In Metanoia we stress that our personal income and possessions are not to be regarded as something we own privately, but as a resource we have been given to share. We are stewards, rather than owners, of the financial and other resources that have been given to us as gifts or as wages.

Some of us live out this conviction by sharing a “common purse,” into which we place all of our collective income, and from which we pay all of our collective financial obligations. For others income sharing takes other forms. At the very least we challenge persons to spend their income only after weighing their own needs together with the needs of others. This almost always means choosing to get by with less for ourselves so that we will have more to give to others. We seek to do this, not grudgingly, or out of a sense of duty, but joyfully and as a response to the grace of God in our lives.

Generally we find that when we base our lives on sharing, “what goes around, comes around,” and “as we give, so also we receive.” Jesus said, “Seek first the Kin-dom of God and all these other things (i.e. our material needs) will be yours as well.” We have found this to be abundantly true!