Stewardship Adventure

It was a joyful Sunday as we kicked off our next great adventure as a church family: our stewardship adventure.

For those of you who did not grow up in the church world, stewardship is our word for taking what God has given us and setting aside a certain amount just for the work of what God is doing in our neighborhood.

This can look like tithing— giving ten percent of the money we earn to the church.

This can look like using our talent and sharing it freely with your church and your neighbors.

This can look like going the extra mile and sharing with people when the easier thing is just looking out for yourself.

But at the center of stewardship is the theme of commitment.

Commitments are so central to a life of community. Since I am a Christian, I make a ton of commitments. I commit to not let politics change the way I look at other people. I commit to not scream at people even when they make me angry. I commit to be a gentle spouse and father.

And sometimes I fail at these commitments.

But the thing that keeps me coming back to Jesus again and again is that even though I fail at my commitments, it doesn’t stop me from remaking and making new commitments.

In this season of stewardship, it can be so easy to say no to commitments because we worry we won’t follow through.

An easy way to not let anyone down is to not promise anything, right?

But friends, hear the good news— you can’t let God down. When you make a commitment and need to remake that commitment later, God doesn’t think less of you. God instead sees a beloved child trying their best… striving to be more.

Instead we get to be courageous. Being courageous does not mean doing a thing you know that you can do. Rather it is doing the thing that must be done even though you might fail. As followers of Jesus we get to be bold and courageous even though we may not succeed.

This Sunday we wrote out our commitments for our time. We promised to give a certain amount of our time to the work of the Gospel. This might be serving on the tech team, worship team, leading small groups, etc. But all of these commitments are between you and God. These are not commitments you can fail, rather these are intentions meant to inspire all of us to look more like Jesus.

May we be that bold. May we be that courageous. May we fail and pick ourselves up, again and again until one day we arrive at glory.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

-Pastor Michael