These familiar words of the Good Samaritan capture the true spirit of Stewardship ‑ our responsible caring for the Church. 


Taking care of our Lord in the person of our sisters and brothers is at the heart of what the terms "Church" and "Parish" are all about. Our charity truly does begin at home. And then, in the spirit of true Christian love, we are called to responsibility for the rest of our community, especially for the poor. 


Yet, there is so much confusion and even embarrassment when it comes to addressing the idea of stewardship, another name for our financial obligation, to our Church and parish. The questions: "How much should I give?... How often?... Why?" are sometimes painful to ask and difficult to answer. 

In the Serbian Orthodox Church we have relied in the past on large numbers of people to support our growing parishes, or unpopular fundraisers bingo and catering. We thought the Church could survive on the "leftovers" from our purses and wallets. For fear of criticism, priests refrained from preaching on the "forbidden topic" of money. It is true that fundraising should not have to be a frequent topic of sermons.


Times have changed! With the advent of so many parish ministries, activities and programs, the need for responsible stewardship has increased dramatically in recent years. 


The Good Samaritan not only took the beaten man from the side of the road and "poured in oil and wine," but he actually followed through and continued to give! He challenged the innkeeper to take care of the poor beaten man until he returned. He promised to repay the innkeeper! 


As members of the parish, the challenge of caring for the Body of Christ, the Church, is the responsibility of each one of us! We are the “Samaritans!,”  the stewards, the caretakers of our parish, our faith community. 


Many of our people have already realized the urgency of our parish's needs. Their generosity to Christ and the Church makes us deeply grateful. God knows the sacrifices made to "build up the Body of Christ" (Eph 4:12). How can we all help? 



In today's active parish, our priests and their pastoral planning committees are continually challenged to respond to various needs. On the one hand the Gospel must be proclaimed, and on the other, the very real spiritual and material needs of the people of God must be addressed. As new and improved ministries and programs are developed, staff ‑ paid and volunteer ‑ must also be expanded to meet these new responsibilities. In addition to the spiritual focus, each parish must be concerned about necessary repairs, improvements, ongoing maintenance and, of course, the ever-rising costs of utilities. The parish is our spiritual home! We need to take care of it and to nurture the spirit of love for that home in the hearts of all of us.



Each parish is a FAMILY. Our Lord calls each of us into this community of Faith and Love. Just as our family at home experiences different stages and particular needs, so does our faith community. We rejoice and struggle through every time and season. In the parish setting, our community gathers to celebrate the living presence of the Lord who is made present through the Divine Liturgy and the Sacraments. We also celebrate through the proclamation of the Word and through one another, especially when we reach out in love for our sisters and brothers. 


Since we look to the future, we give special attention to our Children and young people. In a confusing world, we endeavor to give them the example of our own faith and love for Christ. Stewardship for Christ's Body, the Church, says "I love you" to the Lord and to each of the members of our community. That concern extends as well to those who feel themselves "outside" our community. Stewardship is symbolic of our compassion, a way of "pouring oil and wine" upon the sick, the suffering, and those who simply need to hear the Word of God and experience the beauty of Christ's love. 

Our Gratitude


During the Divine Liturgy, we give thanks to the Lord Our God for "it is right to give Him thanks and praise." Responsible Stewardship is our way of saying "thank you" to the Lord, who is the source of all our earthly blessings. We give back to the Lord a portion of all our gifts and material blessings. Sometimes we receive a sudden bonus or raise or an unexpected gift. In the spirit of gratitude, we remember the Lord when we experience these blessings. Our monetary "thank yous" should be sincere offerings given in joy. 



Responsible Stewardship is understood better when we reflect upon the idea of gift‑giving. Birthdays, anniversaries and the celebration of Christmas are great times of love for family and friends. We express that love through thoughtful gifts. Each Divine Liturgy is a prayer of thanksgiving to the Father, the source of all gifts. At the Offertory, through our generous donation of money, we express our personal love for Christ and help to build up the Community of Faith.

