Stewardship, seriously?
Stewardship. Often misunderstood. Frequently applied incorrectly. But still a Biblical principle essential to a Christian’s life, and one we must take seriously.
Did you assume?
Reading the title to this post, I would venture to guess that a number of assumptions crossed your mind. They may have been assumptions about my topic, my point, or my focus. I am being bold with this assertion because it is what I have consistently witnessed in all my discussions about stewardship.
Whenever the topic comes up, most assume I will go on to talk about, or write about, money. That my focus will be how we need to be good stewards of our money. And how we need to give more to our local church or Christian charities. Allow me to be crystal clear, I am not writing about money. (At least not in this article.) I want to challenge you to take stewardship, as a whole, seriously.
Compounding the assumption
The association of stewardship with finances is the most common link I find in peoples’ minds. Many would even go so far as to see stewardship and financial management or principles as being synonymous. This is one of the greatest disservices that can be given to the topic. But a disservice that has been well fed in Christian circles.
Copious amounts of books and articles have been written, courses taught, and sermons preached that present stewardship as being wholly financially focused. Others may not be so extreme but while they give a cursory nod to the scope of stewardship being wider than financial matters, the remainder of their content leaves the consumer in no doubt that they believe the financial application is the most appropriate and necessary.
I want to state clearly that stewardship is about so much more than money. When we restrict it to this one area of our lives it loses its power and opportunity for impact for us as Christ followers.
We need to take stewardship seriously.
There are applications of stewardship that can be made to our finances. And many of the resources I include in my groupings above do a better job at making that link than I can. But we need to see that there are wider applications and that stop us writing off the topic as being financial in nature.
If we are to take it seriously, then we need to examine it carefully. Once examined it needs to be applies consistently in our lives. I invite you to look at stewardship with a renewed perspective. I will write a number of articles that will examine the topic in more depth on this site. The first will address whether it is right to major on this metaphor.
