Leisa Anslinger and Victoria Shepp: Questions for your annual stewardship check-up

“An annual stewardship “check up” is a great way to stay in shape as a good steward. Questions for this checkup might include: How is God’s grace present in your life? How is God blessing you? How are you responding? How are you taking responsibility for the ways in which you live your life? In what ways are you going beyond yourself in service? How have you experienced God’s presence as you served others this year? In what ways will you challenge yourself this coming year to reach out to someone in need? How are you offering yourself in generous response to the lavish gift of Christ’s love?”

Leisa Anslinger and Victoria Shepp in Forming Generous Hearts: Stewardship Planning for Lifelong Faith Formation (New London, CT: Twenty Third Publications) 103-104.

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek You; I thirst for You, my whole being longs for You, in a dry and parched land where there is no water. I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and Your glory. Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You. Psalm 63:1-3

“The God of the universe looks for those who would be with Him. The Lord longs for His children to take time to experience His tender loving presence. Almighty God is not needy, but wants His creation to come before Him in humble dependence. He knows prayer is what’s best for those He bought with His son’s blood. Generosity toward God in daily doses of solitude and communion are the wisest gift. Our presence gratifies God.

Like an earthly father revels in the joy of being close to his precious child, so our heavenly Father smiles to see us—His children—sit next to Him. The grace of God is not garnered with a drive-by life. Rather, when we park our lives in His presence and turn off the engine of our activity, we activate His perspective in our heart and mind. We invest in intimacy with our heavenly Father in order to fulfill His agenda in our daily calendar.”

Boyd Bailey from Wisdom Hunters daily email for 15 May 2012.

“Jealousy arises easily in our hearts. 

In the parable of the prodigal son, the elder son is jealous that his younger brother gets such a royal welcome even though he and his loose women swallowed up his father’s property (Luke 15:30). 

But the Father says to the older son:  “You are with me always and all I have is yours” (Luke 15:31). 

And in the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, the workers who worked the whole day are jealous that those who came at the eleventh hour receive the same pay as they did (see Matthew 20:1-16).  

And the landowner says: “Why should you be envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15).
 
When we truly enjoy God’s unlimited generosity, we will be grateful for what our brothers and sisters receive.  Jealous will simply have no place in our hearts.”

Henri Nouwen in Bread for the Journey entry for July 6 (SanFrancisco: Harper, 1997).

“One of the fathers said, “If anyone asks you for something, and you give it to him, even if you are forced to give it, let your heart go with the gift, as it is written, ‘If a man forces you to go with him one mile, go with him two’ (Matt. 5:41). This means that if you are asked for anything, give it with a willing heart.”

A Desert Father in Where God Happens: Discovering Christ in One Another by Rowen Williams (Boston: New Seed Books, 2005) 130.

“The collector of money is stirred by charity, but, when the money is in, the grip tightens.”

St. John Climacus (c. 525-606) in the Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 16 on love of money, or avarice.

“Let your heart feel for the afflictions and distresses of everyone, and let your hand given in proportion to your purse.”

George Washington (1732-1799) excerpt from a letter to a relative, recounted by John M. Templeton Jr. in Thrift and Generosity: The Joy of Giving (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Foundation Press, 2004) 62.

Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the LORD, and he will reward them for what they have done. Prov. 19:17

“God is not biased. Because of unequal needs, however, equal provision of basic rights requires justice to be partial in order to be impartial. (Good firefighters do not spend equal time at every house; they are partial to homes on fire.) Partiality to the weak is the most striking characteristic of biblical justice. In the raging social struggles in which the poor are perennial victims of injustice, God and God’s people take up the cause of the weak and powerless. Rulers and leaders have a special obligation to do justice for the weak and powerless.”

Ron Sider in Just Generosity (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2007) 68.

“I know you cannot give away what you have not; but methinks all that you have should be devoted to God.”

Richard Baxter (1615-1691) in The Reformed Pastor, 5th edition, ed. William Brown (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1862) 166.

From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. Jeremiah 6:13

“Don’t be sparing of transitory treasures, of vain wealth. Don’t increase your money under the guise of family piety. “I’m saving it for my children”; a marvelous excuse! He’s saving it for his children. Let’s see, shall we? Your Father saves it for you, you save it for your children, your children for their children, and so on through the generations, and no one of them is going to carry out the commandments of God. Why don’t you rather pay it all over to Him who made you out of nothing? The One who made you is the One who feeds you with the things he made; He is the one who also feeds your children. You don’t, after all, do better by entrusting your sons to patrimony for support, than to your Creator. Any anyhow, people are just lying. Avarice is evil. They want to cover up and whitewash themselves with a name for family piety so that they may appear to be saving up for their children what in fact they are saving up for avarice.”


Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, (354-430) Sermon 9.20 trans. Daniel Doyle and Edmund Hill (New York: New City Press, 2007).

“It takes work to give. To pay attention when someone speaks, you must concentrate; to make a donation to a charity, you must not only earn the money but, as a wise giver, you must research the charity before writing the check; to help in the soup kitchen, you must…well, set aside time and help. Often we are simply too comfortable to give; we’d rather play, be entertained, or just plain do nothing…It will come as no surprise then that we need God to better ourselves as givers. If we are good givers to the extent that we echo God’s giving, then only God can reverse the ill effects that selfishness, pride, and sloth have on giving.”

Miroslav Volf in Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005) 100.