For some time now, a deep desire of my heart has been for us at the Chapel of the Cross to grow in financial stewardship. By that I do not mean, “I wish we had more money.” To grow in financial stewardship is to grow in faith. It is to integrate more deeply into our daily lives the love of God and our neighbor. We are called to do this individually and communally.

Individually, each of us is to wrestle with our priorities. Whether we are just beginning our schooling or our adult lives or whether we are well on into retirement, there is a constant pull at us only to serve ourselves, to put ourselves before God and neighbor. We have many present necessities to attend to and many future needs to plan for. Most often we feel our resources are in short supply. The temptation is strong not to give back generously of what we have already been given. We will do that, we tell ourselves, once we have been blessed with more. For now, we will manage as best we can.

“Christian stewardship,” it has been said, however, “is more than the management of things; it is the refusal to let things manage us.” It is the determination to recognize God's lavish generosity with our own and to trust that God will continue to provide for us and for our needs. Not that we should be foolish and not plan for the future; but we should also not be foolish by trusting only in ourselves. When we can look beyond our financial anxieties and return thanks to God by giving away a proportion of what we have been given, we will grow in love and generosity and gratitude, as well as in freedom and peace and joy.

Communally too, we are called to grow in financial stewardship. Our vision as the Chapel of the Cross is to be one of service to God and of mission to others. Even the money we “spend on ourselves” is to equip us for mission and to enable us to worship God and to be a witness to others. A good portion of our budget goes beyond the parish. The ABC Sale proceeds are all given away. We make our buildings available at no charge for gatherings and activities of other community and university and diocesan ministries. I am very happy that we have a vestry policy of tithing beyond the parish all undesignated bequests and extraordinary gifts. Over the years we have grown enormously in our financial stewardship.

But we should not be satisfied. We have all been given so much, and there is so much more we could be doing. Imagine how much more fruitful our communal stewardship would be if each of us grew in our individual financial stewardship by just one percent! Not only would we each be growing in faith and operating out of an expansive and joyful theology of abundance rather than a theology of scarcity, but as a parish we would be becoming the good and faithful stewards God calls us to be.

We are on that road. I deeply hope that we will continue together on that joyful
journey.

- Stephen

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