We wrap special gifts and carefully choose a card to fit the person we love. In the same way, our parish envelope is an external sign that this gift is a holy sacrifice freely given to our Lord. That envelope signifies a commitment that enables the parish to budget for the future and the envelope serves as a reminder of our responsible Stewardship. Even when we are away from the parish for a particular weekend, sending our envelope insures that the parish can continue to serve the needs of the community. Consistent use of the parish envelopes by all the parishioners is a tremendous testimony to our caring. Envelope use is essential to the success of our stewardship program. It lends dignity to our offering during Divine Liturgy. In most parishes, about three quarters of the Sunday offerings are given through the envelopes.



For many years, the average Serbian Orthodox attending Divine Liturgy would reach for the "leftovers" and place a handful of change or a dollar bill into the collection plate (tas), without too much thought. Responsible Stewardship means planning ahead and giving a proportionate amount of our income back to God. The Bible states the norm of 10% ‑ 10 cents out of every dollar earned. We find references as early as Genesis when "Abram gave him (Melchizedek) a tenth of everything" (Gn 14:20).  It sounds like a lot, but in practice, 5% can be given to the parish and 5% can be given to "the least of your sisters or brothers" ‑ the poor, the needy, missionaries, special collections for charity and even as tuition for education of our children. 


Stewardship or tithing isn't something new. We can find dozens of scripture references in both the Old and New Testaments. The message is always to give a gift in gratitude, trust and in thanksgiving to the Lord, the source of all our blessings.

St. Paul reminded the early Christians that "He who sows sparingly will reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will reap bountifully...God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor 9:6‑7).


Pledging ‑ Why do we need a stewardship form? Well, the use of a stewardship forms serves three very practical purposes: 
   
    1.    It enables each parishioner to plan ahead exactly how much will be given to the parish and to do charitable works.
    2.    It enables our Church to budget parish funds so that all our pastoral needs can be addressed efficiently.
    3.    It serves as a reminder of our responsible Stewardship so that our gift will be proportionate to our income and, therefore, a sacrificial gift to the Lord.


Prayerful 

Our parish gathers in prayerful gratitude at the Sunday Liturgy. Throughout the Liturgy we "lift up our hearts to the Lord ... Let us give thanks to the Lord our God ... lt is right to give Him thanks and praise."  monetary gifts at the time of the collection symbolize our self‑donation. We prayerfully offer ourselves through Jesus to the Father. 


Planned 

We need to decide through careful reflection how much our responsible donation should be.  This should be done as part of our family budget. 


Proportionate 

Stewardship requires that "the first fruits" (Lv 23:10) be given to the Lord. This means that the Lord is taken care of first then the other obligations can be satisfied. If there are emergencies, a sudden illness or unemployment, adjustments can be made accordingly. 


Sacrificial 

A sacrifice involves giving from our substance rather than from our abundance. Remember Jesus’ observation of the widow's mite (Lk 21. I‑4). It means giving from what we think we need for ourselves. We are changed spiritually when this sacrifice is offered for the sake of Christ. It identifies us with the sacrifice of Jesus and helps us to be “poor in spirit" (Mt 5:3).


I hope that these few words will reach the hearts and minds of our brothers and sisters and that they will have better understanding of the meaning, the necessity, and the reasons for Christian Orthodox Stewardship, which was for centuries a major characteristic of our Serbian People.  There are plenty of examples from Holy Nemanjic’s to our days, and the witnesses are numerous Churches and Monasteries throughout our ancestral homeland.  I believe that our generations are influenced enough with sacrificial love for neighbors that are in need and our beloved Church.  Therefore, I as your spiritual father am calling upon all of you to get together around our mother Church and support her, so that we can transfer our living faith to our children and future generations. 


With blessing yours,
Prota Slobodan Jovic

What does Stewardship mean? The exercise of Stewardship for an Orthodox Christian is the process of placing all of Creation in its proper perspective. It is the process of establishing the correct set of priorities in a life that is Christ-centered, Spirit-filled, and moving toward the Kingdom of Heaven. Once we dedicate ourselves to this, all earthly necessities will be provided. God does not ask us to take such a journey without providing us what we need for the journey. Stewardship is not a financial issue – it is a Spiritual one. It is ultimately related to our commitment to serving Jesus Christ; and, as long as we continue to think of stewardship in terms of money (dollars and cents) then we have completely missed the Biblical and Orthodox understanding of what Christian stewardship is.

