Ep. 070 - Rethinking Homeownership: A Deeper Look at Christian Stewardship

Episode Transcript

Austin
For most people, their home is more than a few walls, bedrooms and bathrooms. It often is the physical representation of what they hold to be valuable. What, then, might it look like to be good stewards of the homes that we live in?
So, Spencer, today we're going to talk about homeownership. And the reality is homeownership is multifaceted. As we think about it, as stewards, we want to take it a step back and say, this isn't just a financial decision. There are so many other pieces at play when we think about stewardship of our home. And so we want to think about this in the context of God owns our home, God owns at all.
But the reality is, when we go to purchase a home, we have to decide, is it going to be more beneficial to rent or to buy? What does the market look like? All of these other things. But then the bigger questions of stewardship of a home are what does God really long for in that? It's not just about the neighborhood that we want to live in,
how big is the home, what's the price, what are the interest rates? Those are important factors, but those are maybe just some of the first common questions that people ask. So as we think about that idea that God owns our home in that context of God owns at all, what are some key questions that people need to be thinking about and surfacing when it comes to that idea that God is the owner of our home?

Spencer
Well, I think the first one is, as you laid out, there are multiple facets of being a steward. One is the financial side. And so often we start there and end there. We say, okay, what is the home worth? Am I getting a good deal on that? Am I getting a good interest rate on that? We run spreadsheets and we almost start and end with the spreadsheet sometimes, other than maybe the walk through and say, okay, does it have the appeal?
Does it have a couple of the things that I'm really looking for here, rather than really looking at the stewardship angle of there is a financial component, but there's also a time investment component. There is also a relational component that we have here as we're stewarding our lives. We'll talk about hospitality, you know, in a bit. But really this is more of a calling question.
Similar to the way that we would think about a calling that we might have vocationally. It's not just, am I making enough here? Am I going to see my ledger in a better place down the road? It, there's so many different facets to this that we can dive into.

Austin
Yeah. What I think of the reality as stewards, first and foremost, we believe if God is the owner of all of our things, then we simply are managers on his behalf. And so if that means that God is the owner of my home, I need to think about how am I managing it? Am I doing it in a way that he would be proud?
I kind of had this picture as we were putting this outline together of like, If God is dwelling in this place, will he be pleased with how I've treated this place? So I think that's a wrestling piece that we need to come back to. But, you know, as I think about my home, I think about James 4:13-15 and I think James really, extrapolates our temporal nature pretty well here.
And he says, “Come now, you say today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit. Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that [sic] that appears for a little time and then vanishes instead you ought to say, if the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”
And I think when we think about our homes, we often use that term; Is this the forever home? The answer is always no. Our forever home is going to be with the Lord in eternity. This is temporary simply a temporary dwelling. And so even that language that we use is this your forever home really needs to be;
well, this is the Lord's forever home, because he's always going to be wanting to dwell with his people in these places. And so am I setting up that place, because I am here for a little time and then I'll vanish, and that's okay. And so I need to be thinking not just am I stewarding this home well for while I'm here, but even for that next person that's going to own that home?
Am I praying through this place? What does the Lord want me to do with it? And how does the Lord want me to handle it for that next steward even?

Spencer
Well, and this is where we would diverge sometimes with even some of those in Christendom who would talk about saving for a home that they really have dreamed of, and they really long for. And they're putting so much hope in that, that it becomes an idol or very easily can become an idol, because there's a dream of what it might be.
But oftentimes, like we've talked about here in James 4, the Lord may redirect our paths. We may be here for a few years, and he may say, hey, it's time to go and plant a church. It's time to move over here. Or you may have a son or daughter that moves to a different city, and we're supposed to go and follow them for the next season of life.
So I think we have to hold this intention of we want to be hospitable. We want to be good stewards of the now. But we also have to look at it in the context of everything else the Lord's up to in our lives. I think about a medical student. You know, if you're in in med school, you don't have that much time to invest in, potentially the relationships of those people that are living around you.
You might end up just coming home and you're going to bed, and you're getting as much sleep as you can, and you just have a season. So it may make sense to rent, or it may make sense to own a home, but you may not be thinking quite as much about some of those other elements as when you go to a place and you feel called to that neighborhood, maybe to be an outreach and to love on your neighbors and have a lot of time to do so, then you may have a whole other series of considerations.

