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The basic understanding in which all of Christian stewardship is grounded is found in Psalm 24:1: "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world and all those who dwell therein." But, what, if anything, does the Bible have to say about the stewardship of accumulated assets?
Today, we tend to take agriculture for granted. In fact, we see our economic growth based more and more on services, less and less on manufacturing, and scarcely at all on agriculture. Most of our accumulated assets are tabulated in money and physically represented by sheets of paper. These papers announce our bank balances, brokerage accounts, life insurance policies, and retirement funds. Even our home (the most physical accumulated asset for most of us) registers in dollars at its tax-assessed appraisal or probable market value, when we think of it as an asset.
But this relationship to agriculture is of recent origin. Through most of the history of God's human creation, crops and livestock were the focus of economic life. Crops and livestock were basic: grown to sustain life. They were also the common medium of exchange: used to barter for goods and to pay taxes. Accumulated assets were represented by the cattle and sheep grazing in the fields and the wheat and barley stored in barns.
Perhaps then we should couch our initial question in terms of what does the Bible have to say about barns?
Probably the first barns that come to mind are those of the rich fool in Luke 12:13-21. You remember him: the man who faced with an abundant harvest pulls down his old barns to build bigger ones. But, there are earlier barns that we should consider: the granaries of Pharaoh in Egypt (Genesis 41:1-49). In these, Joseph stored the abundance of good harvests for survival during years of famine (ultimately saving the lives of his brothers who sold him into slavery). In these stories, barns (like endowments!) are bad or good depending on their use.
| THE RICH FOOL--Luke 12:13-21 | JOSEPH & PHARAOH--Genesis 41:1-49 |
| He lives among God's people and undoubtedly has heard the command to leave the excess grain in his fields for widows and orphans to glean. He ignores this counsel. | Pharaoh is alien to God's people, but he receives a divine message through his dreams and Joseph's inspired interpretation. He heeds this counsel. |
| He is given a year in which his land produces abundantly (v.16), more than enough. | They are given seven years of abundance (v.29) in which there is more than enough. |
| He decides: "I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods." (v.18) | Pharaoh's overseers store only "one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the plentious years." (v.34) |
| "And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry." (v.19) The accumulated asset is to be used by me (and possibly mine) and for the luxury of idleness and excess. | "That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine...so that the land may not perish...." (v.36) The accumulated asset is to be used by the land (the whole community) and for the basic sustenance of life. |
| The verdict on his stewardship of his accumulated assets: "You fool!" (v.20) | The verdict on Joseph: "...God has shown you all this; there is no one so discerning and wise as you." (v.39) |
| The conclusion: "This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" (v.20) | The conclusion: "You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command...." (v.40) |
| The result: as in the case of the faithless steward in the parable of the talents, what he has will be taken from him. | The result: as in the case of the faithful steward in the parable of the talents, he is given greater responsibility. |
In these stories, the Bible speaks of the wrong and the right uses of accumulated assets & endowments. Your church, through prayerful planning, careful policies, and faithful management can provide an endowment program that will make a difference in the lives of your members. By helping them consider the treasures stored up in their own barns (banks and brokerages) and encouraging them to be faithful stewards of these assets, you can lead them to be "committed for the centuries" to the cause of Christ.
HOME FOUNDATION ENDOWMENTS For more information, contact Richard Magrill
Page updated on May 2, 2007 Pages maintained by Elinor Swindle Brown