Before leaving on a journey, a generous landowner entrusted some property to three of his servants (Matthew 25:14-30). One servant received about $5,000, one received about $2,000 and the third servant received $1,000*. The first two men invested their money and doubled it, but the third man simply buried his gift in the ground.

When the landowner returned, the first two men cheerfully explained what they had done, and the master was well pleased with his "good and faithful" servants. The third man had no gain to report, but he hoped to earn favor with his master by pointing out that he had protected the gift from harm. But the master was not pleased to find that this servant had done nothing with his gift, and he cast the man out into the darkness.

This brief overview of Jesus' parable provides great insight to His views on stewardship. God is our master; we are His servants. He entrusts us with many gifts to use and enjoy until He returns. He appoints us as stewards, servants who act as administrators for another's possessions. To serve Him as good and faithful servants, we must use these gifts wisely for His purposes, not our own.

We at Worldwide Challenge realize that in featuring a special section on stewardship, it may seem we are preaching to the choir. We know that many of you give to your churches, to Campus Crusade for Christ and to other Christian organizations. We also know that almost half of you teach a Sunday school class or Bible study, or assist in church ministry in some way. With these factors in mind, we provide this section not so much to teach you as to help you teach others what you are already practicing.

In this section, we focus on stewardship in three basic areas¬time, talents and treasures. Each article contains discussion questions you can use in the groups you meet with or teach.

Just think of the changes that could occur if more people understood their responsibilities as stewards of all God's gifts. Think of the difference it would make in your church if more people realized that God gave them specific gifts for a reason, and if they were to use them for God's will and not their own.

The quantity of our gifts doesn't matter as much as what we do with those gifts. It's not wrong to have many gifts or to enjoy them, but it is wrong for us to use them selfishly or not at all. It is also wrong when they take the place of the Giver in our hearts.

Sometimes the problem is not the gifts we have but the lack of them. "We do not have to own things to love them, trust them, even serve them," wrote Dallas Willard in The Spirit of the Disciplines. "It is not money or gain, but the love of it, that is said by Paul to be the root of all evil (1 Timothy 6:10), and none love it more desperately and unrealistically than those without it."

Knowing God's character is crucial to being a good steward of His gifts. When people have wrong ideas about God, they believe falsely that He is a begrudging giver, rather than a gracious one.

God gives us gifts not just for our own enjoyment, but also so we can help others. "As each one has received a special gift," 1 Peter 4:10 explains, "employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God." We need each other, and when we use our gifts to help others, we provide them with a tangible example of God's grace and goodness toward them.

Those who are younger in the faith can learn from us, just as a young Timothy sat at the feet of the apostle Paul. Indeed, God expects us to entrust our knowledge of spiritual things "to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also" (2 Timothy 2:2). This includes what we know about stewardship.

Just as in Jesus' day, people around us need to hear that God is a generous and loving master. Let's teach them what we know about Him and about stewardship so that they can teach others. May our Father be well pleased with our obedience and faithfulness.

*Robert H. Gundry, A Survey of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing, 1970) p. 190.