I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
(Revelation 22:13)

Stewardship has always been publicised as being about TITHES, TIME and TALENTS. The idea being that the alliterative nature of the three “Ts” will help the concept stick in peoples’ minds.

TITHE is another word for money, finance or regular income. But it depends on individuals prayerfully considering their obligations and pledging to give a regular amount of money to the church

TIME and TALENTS have been used as words describing how we serve the Church using our God-given abilities, e.g. singing, teaching, administration etc.

Stewardship, out of necessity, concentrates on the financial needs of the church. However, this should not obscure the main reason for needing these finances, it is to allow the church to get on with its primary mission, preaching the Gospel.

Leyland is a “Stewardship” Church and has been one for the last 50 years. For the benefit of newer members, this means that we have a big push about “money” once every three years and that is expected to cover all our requirements for the next three years. Putting it another way, a key benefit of Stewardship is for the Church to be free from fundraising for three years so that our energy and efforts can be concentrated on the service of other people both inside and outside the Church.

However, the world changes and nothing is set in concrete so in the future we will review stewardship annually to make sure it is still supplying our needs. Who knows what the effect of the credit crunch will have on wages and jobs in the next three years? Will we still be in the same Circuit even?

So in conclusion, a biblical view of stewardship can be consciously defined as ‘the use of God-given resources for the accomplishment of God-given objectives’. The central essence of this view of stewardship, is managing everything God brings into the believers life in a manner that honours God and impacts eternity.