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Describe what you've learned preaching over the years on stewardship.

It's helpful to preach as a fellow traveler, to share about my own struggles, how my wife and I have made decisions around the use of time and money and the talents God has given us.

One story comes to mind about my first stewardship campaign. We had engaged a consultant, and he encouraged me to share my personal commitment to our building project. I wasn't comfortable with that, but I went ahead and shared the financial commitment my wife and I had made; not just the dollar amount, but the conversation we'd had around it. That simple act changed the whole dynamic of that campaign. It opened up conversations for people. It was a small church; they all knew what I made and what I was committing, and so stewardship suddenly became concrete and accessible for people.

We did a similar thing in our recent campaign here at Grace. In conjunction with a teaching series, we prepared a 30-day devotional guide where staff and elders each wrote an entry about some personal insight they've had as stewards. Once again, the leadership became fellow travelers with people and put us all on the same level.

A second thing that has helped is to use numbers and be specific. Until you get concrete, people don't always hear or understand. We did that in a recent series on stewardship of time. Working out of Psalm 90, I talked about how we live 70 or 80 years. I calculated that 80 years equals 29,200 days. Then I said, "How quickly can you go through $29,000?" Suddenly, when people had a sense of how many days they had left, we had their attention. When we got to the tithing sermon a couple weeks later, I pulled the median household income for the county, which was $62,000, and said, "if you tithe that money, that's $6,200 a year; that's $120 a week in the offering plate." Many of the people told me afterwards they had never thought about what tithing really meant until we used the numbers.

You need to know the culture in which you're teaching. My first church was just outside of New York City. New York is a money culture, so I could be direct with people about money. After 15 years in New York, we came to New England, which is a culture of thrift and restraint. I preached on money pretty quickly after I got here, and I could tell it caught people by surprise how blunt I was.

Then, you have to lighten it up. It's such a tough topic for people. The moment you say it—money, time, service—you're challenging people, and everyone gets defensive. You have to find ways to ease the tension. We don't regularly use drama in our worship, but we almost always do if we're discussing money, because it lets people relax and look at themselves. Do anything to let people laugh; it relieves the tension in the room and helps people process the truth.

Jesus says, "To whom much is given, much is required." Some of the scarier passages addressed to Christians have stewardship as their subject.

It reveals how serious God is about advancing his kingdom. He's not interested in things staying the same. It reveals God's passion about extending salvation, righteousness, justice, and mercy. Jesus talks in Matthew 25 about faithfulness. Faithfulness isn't staying even; faithfulness is increasing. The servant who stayed even was called wicked and worthless, and was cast out. Sometimes churches can get into a mentality of, "We're just going to be faithful." That canbecome an excuse for non-growth. Jesus' strong language reveals his commitment to the growth of his kingdom.

Jesus also talks about the strong connection between our hearts and wallets, that what we do with our money and time reveals what's going on in our hearts. In fact, Jesus says it doesn't just reveal it; it determines it. He says, "Where your treasure is your heart will be." We think that what we value we give to, but Jesus turns that around and says what you give to you'll value. Jesus comes at that repeatedly and with such strength because if we're not honoring God in those ways, we're probably not honoring him in other ways.

What do you think a faithful caretaker of time, gifts, and money knows about God?

You mentioned earlier, "To whom much is given, much is required." Some of the best caretakers I know are those who realize how much they've been given by God, how grateful they are for his gifts, to the point of wonderment that they should have so much, either spiritually or materially. With that goes this desire, out of gratitude for what God has done and an eagerness to be like God, to be generous and faithful sharing that with others.

They also have a confidence that God and his purposes are good and that they can trust him. If they give away a significant amount of money, they can trust him for their future. If they give up their weekends to teach a Sunday school class, they can trust God that he'll bless their family and personal lives with health and vitality. They have both gratitude towards God and a confidence in God's character and will for their lives.

That attitude is liberating. Being a giver has become a wonderful way to live because they feel like they can't lose. They have such joy in giving, and then joy in watching how God provides for them, even if it's not a material provision. The spiritual blessings that come through a generous life are rich.

How does our understanding of each member of the Trinity enhance our understanding of what it means to be a faithful caretaker for the Lord?

James says, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights" (James 1:17). The Father has given those gifts out of his wisdom, grace, and providence and placed them in my care. If he has been so generous with me and has determined that I should have certain opportunities or resources, how can I not honor him in the way I use them, and be generous with others? I think about my earthly father "giving me an education." Certainly I contributed along the way, but he made sure I got a good education. Why did he do that? So that I could live a productive life. So that I could fulfill my potential as a person. I want to honor that.

When I think about the Son, the first thing that comes to mind is how eager Jesus was to do his Father's work. "My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I, too, am working" (John 5:17). He wasintent to work hard, work well, work on the right things, and fulfill all that God had called him to do.

And I think about the abandon of the Holy Spirit. When the Spirit is working freely in our lives and in the church, there is this sense of abundance and abandon. If he gives gifts like evangelism, mercy, preaching, or leadership—or if he gives the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience—you don't want to get in the way of that. Like a reservoir flowing in and flowing out again, you want to keep that abundance of God's Spirit flowing into and then out of your life again. If you hold onto it, the flow stagnates.

