Stewardship is "the loving submission of all areas of life to the lordship of Jesus Christ in response to God's saving grace," according to a recommendation adopted by the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Stewardship Summit in the South Pacific, held August
Stewardship is “the loving submission of all areas of life to the lordship of Jesus Christ in response to God’s saving grace,” according to a recommendation adopted by the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Stewardship Summit in the South Pacific, held Aug. 8-11 on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.
Seventy-four invitees, including church administrators, departmental leaders, treasurers, church pastors and members, confronted the reality and challenge of stewardship as part of the Christian experience and the life and mission of the church.
“Biblical stewardship is misunderstood by many of our church members as simply tithes and offerings,” said Dr. Erika Puni, director of stewardship for the church there. “But we need to see the spiritual side of stewardship, in the context of mission and worship.
“We did not intend to answer all the questions about stewardship,” Puni explained. “This has been a forum to raise awareness of stewardship issues and begin the process of working through these as a church.”
Pastor Ben Maxson, director of stewardship for the world church, told summit attendees they must face the fact that “stewardship as we are now doing it is not working and has no future unless we make significant changes.
“The whole thing is about exploring how we can help people implement the reality of Jesus Christ as lord of their life,” Maxson said, “where we live our whole lives as acts of worship, giving glory and honor to God, letting Him be in control of our lives.”
While the summit repeatedly recognized that stewardship is more than financial, this aspect of stewardship was a significant focus.
“Within stewardship, I see financial discipleship as an integral part to be addressed, but it’s addressed as how we make Jesus lord of the money He has given us,” said Maxson. “Then within that we look at tithes and offerings as an outgrowth of that experience with God. The driving force always has to be the relationship with God.”
Maxson presented a big-picture perspective to the challenges of stewardship. “Around the world, about 30 percent of our members are faithful with tithe,” he reported. “But if we look at every serious discipleship indicator—levels of participation in ministry, levels of attendance, devotional life, giving and witnessing—all those are on a steady decline. That tells us that training members to walk with God is also in decline.
And this also contributes to a financial crisis, he added: “I don’t know of a localized church area that is not in cut-back mode. Tithe and offerings have not kept up with the cost of wages, and as a result we have less discretionary funds for mission and we tend to function on the survival level.”
Angel Rodriguez, director of the church’s Biblical Research Institute, presented theological perspectives on stewardship and tithing at the summit. “As I listen to the discussion, there is no doubt there is a very good grasp of the fundamental issues. The comments addressing the issues indicate there is also good thinking and planning,” he noted. “There is a level of maturity that is excellent. It is good for the church in this division.”
Rodriguez also highlighted the role of church leadership as stewards of the church and its resources. “We’re looking at how we as a church can be more efficient at fulfilling the stewardship command, and the responsibility [church leaders] have to the church,” he said.
Church members at the summit were enthusiastic about the challenges and opportunities raised at the summit. “I’ve learned things I have not heard before in 14 years as a church treasurer,” said Lina White from Ayr, northern Queensland. “It’s enthused me to go back and share the things I have learned.”
Chris O’Dell from Christchurch, New Zealand, echoes this experience. “I’ve learned a lot about how the church administration works,” he said. “Treasurers have a real burden with handling the Lord’s funds, but it seems the church has fallen short in educating people about tithe and how it works.
“The summit has reinforced the stewardship commitments we have made.” O’Dell added, “I hope this will be passed on to church members.”
“The transparency and communication between administration and members is very important,” said Trish Moffitt, a church member from Orange, New South Wales. “But most important is for church members - all of us - to really get a handle on who we are, who God is and what that means for how we handle our money and other resources. What we’re given is a blessing from God.”
Summit attendees endorsed a series of nine major recommendations, reflecting the deliberations and outcomes of the summit, to be followed up by the South Pacific Stewardship Department and church leadership.
Dallas O’Connor, pastor of the Mount Gambier church in South Australia, sees the challenge to himself and the church as a whole “to disciple people and uphold Jesus as lord of our lives as an everyday choice.
“But I believe that is achievable,” he added, “because that is what we’re about.”
