Stewardship in Postmodern Culture

John Mathews, CSPG, CSP
Planned Giving & Trust Services Director, Southwestern Union Conference of Seventy-day Adventists

Another article taken from GC Stewardship Department

In the US only 9 percent of born-again adults report they give 10 percent of their income to charity.1 Is stewardship skating on thin ice in our postmodern culture? Does it really make a difference anymore?

The following facts provide a startling glimpse of the economic landscape of postmodern America. The United States is the wealthiest nation in the history of the world.2 If you earn $1,500.00 per year, you earn more than 75% of the world’s population.3 Americans save very little. The savings rate of most Americans is negative, and for those who do save, it’s a little over four percent.4 There were over one million bankruptcy filings in 2008.5 Stress has a negative influence on the personal and professional lives of half of all Americans.6 The number one reason for divorce is money or the handling of it.7 In July 2009 the average credit card debt per household was $7,861.8 There are more Barbie dolls in the US than people9 and more boats than harbor slips to hold them.10 In 2007 we spent $9.9 billion on soft drinks.11 The square footage of homes is increasing while the number of occupants shrinks.12 Penalty fees on revolving credit cards made up almost half the industry profits.13

It is within this economic landscape that postmodern theory states, “Truth is not universal, is not objective or absolute, and cannot be determined by a commonly accepted method…truth is socially constructed, plural, and inaccessible to universal reason.”14 Jill M. Hudson states, “No longer are the rules and principles that formerly governed society understood to be passed down through families, religious groups, or community norms. Morals, ethics, and values are created and re-created out of personal experience.”15 And finally, postmodern psychologist Robert Jay Lifton states, “Those who are consistent in their beliefs, who try to live according to a specific set of principles, and who imagine that they have a single core identity are mentally ill.16

The stewardship of giving, according to postmodern theory, means that you can create your own ethics and morals about giving. It is a personal subjective experience, not an absolute belief to be governed by. Your belief may be different from others but can coexist in harmony. No one can tell you how to give, because it is your business and you make it what you want it to be. There is no question that the stewardship of giving and postmodern theory are difficult, if not impossible, partners. It is the encroachment of postmodernism that puts stewardship on thin ice.

Stewardship in the church
Money is to some degree considered a taboo subject in churches. There is fear that its discussion will create guilt and anxiety, so pastors avoid preaching on the subject.17 Clergy do not want to offend or make members uncomfortable. Many of today’s churches have an inward focus, a “keep-the-doors-open,” and “let’s-take-care-of-ourselves” attitude known as the “scarcity syndrome.”18 Reports show that bank financing accounts for approximately 52 percent of church buildings with mortgages and the largest portion of the congregations’ budget going to pay that mortgage.19 Randy Alcorn states, “There is more blindness, rationalization, and unclear thinking about money than anything else.”20 It should be no surprise then, that giving has declined for the past 30 years21 and now some think that the parachurch ministries do most of the biblical teaching on money. Members appear to be participating in church and worship but doing other things with their money.
It is proposed that in postmodern culture, churches cannot expect that the old methods of giving will continue to fund the local work. Articulating vision will regain the momentum of church stewardship.22 If American Christians averaged giving 10 percent tithe to their organizations, the phrase “it would transform the world” would be an understatement.23 Did you know that those Christians giving the most percentage of income earn the least amount of money? “Americans who earn less than $10,000 gave 2.3 percent of their income to religious organizations, whereas those who earn $70,000 or more gave only 1.2 percent.”24 The working poor are the most generous.

Stewardship in the Bible
The study of stewardship in the Bible reveals that, first, God owns everything (Psalm 24:1). Secondly, we are stewards of His property (Psalm 8:6-8). The third principle of biblical stewardship is to be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:1-2). It is this third principle that is the baseline and the foundation for commitment that should differentiate the Christian from postmodernism. Faithfulness involves believing in a consistent and specific set of principles called absolutes. The best evidence of faithfulness is how we give and manage money.

One day Jesus was watching people give to the temple treasury. He observed the pious Pharisees giving with obvious display and ceremony. They wanted to be noticed and seen. Yet just a few days later, with murder in their minds, they were on their way to arrest Jesus. Money and power often go together, along with a sense of self-worth and self-satisfaction. They held giving in high esteem but failed to understand genuine faithfulness of the heart. They practiced one thing but did another. Church statistics and research in this postmodern culture seem to indicate that members are participating in church and worship but do not stand on the baseline of stewardship, which is faithfulness. We tend to give lip service but manage our money as secular postmoderns.

