Stewardship

Just as "charity begins at home" I believe that Christian stewardship should as well, beginning with the head of the household, or with the single individual. "To change the world, first change yourself." Many seek to engage in some sort of outreach ministry while their needs and those of family go unattended. We must remove the obstruction from our own eye before we go looking to solve societies problems.

Regarding such group discussions at church perhaps first addressing the problems within the church might be more appropriate, perhaps exploring whether the congregation is ready for any kind of outreach effort.

mindlight said:

With all the new initiatives on the environment my church discussion group will be discussing Christian stewardship. I hoped to raise some of the questions here and get some reactions.

1. How would you define a Christian understanding of stewardship?
2. What is the nature of the problem facing our planet vis a vis the environment?
3. What should the Christian response to the environmental crisis facing our planet be?
4. Can this response be separated from issues of development and poverty?
5. Is this something we should be concerned about as Christians or is this focus born of pantheism and paganism?
6. If Jesus coming back soon and will create a brand new heavens and earth why bother to worry about this?

Do you know any good youtubes discussing this from a Christian perspective?

Click to expand...

1. The way I read scripture, it's as simple as "love your neighbor as yourself." This challenges us to be actively involved in our church, community, state, and nation. Which means we should be active politically concerning the issues we hold dear to our conscience and the way we read God's laws. It means we should also put our money where our mouth is. It means priorities and balance of life, as well as practice what we preach. Helping the poor, meeting the needs of family, keeping the environment clean, and such, with a spirit of grace.

2. There is far too much emphasis on global warming and not near enough on pollution. We need more activism about the greed of companies that are still dumping toxins in the rivers, and much less attention paid to the hype and exaggerations of the climate change camp.

3. Keep the world clean, starting with our own home and community. Pick up after ourselves and clean up our own messes.

4. Progress is part of the whole picture.

5. Christians ought to be running the country. I wish we had more influence in politics, then we wouldn't be in defense mode all the time.

6. It might not happen for some time, we just don't know. Our life here is boot camp for eternal affairs, therefore we must do our best to follow the high standards taught to us in the scriptures.

mindlight said:

With all the new initiatives on the environment my church discussion group will be discussing Christian stewardship. I hoped to raise some of the questions here and get some reactions.

1. How would you define a Christian understanding of stewardship?
2. What is the nature of the problem facing our planet vis a vis the environment?
3. What should the Christian response to the environmental crisis facing our planet be?
4. Can this response be separated from issues of development and poverty?
5. Is this something we should be concerned about as Christians or is this focus born of pantheism and paganism?
6. If Jesus coming back soon and will create a brand new heavens and earth why bother to worry about this?

Do you know any good youtubes discussing this from a Christian perspective?

Click to expand...

I like number 6.