Talents and Stewardship
The tension between using one’s God given talent and being a good steward of God given resources is an issue I keep returning to. I do believe that God gives people gifts that should be used – He sent the Spirit to the craftsmen of the Tabernacle as they used their skills. I also believe that the resources we have are blessings from God (not in the health and wealth sort of way), and we should use them wisely and unselfishly. But sometimes those two ideas collide.
If one is to sell all one has and give it to the poor, or even just live a modest lifestyle, it become fairly difficult to develop and use certain talents, even for the greater good. If one has the gift of music like David, the acquisition and upkeep of musical equipment costs a lot of money. Much time must be spent on practice which much be subsidized in some way. The same is true of any of the performing arts or sports – dance, skating, drama, skiing, cycling… A great deal of money is required to develop one’s talent in any of those areas. Generally only those who have money already and spend that money on themselves can develop that talent. Is that good stewardship?
It could be easy to just deny that certain things even qualify as “God-given talents.” The guitar player that leads our church band with his $1000 guitar can have talent from God, but the privileged white figure skater doesn’t count. Michaelangelo’s in, but the ballerina is out. And then what about the talents that are often scoffed at by Christians – especially emerging missional Christians? What about the fashion designer or the interior designer? Are their talent’s a gift if they feed lifestyles of greed and consumption? What about the person who is really really good at preaching? Are such skills meaningless? Or are they gifts from God?
The tension bothers me. There is the part of me that wants to affirm who people are and say that God gave them the skills to do certain things. And many of those skills can and have been used to serve God. But it is hard to reconcile how privileged one has to be in order to develop those talents. Even if one gives glory to God and blesses others with their talent are the vast amount of resources spent justified?
I have no answers, but this question returns to me every so often. I personally have spent lots of money developing who God made me to be (college comes to mind). I want to affirm developing talent, but I just can’t always justify it as good stewardship. Any thoughts?
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julieclawson(at)gmail(dot)com 
The only people who I think should be required to sell all they have and give the money to the poor are Bible literalists since the Bible “literally” teaches this. Those of us who aren’t literalists are free to interpret this passage as not necessarily referring to all people in all time periods, but I can’t take a Bible literalist seriously who tries to convince me to believe in everlasting torment in hell based on their literal interpretation of the Bible yet they refuse to take this passage, among other passages, just as literally.
Very intriguing questions that get to the heart of the stewardship issue. You’ve identified the dilemma of doing something well in the modern world – you’ve got to spend money to do something well. This is true for individual believers as well as churches.
A gifted guitarist does need to have a quality (often costly) instrument, but – he doesn’t need to put it in a new Hummer and store it in one of the 18 rooms in his newly built “McMansion”.
A church is right to pay its staff a competitive wage, but it doesn’t have to install a large fountain in its professionally landscaped courtyard, inscribed with “Come, all who are thirsty, come.”
As a pastor, two of my main activites are writing and visiting people. I use a hand-me-down 10-year old renovated computer. Though we live in on Long Island and have 4 children, my wife and I get by just fine with one vehicle. More often than not, I take the train or bus or ride with someone to make a visit.
Perhaps I’m a bit perversely proud on my relatively simple lifestyle, but my point is we can live with less and give God just as much glory or more.
Once again, good post.
Good question. Personally, I think it’s less of an issue as to what gifts you have (and what you spend to develop those gifts) but rather, how you use your gifts to glorify God. It’s possible that God calls us as individuals in different ways, and the secret is to listen to that call and invest in our talents out of obedience, no matter the cost.
i’ve always wondered why we limit our tithing/giving to just money – when it seems that people across the bible have bought their gifts to God, whether it is the work of their hands (such as crops or art)?
Maybe if we are giving to each other out of our excess then i will benefit from someones hard earned musical ability and they will have say my house to practice in, or my garage to paint in, or whatever?
So stewardship becomes a wider issue than just what have i got and need to get better at but what has God blessed our community with and how can we be good stewards of that to bless our communities, how can we share and give to each other and to God?
This has pretty much nothing to do with your current article/blog. I am actually writing because I inadvertantly linked onto some poster that was made about a year or so ago that was considered a slam against the EC, and then a poster that was made in response to that…some naked guy hovering in a corner. Maybe this has jogged your memory.
If not, go ahead and disregard everything from here on.
If so, I was reading all the comments and the back and forth that everyone was leaving and I just had to ask: Do you people actually re-read your little columns?
I mean, do you go back and read what you and others wrote? What a bunch of pseudo-intellectuals! I mean, I guess you’re all going for an “intellectual” response to one another, but it sounds more like a bunch of stuffed shirts in a boardroom meeting than anything that might resemble “iron sharpening iron.”