In the crowd that day was a poor widow who hesitantly approached with an offering in hand. With her decision made, the gift was completed quickly and unnoticed. Hoping to remain in obscurity, she hurried away but her eyes met the eyes of Jesus. Her gift was nothing compared to that of the Pharisees, but His gaze noted the passion of her heart and that gift of faith lighted the countenance of Christ. This now penniless widow with eyes riveted on Jesus heard Him say to His disciples, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.”25 The gift she gave fearfully was returned to her in Christ’s loving affirmation. Tears of joy welled up in her eyes as she left the temple. Jesus observed her active faith give sacrificially. She gave all she had to support the work of the temple and to a cause she loved. Her gift was a genuine expression of her faith that has contributed “in a thousand directions to the extension of the truth and the relief of the needy.”26 It was a conviction that held consistent beliefs in absolutes. In return, her faith grew stronger, confident, and active. Only faithfulness to a vision or a Person produces this kind of gift. Could we do the same with our last fifty cents? Faithfulness will always do more than required. That’s the kind of faithful stewardship that really makes a difference.

See available PowerPoint at http://adventiststewardship.com/.
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1Audrey Barrick, Study: Few Born Agains Tithe to Churches, April 14, 2008. www.christianpost.com/article/20080414/.
2www.worldsrichestcountries.com.
3www.globalrichlist.com.
4Andrew Kaplan. “The Savings Rate Has Recovered…If you Ignore the Bottom 99%.” www.nakedcapitalism.com.
5American Bankruptcy Institute. www.abiworld.org.
6www.apahelpcenter.mediaroom.com. “One Nation Under Stress.”
7www.crown.org.
8www.indexcreditcards.com.
9“Barbie Backlash” Parade, December 24, 2006.
10Scott Burns, “What I Learned on my Summer Vacation” Champaign, IL News-Gazette, July 10, 2005, C-5. For Universal Press Syndicate.
11John Sicher, editor; Special Issue: Top-10 Results for 2007. Beverage Digest, Vol. 52, No. 5; March 3, 2008. www.beverage-digest.com.
12Steve Brown, “The Peak of Home Sizes” The Dallas Morning News, appeared in Champaign, IL News-Gazette February 18, 2007.
13Gary Weiss, “Don’t Get Clobbered By Credit Cards!” Parade, August 10, 2008, p. 4.
14Albert Mohler, “Equip” September 2005, Stewardship in the Postmodern World.
15Jill M. Hudson, When Better Isn’t Enough: Evaluation Tools For The 21st Century Church. Alban Institute, 2004.
16Gene Edward Veith, “A postmodern Scandal,” World, February 21, 1998, p. 24.
17The Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University. “Faith, Money and Giving,” www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/LakeFamilyInstitute/faith_money.aspx.
18David S. Bell. Design Group International. Lecture on “Encouraging the Joy of Generous Giving.” September 2009.
19John R. LaRue Jr. “Loans and Capital Funding.” www.christianitytoday.com.
20Randy Alcorn, Money, Possessions, and Eternity, p. 12.
21John and Sylvia Ronsvalle, Giving to Religion: How Generous Are We?” The Christian Century, June 3-10, 1998.
22John A. Bash. Church Solutions, Avoiding the Church Bailout: Stewardship Beyond the Status Quo.” www.churchsolutionsmag.com/articles/641.
23Christian Smith, Michael O. Emerson with Patricia Snell. Passing the Plate, 2008, p.12.
24Smith, Emerson and Snell. Passing the Plate.p.44.
25Luke 21:1-4. Holman Christian Standard Bible, Ultrathin Large Print Reverence edition, 2004.
26Ellen G. White, Signs of the Times, November 15, 1910.

Empowering Servant Leadership

A good article taken from GC Stewardship Dept Website.

Vol-12 No 1

Empowering Servant Leadership
Ray S. Anderson, PhD
Senior Professor of Theology and Ministry
Fuller Theological Seminary

Summary: In this article we learn that God’s servant leader does not stand between the people and God, but stands with the people as the faithful steward, to provide discipline and correction, and to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

When we received a call to Christian ministry most of us thought that in becoming pastors we were assuming the role of being a shepherd of the sheep. After all, the shepherd’s crook is one of the most common symbols of pastoral ministry. What we had not counted on was that instead of feeding docile sheep we often ended up fighting wolves, sometimes in sheep’s clothing! Very quickly we also discovered that serving as a pastor of a church was more like managing a small business whose employees were unpaid volunteers and a board of directors who each had their own agenda.

Looking back on my own seminary training, I was prepared to be a minister, but not really prepared for ministry. Our professor of pastoral theology not only taught us about officiating at funerals and weddings, but had us practice with each other doing baptisms with real water—including immersion for those so inclined! However, we were never instructed in principles of church leadership nor were there any ‘practice’ sessions of conducting congregational and church board meetings. Apparently it was assumed that these skills came about through on-the-job training: for better or for worse which, as it turned out, was most often for the worse! I was warned against using my role as pastor to gain authority over the people. After all, we were told, Jesus set the model for ministry when he said, “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 29:28). Leading by serving makes a nice spiritual slogan but it is not so easily done in practice.

