Educating for Awareness in the Congregation
by Lib Caldwell

And God said, "See, I have given you everything." There are varieties of ways to interpret the meaning of the first chapters of Genesis. The NRSV says in Genesis 1, "fill the earth and subdue it... and have dominion over it." Or more colloquially God said, "You're in charge." The implicit questions are: How will you care for this which has been loaned to you? What kind of steward will you be? Are you a responsible trustee of the land and all that lives in it?

It has taken the church too long to understand that we and the earth are one. It has taken the church too long to live out an understanding of stewardship that relates more to the sharing of our monetary gifts, as important as they are. Stewardship essentially is a concept that is concerned with the living of all of our lives in response to God's gifts to us. We are called, empowered and baptized into communities of faith that are accountable to God, to all of creation and to each other. One denomination has articulated the concern in this way:

The answer to what then shall we do to grow in our understanding and practice of "learning to be green" well be examined in this article through three curricular tasks.

In the introduction to the book by Maria Harris, Fashion me a People, Curriculum in the Church, Craig Dykstra says that "curriculum is about the mobilizing of creative, educative powers in such a way as to 'fashion a people'... curriculum is an activity, a practice of people."2 Harris is calling for a renewed understanding of curriculum that is related to the earliest forms of ecclesial ministry in the first Christian community: teaching, praying, community, service and preaching.

The intent of reclaiming a renewed understanding of curriculum is to make explicit that curriculum is not one leader's guide and a learners' workbook that we use in church school. Rather, curriculum enables the fashioning of all of God's people to live out their Christian vocation in response to their baptism.

I believe that Harris omitted one additional form of ecclesial ministry that was essential in the life of the earliest Christian communities. In the description of life among the believers in Acts 2:43-45, we see how they lived in community and "had all things in common." Sharing, making sure all people had what they needed to live, was an essential ethos for this community of faith.

The sixth curricular form that is essential in fashioning God's people is that of oikonomia, the curriculum of stewardship. The central meaning is that stewardship is an attitude toward all of life, concerned with accountability, intention, a way of seeing and being in the world. It is biblically based and affirms a theological and ethical imperative for our living as a trustee of God's creation.

Oikonomia, the householding of the whole earth, integrates the way and the how of stewardship. In beginning with a biblical understanding of God's oikonomia, Letty Russell suggests that we are then "able to describe the exercise of authority in both the private and the public realms as a participation in God's householding and partnering activity."3

The context for the curriculum of stewardship for the purposes of this article are our local congregations and our homes. The task is integrating stewardship into our practice, our living, our habits. Three curricular tasks become essential to this practice.

Teach stewardship as a way of life for persons of all ages. This kind of teaching and learning begins early in a person's life. One way to discover the intentionality of this task is to examine curriculum of the church school across the ages. Most preschool curriculum includes a theme on creation. Does it give teachers ideas for helping three-year-olds practice being good caretakers of the earth?

Take time to examine a year's worth of church school curriculum, looking for the ways that stewardship is taught. Harris identifies three forms of curriculum: explicit, implicit and null. These are good criteria to use in such a curricular evaluation. What is explicitly taught about stewardship? What is more implicit in the curriculum? And what is void, totally missing? It such teaching and learning about being a caretaker of God's creation explicit in curriculum at every age level?

Engage in intentional planning of stewardship education for persons of all ages in the church. In the fall of the year, congregations engage in programs of stewardship education. Such programs are designed to help persons reflect on their life, their talents and gifts. This reflective process enables people to live out their faith in God by making responses in the form of commitments that include giving of money, self and time. For too long such programs were aimed at only once facet of stewardship - money and finances. The response of our time and talents and our lives was an appendage.

For too long such programs were also aimed at only one age group in the church - adults. If we are to nurture faithful Christians in a lifestyle of stewardship, it becomes essential that our programs of stewardship education include children and youth. How else are they to learn how to live into practices that care for the environment and for their role as caretakers with God of creation?

I have been involved with the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. in designing stewardship education materials for children and youth. Three years ago we produced a packet of materials entitled, Stewards Come in All Sizes. The packet included resource materials to use with these age groups in the church to help begin to teach about a lifestyle of stewardship.

This year congregational stewardship education materials were printed in a magazine format with resources for use in study, worship and in designing of programs. Included for younger children were "Stories of Stu Bear," four stories to be used in moments for children in worship, in church school classes or at home. Stu Bear is used as a symbol for our lives as stewards. The stories tell how Stu Bear was found by a little boy on a cleanup day at the church. Stu Bear eventually came to church with a backpack on and went home with a child each week. At the end of the stewardship season, the backpack was full of children's pledge cards of the ways they planned to share their time, talents and money with their church.

Integrate stewardship with the other curricular forms of teaching, preaching, worship, community and prayer. The attention to our role as caretakers, responsible stewards of the environment in which we are renters, so to speak, not owners, must become explicit in all of the curricular forms in our congregations. There is certainly more to do in equipping persons to reflect on their lifestyle practices. I suspect that we do a better job of the curricular forms of teaching, preaching, worship and prayer in relation to the environment than we do of practicing lifestyles of stewards as faith communities and as families living in residential communities.

One thing that congregations can do to help families live with more intentionality is to provide helpful resources for responsible and faithful Christian living. An excellent source of resources is Alternatives, a non-for-profit organization committed to responsible living and celebrating. In 1993 they made available for forty cents a Lenten devotional calendar with the theme of Water. It was designed to be used at home during the Lenten season for reflection and action on this particular natural resource.

Two other resources, Celebrating Earth Holy Days and 101 Ways to Help Save the Earth, offer suggestions for congregational activities in education and worship. Eco-Church, An Action Manual is another resource available from Alternatives.4

Lifestyle commitments to being a steward of that which we have been loaned begin early in our lives as we observe others, as we practice and as we reflect on the goodness of God's creation and our response to this gift. Together as individuals and congregations we grow in our continued awareness and support our actions toward living responsibly on and with God's creation.

Elizabeth Francis Caldwell, Ph.D., is Professor of Educational Ministry at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago and the author of numerous articles and curricular and educational resources. Prior to joining the faculty in 1984, Dr. Caldwell served as an Educational Consultant with three Presbyterian churches in Northwest Alabama. She is a Minister of Word and Sacrament of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and a member of the Presbytery of Chicago.

End Notes
1. From Living Faith: A Statement of Christian Belief. The Presbyterian Church in Canada, 1984.
2. Craig Dykstra, "Foreword," in Maria Harris, Fashion Me a People, Curriculum in the Church. Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1989, p. 8.
3. Letty Russell. Household of Freedom, Authority in Feminist Theology. Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1987, p. 26.
4. Alternatives has many more resources, such as children's books and story books for all ages. All resources can be ordered from Alternatives, PO Box 419, 5263 Bouldercrest Road, Ellenwood, GA 30049 (404-961-0102).

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