Stewardship TOE July 19, 2009
Posted by doroteos2 in Church Leadership, Core Values, Critical Thinking, Mission of the Church, Stewardship, Vision.Tags: Church Leadership, Mission & Purpose, Stewardship
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In the scientific worlds of physics and astronomy an enormous effort is underway to discover a unifying force or principle that underlies all of creation. Scientists are pursuing nothing short of a theory of everything, or T.O.E. Since Einstein transformed our understanding of the known world, the universe, and all it contains, through his theories of relativity – both specific and general – the scientific community has searched for the core, the essence, the substance of all that is. It is believed that once we gain insight into this essence, there is nothing we will not be able to understand and achieve. There is a parallel in the church — a quest for a unifying factor that gives definition to our life and ministry together, around which everything we do is aligned. It is our theory of everything. While we may never actually discover something that unifies all of our thinking and doing in the church, it is still a provocative idea. To illustrate it, I want to share some thinking about stewardship, and to talk about ways I see individual congregations moving in this direction. For some churches working on stewardship, they have discovered a unifying principle — a basis for their “theory of everything” — by defining for themselves an “ultimate concern.”
Ultimate concern…is the essence that binds together our core values, sense of purpose (mission), shared vision, and commitment to achievement in the congregation. |
As awesome as this task is, there is almost no doubt among scientists that a unifying principle will be found. Borrowing both the concept and the confidence, I would like to explore this unifying principle for Christian stewardship – a stewardship theory of everything (TOE). This theory may be correct or wrong, but if nothing else it offers a challenge to the way we think about stewardship.
