Beyond the ropes and buoys are dangerous undertows and shark activity. Within the boundaries, you can swim and play in safety and complete freedom. Can you go beyond the buoys? Of course you can. It is pretty easy to swim under the rope and venture out. Is it smart to go beyond the buoys? No, because you are likely to get sucked down by the undertow or eaten alive by sharks. Now, think for a minute about a budget. It sets safe boundaries for how to use money. By spending [or saving] within the limits, you can safely and freely enjoy spending. What happens when we spend [or save] beyond the limits? We get sucked down by the undertow of debt and eaten by a whole series of financial sharks that want a piece of us.
Until I heard this analogy during a Good $ense Budgeting Course, I understood the budgeting aspect of financial stewardship as a stressful, negative and restrictive activity only to be avoided or used by people who were in financial crisis. However, when I heard this story, it changed my perspective. This image provides a way for us to think about boundaries and budgets in financial stewardship with a sense of freedom rather than from a sense of restriction, from a sense of God's abundance rather than from a sense of scarcity.
Please see the rest of this article and the rest of the series by going to: How can we respond to our call as stewards following what God commands?
|
|
March 18, 2010
Luther Seminary welcomes you to Stewardship for the 21st Century.
Go to Working Preacher for the most helpful and downright coolest resource for preachers ever.
Also, check out Enter the Bible,
Luther Seminary's newest and greatest resource in biblical study.
Sign up to receive God Pause daily e-mail devotionals, based on the weekly Scripture readings.
Featured Author:
Rev. Erica Kennedy is the Asst. Director Fin. Aid, Interim Dean of Students at Luther Seminary.
Check it out! Spread the word! Register now for the conference - Rethinking Stewardship: Our Culture, Our Theology, Our Practices that will be held at St. Andrew Lutheran Church, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, July 19-21. There are special rates available for the first 80 seminary students or pastors in their first five years of ministry.
A CLICK AWAY
Stewardship Home Page
New Stewardship Resources
Subscribe to Weekly E-mail Newsletter
Contact Us
Add to the Site
Quote: "Healthy financial stewardship practices that begin with giving, saving and then spending, consider the whole of what God gives us to steward."
—Erica Kennedy
Question: How does God move in the entirety of your budget?
|
|
|
View more past newsletter details.
|
|
|
