Faith Context

"Stewardship is receiving God’s gifts gratefully, cherishing and tending them in a responsible and accountable manner, sharing them in justice and love with others, and returning them with increase to the Lord."

There are many different ways one can define stewardship. It’s not as simple as a word or phrase – stewardship is a complete lifestyle, a life of gratitude, accountability and responsibility acknowledging God as Creator and Owner of all. Stewards as disciples of Jesus Christ see themselves as caretakers of all God’s gifts. Gratitude for these gifts is expressed in prayer, worship, action and offering by eagerly sharing these gifts out of love of God and one another.

We may all have our own definition of stewardship. Consider some of these explanations:

Stewarship is...

  • a call to a deeper understanding of our relationship with God, with ourselves and with others accepting all as brothers and sisters and reaching out to them.
  • evangelization and witness: spreading the Gospel by living it.
  • accepting that the mission of the Church to bear witness to Christ belongs to all and that God has called each of us to participate in that mission.
  • using our resources wisely in the awareness that they are held in trust for the whole community.

Whatever definition fits most for you at this point in your life, it is important that we begin to see ourselves as good stewards of God’s many gifts and recognize the ability we have to profoundly impact our family, our friends and our community.