Rethinking Personal Stewardship

The steward is totally obligated to serve (worship) his master and protect his master’s property even to the point of giving his life to do so. The properties under the steward’s administration are the master’s and are to be administered to the benefit of the master, not the steward. The steward serves one master (Matthew 6: 24) and cannot hold any allegiance to another. He is bound in slaveship to the master. The steward is identified, selected, purchased to engage in his master’s business only and not his own. The steward and the master then enjoy a relationship of oneness and integrity, each relying on one another to be totally obligated and act in a manner that will benefit the other party. We are stewards of God. From the moment of creation when God granted human beings to have dominion over His creation (Genesis 1:28). This stewardship relationship remains even until today, where we are now placed as coworkers with Christ in the administration of the good news of the Gospel (1 Corinthians 4:1–2). In the next few chapters of this book, we will explore and understand this rich and blessed stewardship relationship that God has established with us humans as His stewards. We will also discover the qualities of a sensible steward who uses what the master has entrusted to him to the glory of the master while reaping his reward in doing so (Luke 12:42–48). God did not call us out of darkness to proclaim a message of prosperity or abundant life here on earth. Is an abundant life possession? The apostle Luke notes, “For even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (Lk 12:15). God has called us to be “stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Cor. 4:1b), which is the Gospel of Christ. We are called to announce the second coming of Christ. It is a call to us and the world to be reformed by the blood of Jesus Christ and to be reconnected to God in His image. As we embrace and understand the Gospel, we are transformed into His image—an image that reflects the true and loving God who created us and redeemed us unto Himself for the gift of everlasting life in His coming kingdom. When Christians fix their attention on the things of the world, they gradually lose out on God’s divine plan for their lives. They become ensnared in the trappings of this world and soon become lost souls, not bearing His image. We need an awaken to be restored this image and calling. God’s people today will need to rethink stewardship in the light of the Advent message as a steward waiting for His master’s returning (Lk. 12:35–48) We should keep our attention fixed on the soon coming of Christ, prepared at any hour for His appearing. We must never be too caught up in the achievements, advancements, and accomplishments of this world. If we do, we will lose sight of our true calling. When we lose sight of it, we are no different from those who are caught up in the glories of this life for whom the consequences are too grave and too high for us to pay. There are fundamental differences between the principles of stewardship and those of fundraising. Too often, leaders of our churches get these two disciplines confused. Stewardship is not fundraising. Simply put, stewardship is management and maintenance of someone else’s goods while fundraising is the act of acquiring funds and or material for a cause or a purpose. From a biblical perspective, stewardship is the management of God’s entrusted creation. This was the responsibility given to Adam (Gen. 1:28) on the sixth day of creation when God instructed him to take care and look after His creation. David, on the other hand, raised funds and material to build God’s temple (1 Chron. 22). The children of Israel brought their sacrifices to God; it was to maintain the daily living costs for the tribe of Levi, the priests, and the temple (Deut. 14:22–29). This is one aspect of stewardship. It is the systematic, benevolent returning of goods and services to God’s house to maintain and assist in its management. It is currently still needed for this purpose as well as for the spreading of the Gospel to the world. It is not raising money for a cause, but rather the responsibility for a given purpose, to assist in spreading the Gospel to the world. Could it be that one of the main reason’s churches have challenges in obtaining the means to further the Gospel is the promotion of fundraising and getting money to do God’s work instead of explaining the stewardship responsibility to its members in doing the work of God? The call should be for Christians to surrender their hearts to God; then everything in their lives will be surrendered to Him, including their money. The purpose of stewardship in the life of the Christian is worship. We must worship God the Creator in all we do, all we say, all we are, and all we have. It is a wholistic approach that relies on the mind, body, and soul of the individual being surrendered to God. While fundraising is raising money for a specific cause, program, or activity, stewardship calls us to surrender our whole being to God. When this is accomplished, everything we own or encounter is viewed as God’s and never ours. Therefore, surrendering all to God becomes a natural response rather than a response to a feeling of obligation or charity. Mallery Callahan stated in his book What in the World is Christian Stewardship, “Stewardship is a way of life.” It calls on human beings to conduct themselves according to God’s original intention for them. The enigma of man’s life is to know whether he is a giver or returner. This knowledge is demonstrated in action rather than rhetoric. “Give to God and He will bless you” is not biblical. It is a pagan’s perspective of God. We tend to worship God as pagans do when we believe and practice this behavior. We cannot give to God what He has already given to us. His giving is His blesses to us. God is not a stone god that our giving is to appease Him and earn His blessings. On the contrary, God gives to us despite our shortcoming because He loves us.