WHAT IS A STEWARD?

In our churches, stewardship is usually the once-a-year activity when we pledge money to next year’s budget.  But there’s more to it than that.

Stewardship is what a steward does.  In general, a steward is one who is entrusted with something that belongs to someone else.  He or she could be a trustee of property or an estate, the manager of a large household, or a keeper of the silver or wine or food to be served to others – a wine steward in a restaurant or an airline steward or stewardess .  If we are to be stewards in a Christian sense, then, what are we to be stewards of and for whom?  The implication is that we have been given something by somebody else, and we are to hold that something in trust – to be responsible for it, to care for it, perhaps to distribute it appropriately and to be accountable for it, perhaps by providing periodic reports.

For Christians, the Who is, of course, God.  As for the What, God has given us our life, our body, our mind,  our very being, in trust to be used carefully and responsibly.  As trustees of that life, we are to protect it and maintain it and nourish it.  And at the same time we are to be servants, using our lives in service of others.  In addition, God has given us an amazing power to love, and we are supposed to use that love by giving it away to others.  Fortunately, God makes that easy to do.  For the presence of God within us is the power for us to live our lives and to show His love each day.

How do we do this?  By the way we treat other people every day.  By the way we use our time and resources.  By the way we “wash more feet.”   This is the way we become a community of stewards of what God has so abundantly given us.

Loren Bullock

November 14, 2006