Austin
Yeah, absolutely. Well, so as we've got some of that groundwork set, we want to think about our home, whether we buy or rent. And I think this is really the crucial linchpin. This doesn't matter if you are purchasing a home or renting a home. The space is still the Lord's. And even for that med student, that space is still the Lord's and we still need to care for it, even if you're just renting temporarily.
We want to care for it well. So we want to say a lot of these things are going to be universal truths. But as we really start thinking about, okay, if we were to pursue owning a home as a steward, here's some other things that we want to take into consideration. And I think we want to start off with Jeremiah 29.
And I think the verse that we often think about in 29, is 29:11 where God says, for I know the plans that I have for you, but if we back it up, we need to take that verse into context. And the context of that verse are the ones that will read here four through seven. It's that Jeremiah has spent countless chapters through his book, his prophecy, saying, you have forsaken the Lord, and the Lord is going to send you into exile.
And so when we hear those verses, “I know the plans I have for you,” is in the context of being sent into exile. And so Jeremiah 29:4-7 sets it up and he says, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the [sic] exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem into Babylon.
So you you've got these people that have going from their homeland into a foreign land. They're being uprooted from the place that they have thought that this is going to be the promised land into a place of captivity and slavery, to a foreign power that is hostile to them. He goes on and he says, build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons, and have daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters.
Multiply there, and do not decrease. And so he's saying, as you go into exile, dwell there as if it's your home, as if it's that promised land homeland. You don't know how long you're going to be here. I'm sending you into exile, and you need to take this very seriously. Actually have kids in this place. Make sure that you are still being the people of God that I have intended you to be.
And he finishes off in verse seven and he says, “but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare you will find your welfare.” And I think if we look at homeownership, if we look at home-rentorship from this view of wherever God has placed us in a safe land and a hostile land and a place that maybe we didn't want to be, it's still our call as believers to still pray for the welfare of that city, to pray for that place, to seek its good.
God is calling them in verse five, “Plant gardens and eat the produce.” Like you have gone into this land in exile. Still seek to cultivate that land, bring its fullness to bear. We as stewards, even if we're in a place where maybe we're a little bit uncomfortable, we don't like where we have been placed. Maybe it's a university town that I thought I was going to love, and now I don't love.
I'm still called as a steward to be in that place. Or maybe I thought moving up to a major city would be fantastic. And I've taken a job that has a five year, commitment. Maybe I didn't like it as much. I'm still called as a steward into that place to build a home, to plant a garden, to those kind of things that are the stewardship language and saying, I still should seek the welfare of this city.
And I think this is a really profound bit in the midst of exile, that God is still calling them to love that place and to care for that place, and to steward that place as if it was the place where he had sent them originally.

Spencer
I think you're right on there. And as we think about that, so much of what that calling is, is to inhabit that space, to bring really the Holy Spirit, to bring God to that space. In a profound way. And as we consider where we locate, even be at one neighborhood or another, be at one house or another.
I think rather than, again, just looking at things on paper and saying it, does it have the right square footage or does it, is it a valuable asset, maybe down the road? Those are part of the consideration, but so much of it is, how is God calling me to seek the welfare of the city, to seek the welfare of those around me via the house or the apartment that I'm renting?
Because there are some that allow us to be able to invite people in in a more profound way. Maybe there's a home that we could purchase that is not quite as updated, but gives us an extra room that we could be able to, be more hospitable, that we could, have available for someone. Maybe we need, more of an open space, in one particular area so that we can have groups of people there.
Or maybe there's other considerations, you know, the yard or other pieces that we really come back to listening to the Lord and saying, Lord, are you in this place? Is this where you're calling me? Because so often that's not, put front and center in these decisions, right?

