Effective Stewardship

This first lesson in the series affirms a variety of callings, but it pauses on the vocation of business since it is so often misunderstood. The call of the entrepreneur is a true, creative calling that should be encouraged and nurtured by the church, not disdained. It is not based on greed, nor is the wealth gained in one place necessarily wealth lost somewhere else.

This second lesson in the series also encourages participants to look at the trade-offs for various environmental policies and remember that, as stewards, we often are called to make hard choices and to remember other stewardship responsibilities, such as our responsibility to the world's poor.

This third lesson in the series introduces the principle of subsidiarity, the idea that family members, neighbors, fellow church members-those closest to a problem-are usually best equipped to provide effective compassion.

We should protect and nourish our civil institutions, partly by insisting on a properly limited role for government, and partly by rejecting the feel-good, follow-your-impulse ethos that is doing so much to undermine marriages, families and the church.

We have a stewardship responsibility to give to the work of the church. Doing so may require us to bring our habits of spending more fully under the Lordship of Christ.