April 2006 Stewardship Tips

Two items for your April bulletins or newsletters

A stewardship challenge…

It’s April. Tax time! And for those who itemize deductions, it’s also a chance for a “stewardship check-up.” After everything is gathered and added up, the tax form reveals just exactly how much was received in income and what percentage of that income was given to the church and to other charitable causes in the last year. Those two numbers prompt two stewardship questions: Am I grateful to God for the gifts, talents, and circumstances that allow me to make that income? Does my giving reveal my gratitude? Good stewards are those who can say “Yes!” – and those who are moving steadily, year-by year, ever-closer to that answer.

Stewardship Freedom Day?

For some years now, tax economists have calculated how many days Americans must work just to satisfy the demands of the tax collector. And they estimate that “Tax Freedom Day” will be sometime in April this year. Expect to hear it on the news or see it in the paper soon. But when, a local pastor asked recently with a twinkle in his eye, is “Stewardship Freedom Day”? An interesting question! For those who put a dollar or their spare change – or nothing at all – into the collection basket, the question is meaningless. For those who give a percentage of income, a date could be calculated based on that same percentage of the 365 days in the year – giving 10%, for example, would make “Stewardship Freedom Day” fall on the 37^th day, or February 6^th.

But stewardship is about far more than money. How do we measure the value of our gifts of time and talent? Well, we may not need to. The late Archbishop Murphy of Seattle was fond of saying that we don’t owe the Lord a percentage of what we have, anyway. Because God has given us everything, we must be accountable to the Lord for all we have and are – 100%! Not 5% or 8% or 10%... So when is “Stewardship Freedom Day”? Well, in the sense implied by “Tax Freedom Day,” that is, freedom from stewardship, Archbishop Murphy would no doubt have said that there is no such thing! And in these few lines of verse by an unknown poet, an angel answers the question in much the same way:

Must I keep giving, my whole life through?

No, said the angel, piercing me through,

Just ‘til the Master stops giving to you!