What is Stewardship?

Stewardship is using our time, talent and treasure
to give glory to our Lord.

The following is an excerpt from the article, "Christian Stewardship - Reaching Our Spiritual Potential" on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America website.

The first aspect of Stewardship is the realization that our lives belong to God. My life and your life are not really our own; they belong to God. Once this realization is made we must act. We must give back to God what is really His - our lives. The sacrificial system of the Old Testament, the offering of different animals in the Temple, is in fact a "giving back" to God. Man acknowledges God as Creator and then returns to Him in gratitude and love what is His in the first place.

We see the same "giving back" attitude reflected in the Divine Liturgy. As the priest raises the host he says the following words: "Of thine own gifts we offer to Thee. . .”

We offer to God the Eucharistic Gifts realizing that they are not ours but His. We are “giving back” to God. However, the most important giving back is an individual and personal one.

We must give ourselves back to God. This is done in gratitude as we acknowledge Him as the source of our lives.

This “giving back” of ourselves is made reference to in Scripture by the Apostle Paul as he exhorts us to “present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable worship”. (Romans 12:1) This same principle is alluded to in each Liturgy as we pray to “commit ourselves, one another, and our whole lives to Christ our
God”.

Stewardship is a transferal of ownership. Just as we have seen a restaurant come under "new management", we too, must bring our lives under “new management”, the management of God. “New management” means a new way of doing things -God’s
way. “New management” means a transformation takes place - God’s transformation. “New management” means a new attitude, God’s attitude. Let us be more specific now and see what areas of our lives should be "given back" and come under "new management".

Talents
Each of us has been endowed with natural abilities. These abilities can be physical, social or intellectual. Besides these natural abilities, we have also been endowed with spiritual gifts which we received from the Holy Spirit at our Baptism. All of our natural abilities and spiritual gifts must be given back to God and brought under "new management."

Time
The reality of time began with God at the point of creation. Thus, we can say that time comes from God and belongs to God. We might then ask ourselves, "How much time should we give to God?" The answer is very simple. All time belongs to God. We must always see ourselves as God's representatives. This includes all of life's activities, whether we are shopping, playing, working, driving or walking. Our Christian life
must be more than a weekly Liturgy or an occasional meeting. We must strive to cultivate a Christ-consciousness that permeates our entire life. Our time must be "given back" to God and come under "new management".

Finances
Again we must realize that all comes from God. Whatever our occupation is, it involves
interaction with resources that God has provided. The health that we have, which allows us to work, comes from God. We might then ask ourselves another question. "How much of our finances should we give to God?" This question was addressed by our Lord in
His encounter with the rich young ruler. Jesus told him, "Sell all that you have and give it to the poor. " The message here is that the Christian should be possessionless. Yes, we must, and do have many things, but we must realize that we are only guardians of these possessions. Our finances must be given back to God and come under "new
management”. Bringing our finances under "new management includes the privilege of giving to our Church. With our giving, we support the local and National Ministries of our
Archdiocese.

Let us remember these things:

Life comes from God and should be given back to God.
Our time, talents and finances must come under "new management" - God's management.

As we give ourselves to God, the result will be similar to what happens in the Eucharist. We offer bread and wine and the Lord consecrates and blesses these gifts. The same will happen in our lives. As we offer ourselves, the Lord will bless and consecrate our lives.