Austin
Yeah, and as I think about this, it's really as stewards, we move from homeownership purely as a financial decision, and we transform it into this participatory journey with God. Just like you were talking about it. Am I viewing the space more than just what's going to serve my needs, whether that's short term or long term, I think we often see homeownership even in conversations that I've had recently with friends.
It can be this idea of, well, so-and-so isn't able to buy a home because they're taking this job and it's not going to make as much. How are they going to save for their future? How are they going to build capital and deploy capital and have an amount of resources at the end of life? Well, maybe that's not the goal for them.
Maybe they're thinking about I'm taking this time to serve the Lord. I'm taking this time to be a missionary, to be a church planter. And maybe the desire for them isn't building wealth. The goal is not building wealth. And so I think that's where we can move in a place where home ownership isn't solely about wealth generation, it's about a participation.
What is God wanting me to do in this season of life? Where is He wanting me to go? It allows us to see the blessings of home ownership not being walls and bathrooms and square footage and maybe tangible beauty, where oftentimes I think when we think about homes, it's okay what’s the nicest furniture I can get in? So that oftentimes it's let me show how wealthy I am, how well I've done.
And I think that's often a trap that we get into, especially in the West as it becomes a place where I can show off. And that's, that's something that we kind of always have to come back to as am I participating with God in how he wants flourishing or am I wanting to show my flourishing?

Spencer
Well, that's something that we really faced as we moved into the home that we had 15 years ago was a lower income neighborhood, and what we recognized was we didn't outfit it with amazing furniture, at least to our backgrounds. And taste a lot of used furniture. But, you know, good sturdy stuff. But as we invited people in the neighborhood in, a lot of the kids said, wow, you live in a castle.
Your stuff is amazing. And it's all about the perception of where you've come from. And, you know, so much of furniture or other kinds of things, it can be incredibly hospitable, even if it is far less than the, you know, a standard. Because depending on who you're having into your home, that can be much more comfortable, you know, for people.
One of the other things that I love in thinking about this is even what Andrew Peterson, singer songwriter, author, you know, says about homeownership. And if you haven't read it, he's written a wonderful book called God of the garden that really explores, what it means to put down roots in place. But he talks about naming, you know, a home.
And if you name a home, if you name a garden, how much more that does to really establish roots and treat it in a different way? I was thinking about that as we had a conversation a few months ago with one of our kids and, just talked about the future, and something came up about us maybe not being in our home forever.
And our daughter just looked at us and said, you're always going to have this home. I'm always coming back to this home because that's the only home that she's ever known. She came home from the hospital. When she was, we brought her home when she was born. Has no recollection. None of our kids have any recollection of any other home.
So there is something that's profound about that place, you know, to them. And it's because in some ways, they've treated it always as a place that is, is sacred, you know, is their space is where they've grown up, they've known everything. They've walked with the Lord, and they can't imagine a reality, at least without being able to come back to it, which is a special.

Austin
Yeah. I laugh because I had a similar conversation with my son. It's been a couple months, but he was like, Dad, what, who's going to get this house when you die? Because I think he can't fathom living anywhere else. He's, he’s loved the home. Even though we've moved a few times. He's, absolutely loves where we're at right now.
And he can't imagine anywhere else. And so I think even in that, as we think about stewarding that home; it is, it allows you to consider if you are really choosing to be dwelling in a place, choosing the community that you have, are you living around people that are maybe at your church or that you're doing life with, or you're living on mission with?
Those spaces become spaces that we can consider. How is it a blessing, not just for me, for the next 2 or 3 years so that I can flip it and turn a profit? But for the next decade, two decades, the next lifetime, for the next steward that comes behind me, whether it's my children or whether it's a decision as Kayla and I age to pass it on to somebody else.
If we are truly seeing ourselves as stewards of the place, that allows us not to look myopically in it myself, but kind of open it up to see, okay, God, who do you have around me? Who would be next? And how do I really tend to this space well? And you know, the reality is being a homeowner allows you to do that.
I think you can still do that as a renter, but it's a little bit more, your time frame is obviously a little bit more short sighted. There's limited things that you can do if you're renting a property. You can still care for it well, you can still treat it well and you still should treat it well.
But that decades long approach of what am I doing now that's going to bless the next person, that's going to bless the next person. And we both lives in homes that are very old, but we have a long list of people that has lived in it before us. And prayerfully there will be a long list of people after us.
And so really thinking, what does that look like to be hospitable in this place, not just for my family, but for next families that are there? How can I open this space so that there's prayer happening? There is worship happening, that the space is filled with the Holy Spirit, both now and prayerfully for a long time afterwards, because we have longed for and sought after what is the Lord doing here?

