By Brian Durham
Church Member

When you hear the word Stewardship what comes to mind for you? Stewardship is much more than sitting down and praying over our finances and asking God to direct us on how to use them. It is managing our life and all the resources that we have been given. Taking the time, talents, and treasures that have been entrusted to us and using them to serve one another in our homes, our church, and in our community. I think many of us only think of money, perhaps the beginning of the annual financial campaign here at JCUMC when we hear this word, but it’s an even greater opportunity for us to support our Church and its various ministries that provide so much for us and our community.

While giving of our finances is an important part of Stewardship, it is even more important to understand that Stewardship is so much more. Stewardship is life itself.

I recently read a devotional entitled “Stewardship of Life” in which the author discussed how if in fact we were created by a Creator, and not ourselves, then we are not our own, and are thus stewards of everything that has been entrusted to us. Webster defines Stewardship as “…the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care”. Talk about expanding our perspective of what Stewardship truly is!

Our life and what we do with this life has been entrusted to us. So, in 2020 and beyond let us not limit the definition of Stewardship, but instead allow this full definition to encompass our very lives.