These
links are currently to Adobe Acrobat pdf files. they will open
printable documents of my Basic Overview Pages for each topic. Be
aware there are numerous "HIDDEN LINKS" in these pages to more
material. Your curser should change if you are over one of the hidden
links. Sometime soon, I will be creating html pages for each of
them with added links to additional materials and resources, as well as
material I handed out to my class.
Part One: Basic Principles
- Defining " Stewardship"
"Christian stewardship is the free and joyous activity
of the child of God and God's family, the church,
in managing all of life and life's resources for God's purposes."
The three "Tee's" (Our Time - our Talents - our Treasure)
- The Nature of the "Steward":
(Caretaker/ Usurper/ Restorer) and his five "relationships" with God, himself, his community and the others, and creation.
The Kinship triangle and Ownership
- God's Claims on the Steward: The Lessons of the Manna
- Tithe and Sabbath and Good Works
- Making the most of the time He gives us: Time as a resource.
Three kinds of time: Chronos, Kairos, Escatos
Clockwatching Tensions
Looking to the Future of His Kingdom - The steward as the "His story" channel
- Serving the Community : Unity and Diversity in the body
- Individual Talents (Spiritual gifts) intended to used serving "One Another"
- Supporting God's Works
- Regarding "Tithes and Offerings" -- including matters of special giving : some Scriptural models - "More, not Less" )
- Teaching Stewardship in the Home - Practical considerations
- Being Supported in God's Work & how to raise it - Practical considerations
Part Two: More on the matters of money
Part Three: God's Provision: our Material and Spiritual resources
This course began as I prepared a series of talks for
an Arch-Deacons Conference at Lweza in Uganda in March of 2003. The
trip itself was quite an eye-opener and challenged me to further study.
Stewardship is a neglected topic in the contemporary Western Church.
And the needs of the "third world" certainly call for much fresh
thinking regarding the subject - just try explaining the concept of
tithing to someone in a barter culture. The above are a list of the
topics I considered in the weeks of teaching this class. These topics
are significantly bigger than what we were able to cover in 45 minutes,
but I hoped to at least give a good introduction to them. Certainly, I
learned a great deal while preparing and teaching this class. To assist
the class in coming to grips with what the Bible teaches on
"stewardship" - a series of written self studies were provided, along
with the various handouts each week.
More Resources:
See my Stewardship 101 Bibliography
This annotated bibliography includes my sources, links to various web sites and a section on Christian Micro-Enterprise development. CMED
My complete set of pdf files in one - about 120 pages of material.
To contact Barry McWilliams
http://www.eldrbarry.net - eldrbarry@eldrbarry.net