Ponder Anew 1!

David R. Larson            Loma Linda, California 

Throughout history the church has found itself in trouble when it moves uncritically in lock step with the prevailing culture. The claims that the church has a unique message and a particular story to proclaim are unrecognizable when it looks just like everything else around it.

The idea of "stewardship" has long been a part of the vocabulary of the church, based on the understanding that to be a steward is to be God’s trusted manager of the resources we have been given. Too often in today’s church the word "stewardship" is a code for raising money.  Seeing the success that professional and often hardnosed secular fundraising has produced in society, time and again the church has too eagerly and too uncritically embraced those techniques. 

Michael O’Hurley-Pitts would not suggest that the church ignore what can be gleaned from professional fundraising; however, in an articulate and passionate manner, he calls the church to be true to its own message.

In The Passionate Steward, Michael argues that decades of understanding church attendees as donors rather than teaching the Christian vocational notion of life long stewardship has undermined the church's ability to continue to provide financially for the ministry it undertakes. He argues convincingly that Christian stewardship has little to do with funding budgets, naming opportunities, duty, or who gives the most. It is rather about the use of our time, talent and treasure individually and corporately, to engage in prayer, worship, mercy, kindness and acts of charity. Stewardship has to do with our generous response in praise and honour of our generous Creator God.

In this book you will find a challenge to articulate the vision and values under which the church works. You will be asked to reflect on a theology of stewardship that is easily understood. You will discover among other valuable insights a creative comparison of secular and Christian motivation for philanthropy and where  we differ from the prevailing culture. 

Michael issues a challenge to see stewardship as a corporate church community calling and not just an individual pursuit. You will find in these pages some disturbing research which puts a lie to many of the myths we often labour under. Some may argue that too much of the statistical evidence presented is based on United States research; nevertheless, there is plenty of Canadian information and a comparative study that is both valid and valuable.

Having given us food for thoughtful in faithful reflection on stewardship, Michael brings to bear his experience as a professional Christian fundraiser on a stewardship renewal program that I sense can be adapted for parishes large and small. It is a renewal which does not start with the idea of stewardship as raising money. 

He provides a critique of a variety of funding approaches parish communities can try, suggestions for hiring professional consultants when needed, some general coaching when conducting special financial and capital campaigns and a commissioning service for volunteers who undertake the ministry of visiting their fellow parishioners in their homes.

All in all, Michael has produced a book that is easy to read, straightforward and contains much grist for the stewardship mill. I hunch that the church would do well to take this book seriously. We need a careful debate on our understanding of stewardship within church.  This book will make a significant contribution.