Leadership Is Stewardship, Part 3

 This is the third of three articles I wrote on Leadership for The High Calling.

 To be faithful stewards, we must understand four important leadership principles.

3. The principle of accountability.  As we’ve learned, when a leader is given responsibility, he is accountable to the one who gave it. Paul reminds us “it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy” (1 Cor. 4:2, NASB). Jesus told several parables in which he used stewardship as metaphor for how his kingdom operates. Each one ends with the steward giving account of what he had done with the master’s property. In the same way, we are stewards of everything we have been given, including our time, money, abilities, information, wisdom, relationships, and authority. And we will all give account to the rightful owner as to how well we managed the things he has entrusted to us.

Adam didn’t do so well when God called him to account for violating a direct command not to eat from a certain tree. True to form, those who want to avoid being held accountable blame others. She did it. Or even, God, it’s your fault. I don’t know about you, but this tendency toward blame runs pretty strong in me and many people I know. When something goes wrong, my default response is to look for someone else to point the finger at. Not that it’s always my fault, but that’s usually the last place I look. However, personal accountability must be a core value of leaders. Paul reminds us, like it or not, that we too will be held accountable.

For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ” ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ ” So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God. (Rom. 14:10-12)

 

When we stand before God at his judgment seat, he won’t be interested in how difficult our spouses were to love, how uncooperative our children were to parent, how difficult our boss or employees were to deal with, how obstinate the people were at church, or how corrupt a culture we had to endure. We’ll give account for what we did with what he gave us. To read more click here to go to The High Calling

What’s on Your Balance Sheet?

At a recent workplace leaders breakfast a seasoned real estate developer spoke about how God had carried him through the real estate catastrophe in the late 1980s. He said, “I felt as if someone had torn out the asset page of my balance sheet, leaving me with only liabilities.” But then he reminded the group that as Christians we each have “hidden” assets to draw upon. Here are some of those assets that God adds to our balance sheet that can never be taken away from us:

• Scripture to remind us of the truth
• Prayer to call out to God and ask for help
• Abilities given by God to accomplish his purposes
• A God who cares about our work and is personally present
• Other Christians to encourage us
• The Holy Spirit to remind us of the truth when we forget it during the day

You may be feel the same way when you look at your net worth these days. But don’t forget to add in the multitude of deposits Christ has made into your personal account. What else can you add to this list?

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

Leadership is Stewardship, Part 2

This is the second of three articles I wrote on Leadership for The High Calling.

 To be faithful stewards, we must understand four important leadership principles.

1.  The principle of ownership.  A leader has privilege, responsibility, and authority because he has been given these by his master. A steward doesn’t own; he holds in trust and uses what he has been given for the one who owns it. Arrogance and pride don’t have any place in this equation. The title deed to our lives and the entire universe is in God’s name. He holds all the rights of ownership.

No organization—be it a family, company, or church—is created for the leader, nor is it created by the leader. Everything we have comes from God. The Bible is clear. He owns it all:

“The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.” (Ps. 24:1)

In response to this divine claim, Abraham Kuyper, prime minister of the Netherlands at the turn of the twentieth century, proclaimed: “There is not one square millimeter of this entire creation about which Jesus Christ does not cry out, ‘This is mine! It belongs to me!’ ” Everything in this world is God’s by right of creation and by right of preservation as well. All that we have added to Creation—the skills and abilities we’ve used and the things we’ve developed—are from God. We don’t even own the fruit of our own work. He reminded the Jews of this before they entered the Promised Land.

You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth (Deut. 8:17-18).

Every individual is also His by right of creation and by right of redemption.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.   (1 Cor. 6:19-20)

Nothing belongs to us, not even our lives. As much as I might like to define myself by the size of my home, the speed of my car, or my title at work, everything I am and everything I have is God’s. As leaders, we must be constantly aware that our time, skills, and energy, and every resource, person, and opportunity comes from God.  To read more click here to go to The High Calling.

Leadership is Stewardship, Part 1

This is the first of three articles I wrote on Leadership for The High Calling.

One of We live in the Age of Quantification. We want to know how many, how much, and for how long. When it comes to leadership, we like to grade skills, measure behaviors, and add up accomplishments. However, the essence of leadership is broader than possessing certain skills and expertise. It’s deeper than what any leadership assessment can reveal. And it’s much more profound than being accountable to shareholders to impart vision and reap financial results. Business consultant Peter Block suggests that leadership should be viewed more as stewardship.

If the term stewardship makes you think of sermons you’ve endured about church budgets and building programs, think again. In the ancient world, stewardship was not a religious term. Rather it was a key component of commerce.  To read more click here to go to The High Calling.