One-Thirteen From Babylon: Stewardship as a Pathway to Restoration

Abstract

<p>ONE-THIRTEEN FROM BABYLON STEWARDSHIP AS A PATHWAY TO RESTORATION One-thirteen From Babylon integrates the themes of church renewal and stewardship. It offers a modern approach to stewardship based on the covenant community's experiences during the Babylonian Exile. Polarities within the exilic literature include the priest (law) calling for form, the deteronomist (prophets) calling for justice. In God's household both must exist in harmony. Within the Trinity, Father and Son exist in common substance, separate in function. The Spirit manages the tension that arises from such a relationship. To ensure such harmony within the covenant community a tension manager brings stability and communication to the law and the prophets. That tension manager is the steward. "Stewardship is the good and useful ordering of all resources for the purpose of ensuring justice." It is the author's thesis that church renewal can be achieved through stewardship understood as a communicator between the element of form (law) and the element of vision (prophets) . Within the Presbyterian Church in Canada the responsibility of stewardship is assigned to the Session through The Book of Forms section one-thirteen. Elders will be the leaders of congregations working toward renewal. Using the Exilic model, renewal will be a return from Babylon.Stewardship (for Presbyterians, section one-thirteen) is the means for leaving Babylon. Thus the thesis title: One thirteen from Babylon: Stewardship as a pathway to Restoration. Session elders were the focus group for the thesis project. To provide a learning tool for elders that they might take up the challenge to be responsible for stewardship, a stewardship booklet was written. Elders of three congregations read the booklet. The project tested for the occurrence of learning. The conclusion was that learning had occurred, that elders can assimilate the information on which to lay a renewal pathway. -</p>