Jeff Cavins, a national speaker and Scripture scholar, will be the keynote speaker for diocesan Stewardship Day Aug. 24. The Visitor interviewed him recently about the topics he will address. The day’s theme is “The Modern Day Disciple: A Pipeline for God’s Amazing Work.” The following are excerpts from the interview.
Q: What is the connection between stewardship and discipleship?
A: There is a direct relationship between discipleship and stewardship. Discipleship is representing Christ and his worldview, not only in your own way of thinking but also in what you do with your life and how you relate to the world and other people. As a disciple, your role is to continue his mission that he began 2,000 years ago and left to the disciples. Part of that mission is taking care of the resources we have to accomplish the mission.
Q: One of your talks is titled “The Modern Day Disciple: The Key to Bringing Christ to Your Parish.” What is a modern day disciple, and how is being a disciple in today’s world similar or different than it was in Jesus’ time?
A: One difference is that we cannot see him in the same manner that the early disciples did. However, we do have the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. The other difference is the early disciples were pioneers in bringing Jesus’ worldview to a world that was opposed to that view — I’m speaking of the Roman Empire. But in a lot of ways, we are very similar to those early disciples in that the worldview we are espousing, which is Christ’s worldview, is opposed to the modern worldview when it comes to marriage, family, sexuality, goals in life.
Our worldview [as disciples] is not the same. We have an eternal worldview rather than just a temporal worldview. It centers on Christ as the goal of all things. The modern-day disciple is picking up where the ancient disciple left off with the same goal to win people to Christ, to bring justice, peace, kindness and a love of God to the world.
Q: What is the major stumbling block that prevents people from being good disciples?
A: I would say the major stumbling block in America is the wealth which we find ourselves surrounded by. When you look at what happened in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, Genesis 3:6 tells us what Eve saw in the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The fruit that she saw on the tree was not murder, rape, adultery, bank robbery. The fruit was not labeled. What she saw in the fruit were three things: it was beautiful, it tasted good and it made one wise. Those three things are desirable, those three things are very good. But what God told Adam and Eve was not to eat that fruit but to listen to him.
The problem that Adam and Eve fell into is that they grasped at the natural and made the natural an idol rather than the supernatural. They grasped the Creation rather than the Creator.
One of the problems we are faced with today — and this relates to stewardship — is that we are surrounded by a wealth of riches that distracts us. They take our heart away, our time and attention, and we play with “little shiny toys.” We save our money for little shiny toys. And our time is preoccupied with little shiny toys. The result is that we live as practical atheists, that is, we believe in God but if we look at our lives, we live as though he doesn’t exist. We are fascinated by everything that is around us, and that is a limited worldview. The biggest obstacle is that there are so many things vying for attention in our life, and we give ourselves over to those things.
Q: You are also speaking on “doing a lot with a little.” What is one concrete way people can make a difference in their own communities?
A: One concrete way people can make a difference is for the community to have an intentional plan of reaching out to those who are disenfranchised, those who are separate, those who are not a part of the community.
I think about the poor. We have a role to play with the poor. The church calls it the preferential option for the poor. We automatically are attracted to the poor because we see Christ and we have an opportunity to minister to Christ in the poor. The poor are open to this. One way we can make a difference in our community is to organize, mobilize in reaching the poor.
Right now I would say that for parishes, particularly in the suburbs, what is their response to Black Lives Matter? You don’t have be politically in line, you don’t have to agree with them. What is the Christian response to that issue of prejudice that the black community is experiencing? What are we going to do about that? Do we have a response or are we indifferent to the cry around us, whether we align ourselves politically or not?
Another thing we can do is to pray. Pray for our community and take responsibility for [it]. Maybe we can’t go to Africa and Australia and all around the world, but we can take responsibility for our city and pray for our city and look for opportunities to reach out and bring the love, justice, mercy and kindness of Christ to the situation that we see. Stop walking by opportunities.
Q: What is the biggest challenge parishes are facing in encouraging people to share their time, talent and treasure?
A: One of the biggest challenges parishes are facing is that they do not present a vision and an opportunity that catches people’s attention and lets them know they can change the world and that they can do this as a community by giving Jesus their five loaves and two fish and watching him multiply it to meet the need.
Our faith oftentimes is not evidenced by what we do, [and] our faith ends up becoming simply “we believe.” If we just believe what the church teaches, what Jesus taught, without doing it, faith without works is dead. That’s not attractive within the church and not attractive from without. If people don’t see a vision that is big enough to grab their attention and bold enough to move them and be world changing, then they’re not going to give up their time, their talent and their treasure. Is the vision of Christ big enough to grab my attention over and above the way the things of this world are grabbing my attention?