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God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Personalize that message. Tell others how the birth of Christ has touched YOUR part of this world. Remind others that they are unique creatures whom Christ came to save. Tell them that they are among “all the people” to whom the angels brought “good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10).

Tell them that Christ, the Baby in the manger, became a man Who died for their sins so that they can live eternally in Heaven with Him. Invite them to church where God’s Word is preached and sung and confessed and where His Sacraments are administered. Join the “multitude of the heavenly host” and sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased” (Luke 2:13-14).
Your fellow steward, Rod Backsmeier, Lay Director of Stewardship

Jesus said, "I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full."
John 10:10

These words recorded in the Book of John are for us today. And what encouraging words they are! How do we live this full life that Jesus desires for us? Is it possible that life as God's stewards is our pathway to fullness of life? But what exactly does it mean to be God's steward?

Our Synod has prepared some information to help us live full lives as God's stewards. As you read "The Identify of God's Steward" from our Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, ask yourself this question: What is God's Word saying to me?

As we learn more about life as God's steward, may we become a congregation of people asking one another this very important question: How will I respond?

The Identity of God's Steward

A steward is first a Christian and, second, one who is becoming Christian. Baptism makes us a Christian by the grace of God. We are joined to the body of Christ and are thereby made stewards of Christ. In baptism we are reborn to ministry, to the service of God.

In our life after Baptism we are challenged to become Christian, to acquire a more grateful and generous heart, a heart like Jesus.

Our stewardship does not begin with our behavior, but with the identity God has given us when He adopted us into His family. Who I am can't be separated from what I do. We begin our discussion of stewardship by talking about being, identity, and character-and all this is a gift from God.

Beginning with this identify, we can now describe the Christian steward God desires to form.

As Caroline Westerhoff struggled with this task, she was led to the word "disposition"-from Latin disponere, meaning to set in order, to arrange. Dispositions are the attitudes and moods by which people react to others and their environment. She developed a list of six dispositions that taken together, we might say, reflect the mind of Christ, or more universally, the image of God.

1. Disposed to be present-to be right here, right now, not flying off to something else. This disposition has to do with awareness of surroundings, self, and others. It includes compassion, to suffer with-not seeking suffering, but being present to the needs of the other.
   This disposition includes ecology-being present to the environment; treating creation as a subject to be honored. It is to acknowledge the presence of God everywhere.
   Jesus was certainly disposed to be present. In Mark 5:25-34, He encountered a woman who had been suffering for 12 years. She believed if she would but touch His clothes she would be made well. When she did, He felt the power go out from Him and He stopped to find her and speak to her.
2. Disposed to be vulnerable-to trust in God's providence and in others; in the Creator, not in the creation. It also includes generosity. To be generous is to give birth to something.
   To be vulnerable is also a willingness to forgive; to empty ourselves, so we can truly receive from God and others.
   To be vulnerable means a willingness to be dispensed, so we can be sent out. It also includes willingness to let wounds show, rather than putting on a mask of being OK.
   Jesus is most vulnerable in His willingness to die on the cross. "No one takes it (my life) from me, but I lay it down of my own accord" (John 10:18).
3. Disposed to be hospitable-to welcome the enemy or stranger as guest. It is not difficult to welcome someone like us. The hard part is welcoming the ones that we're not comfortable with. This hospitality includes welcoming a determined God who is always pursuing us.
   We see the hospitality of Jesus in His interactions with the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:24-30. "Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Jesus welcomes this Gentile woman's challenge to Him to serve her. And look at His hospitality to Zacchaeus in Luke 19:1-10.
4. Disposed to be creative-to be the opposite of controlling. Creativity runs counter to the church's disposition to maintain the status quo. We pose the question: What is God's way? Creativity moves us toward searching for alternatives, other ways to go and different paths to take as we follow God's will.
   Creativity also calls us to be willing to confront that which is not God's way. Christian confrontation always adds an invitation to engage, because the work matters.
   In Christ, we manage any friction while we are disposed to be creative.
5. Disposed to be humble-to keep things in perspective, to have a sense of humor, to not take ourselves so seriously. Humility urges us not to elevate ourselves. Nothing depends entirely on me.
   Can you catch the gleam in Jesus' eye as He paints the picture of a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to find the one lost, or a father who continually holds out his arms to embrace his two lost sons (Luke 15)?
6. Disposed to be detached-to live in a simplified way, to not cling too tightly to anything. As Jesus sends the disciples two-by-two, He commands them: "Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts, no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food" (Matthew 10:9-10). And later He promises them: "Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my name's sake will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life" (Matthew 19:29).
   This disposition calls us to recognize everything as God's gift and to be devoted to the Giver rather than the gift.

How will you respond?

What are the implications of holding up these six dispositions as goals toward which we strive as growing stewards of God? Do they change the focus of our lives? Do they help us live the full life that Jesus offers us?

Stewardship is not a program or a fundraising campaign-it is a way of life, a way of life that arises naturally from Christian faith and spiritual life. Trinity Lutheran wants to help you learn and grow as a steward of God.

Lord, open my heart and soul as I study your Word. Help me to be both a hearer of it and a doer of it according to your good and perfect will. Amen.