Steward Leadership - Stewarding Our Authority

 

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 on this topic. Today I want to share about a prayer I recently heard from one of my fellow OMS Regional Directors. 

To quickly 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 and authority provided by the Lord for our Village Church Planting work.

Here is his prayer. “Lord, please help us steward the authority entrusted to us.”  This caught my attention as throughout this series on Steward Leadership, my focus has primarily been upon our stewarding of financial or human resources. God gives us good people to serve with us, and He provides funds for ministry.

But, He also entrusts us with His authority. Let’s examine this concept today. Here are two scriptures addressing this theme.

“Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.” – Hebrews 13:17 

As leaders, God has placed us in positions of authority. Yet as servant leaders, that authority must be exercised to serve others and to serve the Kingdom. I want to highlight two points here.

1.      We are to keep watch over the well-being of those whom we are leading

2.      We are accountable to God for how we watch over them.

“For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age … These, then, are the things you should teach. Encourage and rebuke with all authority. Do not let anyone despise you.” – Titus 2:11, 12, 15

Again, I want to emphasize a few things that we see in the Apostle Paul’s instruction. 

1.      God’s message of salvation is for all people.

2.      God’s grace is not to be misused. We are to use our authority to teach disciples to avoid worldly passions and to live godly lives.

3.      As we exercise our authority, we are to both encourage and rebuke, and we must do both in a balanced way. Too much encouragement may inflate others’ egos. Too much rebuking may bring discouragement. Those who are under our authority need both of these, and we need discernment to know which is appropriate.

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