“I don’t believe in the concept of servant leadership,” a pastor once told me. “I am not the paid servant of my congregation, but their spiritual leader.” I could tell from his tone of voice that this pastor was protesting as much as he was proclaiming. When pressed, he admitted that he felt like he spent more time serving the needs of the congregation than leading it. There was an angry edge to his emotions and a bit of defiance in his eyes.

Servant leadership: vision
More than one pastor has ended up feeling this way. Seminary graduates often enter pastoral ministry with idealistic visions of a spiritual ministry devoted largely to preparing rich and edifying sermons, giving wise counsel to lay leaders, and offering pastoral care and comfort to needy souls. After all, the call is to ‘full-time ministry.’ Sooner or later, these same pastors begin to realize that the congregation is reading from a different version of the original vision. ‘Full time’ is the name of the horse hitched to the cart with a dozen wheels with one or more dropping off at the most inopportune times, and ‘minister’ is the code word for the driver who also doubles as the mechanic.

The fundamental misconception with servant leadership, as reflected by the pastor cited above, is that one ends up being the servant of the people or the organization. This leads to the ‘doormat’ concept of leadership, where one lays down whatever dreams and plans one has and invites people to walk over them. “I am only the coach,” one pastor said, “my people are the players.” Or, to put it in more ecclesiastical terms, “I am only the pastor, my people are the ministers.” This concept of servant leadership is really the abandonment of leadership. It leads to failure on the part of the leader and frustration among the members of the church.

Robert Greenleaf, who wrote the seminal work on servant leadership, made it clear that the leader is not subservient to the desires and goals of the organization, but is a servant of the mission of the organization. It is the vision of the specific mission or goal of the organization, says Greenleaf, that marks the effective leader. “Foresight is the ‘lead’ that the leader has. When he loses this lead and events start to force his hand, he is leader in name only. He is not leading; he is reacting to immediate events and he probably will not long be a leader.”1

The congregation that called me to be their pastor when I graduated from seminary had been meeting in a temporary building for six months and looking to buy property. While preaching twice on Sunday (morning and evening) I assumed leadership of the church board and found myself negotiating for the purchase of the property, arranging for the financing, securing an architect and building contractor and then working alongside of the small crew of about a dozen men in our congregation every Saturday for almost a year putting up the first building. Hundreds of decisions had to be made, processed through the lay leadership, while avoiding the landmines of petty prejudices, passionately held opinions, and the power dynamics typical of strong egos!

Servant leadership: power
I quickly realized that the major transition in my role as pastor was one of relinquishing the built-in power of the office of pastor in order to gain the authority of a pastoral leader. The temptation was to use a power-play when my authority was questioned. Transitioning into effective leadership meant letting go of power in order to define the vision in such a way that others were empowered to lead the way forward. This meant personal vulnerability (nothing to defend at the expense of another’s feelings) coupled with a persistent challenge to make the vision so compelling that it belongs to everyone (nothing to gain at the expense of another’s loss). I learned that effective leadership involves discipline that corrects disorder and direction that overcomes disorganization and confusion. Effective servant leadership means directing and coordinating the energies and resources of the people of God; this is being a ‘faithful steward’ of God’s vision.

Servant leadership: spiritual gifts
When we lose the vision for God’s Kingdom we may be close to losing sight of the mission that transforms routine work into redemptive ministry. The gifts of the Spirit were as much for the edification of the minister as for the work of the ministry (Ephesians 4:1-16). Christ’s ministry was not first of all to meet the needs of the world, but to do the will of the Father. Jesus did not have to love the world more than the Father who sent him into the world (John 3:16). No task is merely routine, no position is merely administrative, no calling is merely an occupation when it is Christ’s on-going ministry to the Father for the sake of the world through the power of the Holy Spirit.

An effective servant leader must possess three things: a creative vision that inspires, a delegated power that enables, and a spiritual gift for ministry. Pastors are servant leaders of the people of God. They are not accountable by virtue of always having the right vision, but to submit their vision to the wisdom of God and be willing to abandon their own in favor of God’s. They are not accountable for every strategic plan, but that the plans are worked so as to lead to the will of God. They are not responsible to succeed at every point, but at every point to be accountable to the gift of the Spirit and the character of Christ in exercising that gift.

The final test of the servant leader is that the ‘little ones’ who belong to Christ are not despised and abused, for “in heaven, their angels continually see the face of my father” (Matthew 18:10). The effective servant leader is not one who ‘works the angles,’ but who sees the angels. God’s servant leader does not stand between the people and God, but stands with the people as the faithful steward, to provide discipline and correction, and to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

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1Robert Greenleaf. Servant Leadership (New York: Paulist Press, 1977), p. 18. See also his book, The Servant as Religious Leader (Windy Row Press, 1982). On the vision of leadership see, Ray Anderson, Minding God’s Business (Eerdmans, 1986) pp. 66-68, and The Soul of Ministry: Forming Leaders for God’s People (Westminster, 1997), pp. 197-204.