FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP: Stewardship chair at SWBTS first of its kind

FORT WORTH?When Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary needed someone to train students in principles of biblical stewardship, there was only one logical choice.

Scott Preissler had been working for 15 years to develop a curriculum for teaching Christian stewardship as an academic field and assembled the largest collection of stewardship resources and artifacts in the world. But he hadn’t found a Christian institution of higher education at which to base his teaching.

So Southwestern hired him in 2006 as professor of stewardship and installed him a year later into the Bobby L. and Janis Eklund Chair of Stewardship. In that position he trains students in stewarding God’s gifts and offers Southern Baptist churches numerous stewardship resources.

The endowed chair was named after Bobby Eklund, president of Eklund Stewardship Ministries and stewardship consultant for the SBTC. Formerly Eklund was director of the Church Stewardship Department at the Baptist General Convention of Texas and raised approximately $250 million for church building projects.

The Eklund Chair is the first professorship and endowed faculty chair of stewardship in the United States.

“Never in my life have I known a man who knew and understood the history and values of charitable giving to the extent of Dr. Scott Preissler,” Southwestern President Paige Patterson told the TEXAN.

“This man is a veritable reservoir of information and counsel for churches interested in developing biblical and burgeoning programs of stewardship in their local churches. We are grateful to have him here at Southwestern.”

Under Preissler’s tutelage, students now have the opportunity to earn a master of divinity degree with a concentration in steward leadership by completing four classes on the topic. Steward leadership is not a degree in itself, but a concentration intended to be combined with another field of study.

“It’s not just stewardship,” Preissler said. “It’s a new field. It’s an academic field that should have been
here for 50 years. It’s designed to be biblical, practical, historical and theological.”

In addition to the steward leadership program, Preissler also brought to Southwestern the Center for Biblical Stewardship?an institute offering continuing education on stewardship to evangelicals of all denominations. The center, which is scheduled to move to the seminary campus in 2009, is located in Fort Worth.

Housed at the center is the world’s largest special collection reference library on biblical, nonprofit stewardship. Among the center’s notable holdings are a 1,500-volume library on stewardship, audio and video recordings on stewardship, the largest known collection of historic offering and alms plates and more than 500 pieces of artwork dealing with stewardship.

The center does not serve Southwestern students exclusively, Preissler said, but offers other Christians hands-on learning opportunities too. Anyone can visit the resources in the building or take courses on stewardship.

In December and January Preissler will lead a “stewardship tour” of Israel.

“You can’t believe the resources we have,” he said. “People can come here to a building and study and read and look at everything. They can see models of things, sermon illustrations. It’s an amazing array of very practical resources for pastors, teachers, financial professionals and scholars to use. We are open to groups like these by appointment.”

For Southern Baptists not close enough to visit the center, help is still available. Preissler works closely with the offices of stewardship and the Cooperative Program at the SBC Executive Committee as well as state stewardship offices around the country. In addition, Preissler said several other Southern Baptist seminaries have approached him about how they can start similar programs on their campuses.

Now is the right time for a stewardship emphasis in the SBC, he said, because research shows incredibly large numbers of evangelicals under 30 years of age have received little instruction on using their resources for God’s glory?some of them having had no training. If the church does not recapture a vision for stewardship, eventually there will be a shortage of funds for missions and evangelism, Preissler said.

A new push for stewardship cannot be packaged the same way Baptists presented stewardship 35 years ago though, Preissler said. Back then everyone knew the Bible’s teaching on stewardship so well that training could focus on the mechanics of giving and raising funds. Today, in contrast, leaders should teach a robust biblical theology of stewardship, explaining the themes and particulars of how Jesus contrasted Roman and Greek norms and customs with his teachings and made stewardship a matter of living out one’s life calling, he said.

One key to a better understanding of stewardship in churches will be older members learning how to teach the knowledge they acquired earlier in life.

“They understand what this is all about,” he said of longtime Christians. “They just don’t know how to get around educating on it. We still have an awareness in Southern Baptist life and a recognition and an appreciation. People know what they’re talking about.”

Younger believers often have no idea what the term “stewardship” means and need instruction, he said, adding that a lack of stewardship knowledge is common among even the most theologically astute younger Christians.

The SBC, with its recent emphases on biblical stewardship, may be the tool God uses to help Christians recover this aspect of discipleship, Preissler said.

“I personally believe that the Southern Baptist denomination is the best hope for regaining stewardship among our Christian evangelical denominations in America today,” he said. “And that’s what we’re trying to do?bring models and tools to reach out throughout Christianity, throughout evangelicalism to help from this base at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.”

Preissler’s personal interest in stewardship stretches back to his graduate studies. He earned a master’s degree in philanthropic and nonprofit studies from Indiana University and a Ph.D. in stewardship studies and nonprofit leadership from Union Institute & University in Cincinnati, Ohio.

First serving as vice-president, he was promoted through the ranks to eventually serve as president of the Christian Stewardship Association (CSA) and a worldwide speaker on religious non-profit leadership and biblical stewardship. Ultimately, he was the longest serving staff member of CSA in that association’s history. Prior to his work at the CSA, Preissler worked with international seminaries to raise funds. His work spanned more than 50 countries, including Colombia, South Africa and Cuba.

“I was doing practical stewardship work under nationals, with nationals, in their own contexts,” he said.

Preissler hopes his partnership with Southwestern will culminate in believers developing a culture of gratefulness and generosity that overflows into selfless support of kingdom work.

Stewardship “is not about begging your congregation for money,” he said. “It’s about creating cultures of mercy and generosity.”