Spencer
So we think about things practically. If you had to make a list of the top reasons why you would rent versus buying a home, what would those be?

Austin
Yeah, I think if we were to come really practically; if you're not going to live in a place for very long, you're in college, you don't have the financial resources for a down payment. If you are only planning to be in that city for six months, a year, maybe you're in residency and you know you're going to be shifting every six months to a new location.
Let's not buy a home then. I think there's another reality that some of us have debts that are maybe high interest credit card debts. We want you to be in a really good place before buying a home, so maybe it makes more sense to rent there. If you have uncertainty of future work, I think the reality is there are some jobs that are just a little bit more cyclical.
And if you have an uncertainty of future work, you don't want to get into a mortgage where you're bound to contractually pay for the next 30 years. Just some of these things where we have to start thinking, if you have no emergency savings, there are things that will happen to your home, whether it's roof or HVAC or water heater or just minor things like a plumbing leak.
Plumbing leaks can become big, but maybe it's just a $200-$300 repair. If you don't have an emergency savings built up to where you can cover that cost, maybe it doesn't make sense to buy a home, whether it's a dream that you have or not. I think we have to come back to this reality that the home is also an illiquid asset.
And so one other consideration is do we want to tie ourselves to a place and an asset that may be hard to move? And I think the reality here is in a lot of ways, there's kind of a beauty to renting because it allows you in, maybe more ways than if you were a homeowner to be open handed and to say, okay, Lord, I know that this is both my temporary home here on earth, but also my temporary home, maybe here in Knoxville.
Is there another place that you would have me move? Is there a church that you would have me plant? Is there a mission field you have me go to? If I'm not tied to my physical home under a mortgage, or even to be able to sell it. There's times where the home market is illiquid and you just can't move it.
And so if you're tied to the place and the physical space, it makes it hard to maybe be as mobile with the Lord. And so I think there's considerations where regardless of whether you buy or rent, we always want to be a good steward. But there are times in life where renting a home actually, or an apartment or a condo makes a significant amount of sense.
Well Spencer, thanks for the conversation on homeownership. I think, you know, as we come back to this and we come back to this principle that God owns it all, but God owns the home that we live in. God owns the cars that we drive. He owns everything. We really come back to all of these decisions and we want to participate with God in this journey.
God, where are you leading me? What do you long for in this home purchase? Does it need to be smaller? Can I maybe have a bigger home so that I can be more hospitable? I think if we just look at what our dreams and goals are, oftentimes it can come back to things that make us comfortable. But when we step back and say, God, this is yours, how would you manage it?
How do you want me to utilize this? That's where I think a lot of the joy comes out. Clients, if you have questions about homeownership, if you want to talk about that with us in another meeting, we would love to have these conversations with you. Feel free to leave a comment down below and we'll get back to you soon.
Until next time, take care. If you found this episode valuable, share it with a friend and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform so that you don't miss the next episode.

Disclaimer
This content was provided by Second Half Stewardship. We are in Knoxville, Tennessee and you can visit our website at www.secondhalfstewardship.com. The information in this recording is intended for general, educational and informational purposes only, and should not be construed as investment advisory, financial planning, legal, tax, or other professional advice based on your specific situation. Please consult your professional advisor before taking any action based on its contents.