Too many of us approach the Church using a business mentality (“The Church is a business and has to be run like one…”). Every business has a product. What is our product, as the Church? Salvation. Saving souls for Christ. Stewardship is that which provides greater commitment from Christ’s people (i.e., the Church) which allows us to save souls for Him. We are not here to talk about money, or fund-raising, but rather to increase our commitment to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior!

Explaining Stewardship in ‘lay’ terms

Let’s try to put aside our prejudices about the word ‘stewardship’ and focus on the image of breathing, We all have to breathe to live. We breathe in, we breathe out. And if we did not breathe in oxygen, we would die of oxygen-deprivation. Likewise, if we did not exhale the carbon dioxide from our lungs, we would asphyxiate and die.

In the image of our Faith, and the Church, the Body of Christ, we also can see the image of Breathing (In Genesis we see the breath or spirit of God moving over the waters. After the Resurrection Christ breathing upon his disciples and saying “Receive the Holy Spirit.”) How then does the Church ‘breathe in’ and ‘breathe out’?

Breathing out is the work of the holy people of God (the Church) moving out into the world, and this is known as Outreach. Breathing in is the holy people of God (the Church) returning to God that which is already His, and this is known as Stewardship.

If we do not practice the breathing out (Outreach) and breathing in (Stewardship) as Church, then We will die. The Church, our parish, will die. Remember: the Orthodox Church will still exist around the world, and in places that ‘breathe in and out’, but ours will not. Our Church is quickly becoming extinct in this country because we are not doing the Outreach and the Stewardship necessary to keep it alive…in most cases.

Why is “Breathing Out”—Outreach—important?

Let’s ask ourselves a question: are we growing? Is our parish growing? Are we bringing in new people and retaining those we have had? This is a very painful issue because we all know that we are not doing this….yet, if we read our Lord’s words in Matthew (28: 16-20), we quickly realize that this is the only reason to be The Church—to do Outreach: …Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the age…” This is the Great Commission of Christ, to bring all nations to Him. Are we doing this in our parish? Our ‘Parish Mission’ should be to save the people in our community, not to worry and fret about the material things. Outreach is a sound theological and biblical issue: we need to reach out not only to our own, but as well as to those who are lost. (We all can relate examples of friends who are disconnected from the Church).

As Fr. James Gavrilos, a contemporary Orthodox Stewardship Director, states, “Most parishes in America utilize what I refer to as ‘Little Bo Peep evangelism, they’ll come back some day.’ And clergy use the ‘hatch, match and dispatch’ strategy (baptize them, marry them and bury them).”

Historically, the Church in this country has taught the children (Sunday School) and ‘played’ with the Adults (social events). Rather, we need to teach the adults, and play with the children. Why? Because these are the realities we better face up to: All of us, not just the clergy, but the laity as well, are equally responsible for the Outreach and evangelism of our Church, of taking the message of salvation which Christ gave to His Church and bringing it to the world in which we live!

The Essence of ‘Breathing in’—Stewardship: We are talking about returning to God that which is already His. Do we believe that everything belongs to God, and we are simply caretakers of that which He gives to us?

Let’s analyze the above by answering a few questions. How many of us believe in God? How many of us believe that, by the Grace of God, all things of life are given to us as gifts and talents? Now, if we believe in the first two, how many of us believe that what we own or possess is ours? Most of us know that there is a world of difference in what we say we believe in, and what we actually do. And this is why we need to understand what Stewardship really talks about.
Did you know that the Bible speaks of ‘faith’ issues approximately 500 times; but expounds on the area of money and possessions over 2000 times? This shows how important what we do with our possessions and our money is in God’s eyes. So please do not tell me that stewardship is a financial issue. It is not. It is a spiritual one, and what we do with our money and our possessions reveals where our Faith truly is. “Show me a man’s checkbook, and I’ll show you what is important to him” Fr. Gavrilos stated in a recent talk. Do you agree or disagree?

