Steward Leadership - Necessities for Cultivating Relationships

 

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

Our topic for 2025 is steward leadership. 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 provided by the Lord for our Village Church Planting work. 

In my previous episode, I mentioned five major themes of stewardship:

1. Character matters

2. Stewards have an obligation to account for their stewardship

3. Stewardship necessitates cultivating relationships

4. The steward must share his master’s goal for growth

5. Faithful stewards advance in their levels of responsibility

Thus far, we have dealt with the first two, and today we turn our attention to the reality that steward leadership necessitates cultivating relationships with the master, our followers and the resources. 

Firstly, if we as steward leaders are to “achieve the owner’s (or the master’s) objectives, we must have relationship with the owner. In our context, our Master is Jesus Christ. We must know Him, His heart for people and that His objective is for us to “… go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  (Matthew 28:19-20a) We must intimately know the Master and His objectives for our lives and our ministries. 

Secondly, as steward leaders we must develop relationships with those who are our followers. Leadership expert, pastor, and author John Maxwell once wrote, “He who thinks he leads, but has no followers, is only taking a walk.” In other words, if we are to be steward leaders, we must have followers, and in order to achieve this we must develop relationships with them. I would assert that developing followers requires both proximity, or closeness, and time. VCP leader, I encourage you to follow the counsel of Proverbs 27:23. “Know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds.”  

Third, and lastly, steward leaders must cultivate relationships with the resources. I will be quick to admit that I needed some help on this point, so I did an internet search, and here is the result. “Cultivating relationships with resources involves not only building connections but also leveraging those connections to provide support and resources. This can include sharing knowledge, skills, and experiences, as well as offering advice and assistance to others. It's about creating a network that can be relied upon for guidance and collaboration, especially in … settings where resources are often limited.” 

Steward leaders are stronger and more effective when we work together. 

This has been a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters and leaders.