What’s sad is that there is all this “you/us, we/they” talk amongst the people of God. Doesn’t the Bible talk about avoiding useless or meaningless arguements because they only serve to divide? In fact, doesn’t the Bible say something like “don’t even associate with divisive people?” Aren’t we all on the same side? I mean, doesn’t it come down to Christ vs. Satan?
Well, if anything, you people have renewed my faith in the belief that “where there are many words, sin is not absent.” If you put half the effort in doing all the smack that you talk, maybe something for God will get accomplished.
Stay divided because that really seems to be working,
Chuck
Sorry, I practiced what I preached and re-read my comment and, while admittedly a pseudo-intelectual myself and something of a self-righteous hypocrite, I guess I was just wondering why everyone is trying to convice everyone else they’re right. Are we trying to glorify Christ and preach His Gospel? If so, then let the Spirit move and let the chips fall where they may.
I know, I’m a little too “simplistic” in my understanding of this whole Emergent Church vs. Traditional Church.
Chuck, I suggest you find somewhere else to spout off. I don’t think it’s polite or constructive to just butt in to a conversation you have no interest in to vent your spleen. Your tone is judgemental and condemnatory. In this thread at least I find no one trying to convince anyone they’re right. People are just responding to Julie’s post and expressing their experiences and opinions. What might be ‘meaningless’ to you, could be very meaningful to some one else.
This is not a discussion about the Emergent Church vs. Traditional Church, so please go find that conversation elsewhere (there are plenty of other forums) if you are not interested in expressing an opinion on the topic at hand.
Chuck – if exploring theology is not for you, then by all means avoid the discussion. For most of us this serves to strengthen our faith and the ability to learn from others has been a huge blessing for me personally. If you think it is worthless then just ignore it, no one is making you read it. I on the other hand see the need for an intellectually honest and involved faith that engages the mind as well as the emotion. If that causes us to pursue truth and disagree at times then so be it.
I’d never really thought of talents and stewardship clashing before. It always seemed to me that stewardship applied equally to talents – what we receive from God, we should also offer to God. As in all things, there are balances to be struck – it’s fine to hone a talent (indeed I think that there is a duty to do so), but this shouldn’t be an excuse to neglect everything else.
Maybe the danger comes when we get an over-inflated sense of our talented-ness, and lose sight of where the gift originates from?
I guess it’s a little hard to look at them the way God intended when we live in a culture that doesn’t line up with the original plan. For example, in many traditional churches, there is a senior pastor paid to lead a church. He has the gift of leadership. The same church may also have a paid pastor overseeing the music department and another overseeing the Children’s ministry. These people would be assumed to be talented in these areas because they got the jobs in the first place. What about the people “in ministry” under them? They may be extremely talented in these areas but can’t make a living off of offering these talents for no cost to only the church. So the gifted guitar player may need to go and play in other forums and genres to pay for the high quality guitar and equipment. Or he may be an interior designer by day but really feed into relationships at work that would only come from him being there. I feel like I’m kind of all over the place in my thoughts but what I’m trying to touch on is that, in many circumstances, the church is so much of a business that it’s hard to see it in a way where everyone offers their talents in an act of stewardship when not all talents seem to be valued on any level playing field. Make sense?
By the way, this is not in any way a slam on the church just an observation of what I’ve seen in some in reference to the post.
Good thoughts. I work at a college and struggle with some of what you mentioned in your final comments. Is this kind of higher education the best thing? – especially when it leads to the financial enslavement of many students? (through student loans)…difficult stuff…
Very thought provoking! I think it is interesting when christian set themselves up as judge as to who has a legitimate talent (job) and who is using it appropriatly. My brother was a photographer and took pictures of models. He was informed that it was not a christian profession. What exectly is a “christian” profession? I wonder how many people an interior or fashion designer, or photographer or whatever could reach that I never will?
And yes Chuck, I did re read my comment;-)
There is a temptation to throw out anything considered affluent or part of a “rich” lifestyle. The reasons are well-thought out and make sense. However, do we not want Christians in the board rooms, as CEO’s, movie stars, politicians, pro-sports players? I agree that living an opulent lifestyle is not being a good steward of God’s money, but ministry and missions especially still require money. We need Christians making money (lots of it) to fund the spread of the gospel and God’s kingdom around the world.
Miz Melly, thanks for pointing out that sounding judgmental and condmnatory is inappropriate…you did it in a non-judgmental and non-condemnatory way. Thanks for your concern about my spleen, though.
Julie, I enjoy studying theology as much as the next person. However, my intention was not to sidetrack your discussions. I read something you wrote elsewhere and found the most recent thing about you I could find and jumped, so I apologize for rudely butting in. I just had a question is all.
All this blogging is new to me, and I’m trying not to be a dinosaur in all of this.
I’ll try and find a different format to ask questions of people who believe differently than myself in hopes of finding out how we differ and where I might need to change.
For what its worth, if God gives you a talent and the means to develop that talent, you should do so.