Good Stewardship: What That Looks Like
In my blog, What is Stewardship?, I defined stewardship as managing God’s blessings God’s way for God’s glory.
There are, of course, spiritual aspects as well as practical aspects for achieving good stewardship. Taking several spiritual gift inventories over the past decades, my results have always included administration as one of my top three gifts. I can only attribute this passion I have for helping churches in the practical aspects of stewardship to my God-given desire to do so.
Interestingly enough, after making the spiritual decisions regarding the church resources, the technology in our world today has, in my opinion, simplified and systematized this obligation we have to be care for these resources. This makes it possible for “the church” to spend their resources in more mission-minded ways. So, what do we need to do:
- Prayerfully and carefully prepare a budget for the church,
- Ensure systems are in place to authorize, expend and record financial transactions per the budget,
- Ascertain there are controls in place to protect these resources, and
- Maintain compliance with our internal church by-laws and the government required laws.
A good steward multiplies the resources provided and grows the kingdom all to the glory of God. Next week we’ll explore budgeting.