Steward Leadership - Fruitfulness

    This is Chuck Rapp with Multiply, a podcast to provide a word of encouragement for village church planters and leaders.

We continue our series on steward leadership as we examine some major themes of stewardship. Today I want to share about a prayer I recently heard from a Nigerian pastor.

To review, a steward is defined as “someone who manages resources belonging to another person in order to achieve the owner’s objectives.” In our context, we are managing resources provided by the Lord for our Village Church Planting work.

Here is Pastor Isaac’s prayer from just a few weeks ago. “Above all, we pray that we will be more productive for your Kingdom.” Let me say that again. “Above all, we pray that we will be more productive for your Kingdom.”

As I break down that prayer into its parts, I see three points that he made.

He began with “Above all”. This implies a first priority for our leadership. Exemplary steward leadership places an emphasis upon fruitfulness. I will share further in my next podcast about the importance of accountability. Our “Owner,” God, like the owner in the parable of the talents (you can read this again in Matthew 25:14-30) expects a return corresponding to what He has entrusted to us.

Secondly, in Pastor Isaac’s prayer, he prayed that we might be “More productive.” Fruitfulness is the earnest desire of steward leaders. One of the scriptures that motivates me greatly is Luke 12:48b. “From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” “Demanded” in the New International Version is a very strong word. In the New English Version and several others, this is translated as “required.” As I studied this verse, other translations used “expected” or “responsible.” The clear point of this instruction is that the Lord will hold steward leaders accountable to be fruitful with the resources entrusted to us.

Finally, he closed his prayer with the words “For Your Kingdom”. I appreciate this. You see, Christ’s Kingdom is to be the beneficiary of our service. We serve not to build our reputations or to call attention to our personal ministries. Steward leaders serve not to seek positional promotion or advancement. Jesus taught this in His Sermon on the Mount. We are to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” (Matthew 6:33) Sometimes acclaim or promotion may follow our service, but these are a byproduct, not the objective, of our steward leadership.

Next time, we will continue our study of steward leadership. This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters and leaders.