How do the root sins of idolatry, unbelief, pride, and rebellion show up in our caretaker responsibility?

Stewardship becomes a great way to teach about idolatry. Idolatry sounds so Old Testament to most of us. We have a hard time imagining ourselves bowing to idols and worshiping graven images. But idolatry is to look at any created thing for what only God can provide—security, comfort, identity. So we have a hard time imagining someone bowing down to something made of wood, until we say, how about a house? What does it look like to worship and serve your house? It seems silly that a person would put their trust or find identity in a statue made of metal. But how about a BMW? How many of us find pride or significance because of the car we drive? Talking about stewardship becomes a vivid way of getting at the sin of idolatry.

The same would be true of something like unbelief. Do we really trust God? Do I really believe God will provide for me? Do I really believe that if I honor him with ten percent, my life can be satisfying and full? That doesn't necessarily mean financial reward, but it does mean contentment, meaning, and abundance. It's easy to say we trust, but until you have to write the check, or sign away your weekends for ministry Do I trust God with my career if I don't become a workaholic, if I keep work in balance so I have time for ministry?

How about pride?

I've been impressed by some of the people in our congregation who have been very successful professionally and financially. You would never know that to visit their home or watch them lead a meeting, because they have yielded that pride. They don't need to show what they've accomplished or how much they have. They're grateful for what they have and use it wisely. They're grateful for their gifts, but their identity is not tied up in those things.

You have to be humble to be a truly faithful steward.

The caretaker's role is to make the Master look great, not to make yourself look great. The goal is, how can I increase the Master's reputation and interests? And we fade into the background. That's a tough place to get to in our culture.

How about the last sin in the list: rebellion?

We forget how direct, and even harsh, Jesus' words were.

Almost every time I've done a stewardship campaign I've seen somebody leave the church. Often they'll blame it on the money, but almost always it's an excuse for walking away from God and the church. I'll see those people months later and ask, "Where are you worshiping?" "Well, we're bouncing around," or "We're not going anywhere." What we do in our stewardship reveals the condition of our hearts and our willingness to do what God asks, even when it's very hard and we don't want to. We don't want to increase the proportion of our giving. We don't want to get up and teach Sunday school every Sunday morning for 52 weeks. It often becomes the proving ground for submission or rebellion.

If we're worried about people liking what we say, we're going to be in big trouble as we approach the topic of stewardship.

That's such a temptation with money. I remember a shift in my growth as a pastor, because in early years, I wanted to avoid it. When I did preach on money, I was apologetic; it felt awkward. I had to grow up and understand how important it is to go after the issues of stewardship.

There are good reasons for our reluctance. We don't want to be misunderstood. I don't want people to think I'm just another one of those preachers looking for money. We don't want to feel like a caricature. We don't want to turn seekers away. So we have to be wise and sensitive. But to avoid the subject of money is to be unfaithful.

Often we soften the message. We take the edge off and say: well, not really. We forget how direct, and even harsh, Jesus' words were. He used words like "you fool," "worthless servant," "wicked servant," "sell all you have." Obviously we have to clarify them. He didn't tell everybody to sell everything they had. But we need to be careful not to explain it away and make it easy for people to find a way around it. That takes the punch away.

It seems as though the Lord wants it to have that sharp edge because he wants to get down to the issue of the heart.

I preached Malachi 3 not long ago, and I remember looking at that phrase "robbing God" and thinking, Can I really say that? Can I really suggest to people that they might be robbing God? I ended up using it and saying, "Is it possible that by your giving you are robbing God, taking from God what rightfully belongs to him?" My view is that tithing is not a law, but it is a standard. So we talked about tithing as a benchmark for our giving, and then tried to challenge hearers about robbing God. One or two people challenged me about that word and said, "That sounds so harsh." I said, "I tried to use it just the way the Scripture used it, and in the end you'll have to answer that question." But most people said: "I finally understand." "That really got my attention." "I never thought of it that way before."

What dimensions of stewardship do we tend to overlook?

Stewardship isn't just about the money people put in the plate; it's about the 90 percent they keep in their wallet. Do they spend that money in ways that honor God? Giving to the church isn't the only way to honor God with your money.

If you're providing for your family, if you're contributing to the social good, that's honorable. For an attorney, good stewardship isn't just about volunteering to work with the youth group five hours a week. If an attorney is out in society 40 or 50 hours a week pursuing justice, that's good stewardship because God is interested in justice. That's a part of his kingdom. If parents are raising children in the fear of God, that's stewardship; it's not just when they're reading Bible stories, but when they're raising their children with care and compassion and wisdom. You don't want people to feel like the only things that matter are the percentage they put in the plate and the numbers of hours they're at church. Stewardship is leveraging all our God-given resources to advance his interests.

Bryan Wilkerson is pastor of Grace Chapel in Lexington, Massachusetts.