Remember the story of the Widow’s mite in the Gospel of Mark (12: 41-44)? Compared to the wealthy, she gave all she had. While the rich gave out of abundance, she gave everything she had to live on.

Stewardship is about priorities and commitments, not amounts. Ask yourself this question: Can I commit, as part of my ongoing commitment to serving our Lord Jesus Christ, a greater portion of what God has already given me, (time, talents and treasures) and give it back to Him? If there is work in the parish to be done, will I donate my time and talents to help out? And what of my treasures (financial resources), do I give from what is left over, or first off to Him?
Our priorities are completely out of whack, we already have too much. Last year, in this country, over 9 billion dollars were spent on renting storage spaces, so people could put things they own but have no place for in their homes. Many of us seek to identify ourselves by our possessions and things, not as people of God, as Orthodox Christians. What if God blessed us the way we bless Him? What if He gave to us the way we give to Him?

Basic Concepts of Christian Stewardship

What we are giving God is His already – our time, our talents, and our treasures. Consider:

Time: 168 hours per week. How much time do we spend in His House the Church? In His Presence in “small Church”, our house on prayer? Do we respect and honor Him with His Time, and give it back to Him?

Treasures: Our financial resources and possessions are given to us by Him. Do we show our thankfulness by giving back to Him first from our hearts?

Talents: How am I making use of the talents He has blessed me with? Do I use them for my own purposes, or for His? Do I let them go to waste? Does our Church pay outsiders to do the work that we ourselves can do?

Christian stewardship is proportional-giving, whether it be a ‘tithe’ (10%) or a percentage thereof. It is not minimal-giving! (“How much do I have to give?” is not Christian…) Here, Fr. Gavrilos says that Orthodox parishes must lose the ‘dues mentality’: we can not pay dues to the Church, the Body of Christ, because then we believe we have a ‘right’ to something: “It is my right to vote! It is my right to be married! It is my right to be a Kum!” When we pay dues, we misunderstand the Church as a collection of rights for us, much like when we pay dues to a Country Club, or a Civic group, we have certain privileges that go along. (Look at the mentality that such attitudes breed…. member/non-member fees; etc.)

The “fund-raiser” mentality is a losing proposition: If we cannot support our own efforts as Orthodox Christian stewards, what does that say about our commitments to Christ? How can we rely on ‘outsiders,’ non-adherents of Orthodoxy, to support the ministry of our Church? That is not spiritually healthy. We cannot rely on earned income to pay our bills (i.e., a “good International Village” will help us to accomplish plans), nor on appeals for special projects. Just look at our Capital Improvements Drive, or our Renovation Fund to see the truth of this!

True Orthodox Christian Stewardship is pledging a regular amount of our time, our talents, and our treasures to ensure that the work of Christ, and, by His extension, the Church, gets done. Regular pledges, monthly, for example, help offset those times of year when things slow down, and giving may be more difficult, like at Christmas, or tax time.

Let’s look at four examples of non-stewardship giving with which we are all too familiar:

Crises-giving: The Church is in need. Give! (the infamous appeals letters…) What if God only gave His Grace out to us in emergencies?

Left-over giving: After we have done what we needed to do (pay bills, insurances, etc.), then we give to God! In a recent study done, a Charitable organization found that over half of all Americans spend more money on their TV, cable, or Internet bill than they gave to their respective Churches in a year. Again, what if God did this to us?

Once-a-year-giving: The writing of one check, and Voila! I am a member, I am in. Imagine if God only blessed us once a year with His Grace. Stewardship is a regular, consistent giving to God, a reflection of what He means to us.

Reluctant-giving: You know, it becomes painful when you see another collection coming up in Church, or, when we have to write the check, etc. I sometimes see the looks on our faces (“Oh no, not another one. Gee, I’m not rolling in dough you know!”) Think about this: Did Christ go to the Cross reluctantly? No! He gave of Himself abundantly, He practiced abundant giving. Can we do anything less?

Final Thoughts What we need to do, both as the Body of Christ (the Church), and as individual stewards is to pray about our relationship to God, asking Him to bless us with the courage to trust in Him to take care of our needs, both as individuals and as His Body, the Church.

Protopresbiter: Stevo Rocnage, McKeesport, PA