Wearing the Steward's Lens

Mark L. Vincent, Ph.D., CSP
This article provided by the Engstrom Institute

Imagine a pile of eyeglasses from which you must choose a pair to correct your eyesight. Without the help of a trained optometrist it is difficult to know which pair serves best. Getting the prescription right makes the difference in seeing the world in all the brilliance it offers.

Now imagine a variety of lenses you might use to interpret and apply the Scriptures. Which one would you choose and why?

We would want to choose the best lens so we can see all the brilliance the Scriptures offer. This is especially true in any conversation about stewardship — a term used to mean most anything [1] and often used in contradictory ways, many of which have no remaining Biblical mooring even though the word is often used by religious people. As Christian leaders, however, we want to rightly understand, use and apply this concept as related in Scripture.

Here is the list of lenses we might use, and how they focus one's view of Biblical stewardship:

BLINDERS. When one wears blinders there is no interest in learning what the Bible says. In fact, blinders can lead someone to be outright dismissive: "How can an ancient document have any relevance to my situation?"

A person wearing blinders acts without consistency and without thought. They are not interested in fixing errors in their thinking. On the subject of stewardship, blinders prevent one from distinguishing between the roles of a steward and being a philanthropist or becoming charitably minded. They do not see that being a steward is to accept God's call to use assets in a mission-oriented way.

MIRRORED. A mirrored lens reflects rather than reveals. In this case the reflection is inward, not outward. The one wearing the lens sees only what they put in front of the lens. There is little or no thoughtfulness and no real interest to dig deeper to tackle difficult questions.

Any conversation about stewardship when wearing this lens is likely to be an echo of what one has been told previously. "I was always taught that I should tithe," or "stewardship is about giving money to God." The wearer of this lens cannot see anything more.

INVERTED. The inverted lens makes the world appear upside down or backwards. Secondary priorities trump more important messages. Misperceptions abound. The ability to make distinctions is limited.

Wearing an inverted lens with Biblical stewardship means the closest and easiest subject to perceive is seized (managing money) and that more important and complex subjects (serving as a steward of the gospel of Jesus Christ) get overlooked. The result is a distorted view of stewardship. Scripture is then used to manipulate raising funds. "The Bible says we should lay up treasures in heaven, so please give us money for our capital campaign so we can build our Family Life Center." The one wearing the inverted lens does not understand how their logic breaks as they jump from eternal to temporal as if they are the same.

READING. Reading lenses help a person see what is in front of them. It does not help to see greater depth and distance.

A reading lens is human-centered. Working with the Scripture a person asks "What does God want me to do?" The person looks for the actions they must perform and stops there.

Working with the subject of stewardship while wearing a reading lens, a person gets the idea that it is good for them to be generous so they give something away. It does not mean they grasp how generosity reflects the very character of God (James 1:5), or that generosity serves as lubrication among a unified body of believers (Acts 4:32-37). The result of the human-centered reading lens is sight, but not seeing everything.

CORRECTIVE. Corrective lenses improve sight both near and far. The truest vision is obtained.

A corrective lens is God-centered. It helps one consistently ask "What is God doing and how can I be part of it?" The person listens, acts upon what they hear and then reflects, sharpening their next actions so the transformation of their heart to be rich toward God continues.

In the stewardship discussion the corrective lens looks first to God and discovers God brings all resources to bear for the salvation of the world. God does not even withhold the Divine self, but accepts death on the cross to make salvation possible. Wearing the corrective lens, one is able to ask, "How can I join God in this effort?" Such a person focuses all resources—time, talent, treasure, vocation, and relationships—to become a person God spends.

So let us put on corrective lenses. Our devotional life will be profoundly enriched, our Bible study in preparation for public talks to our constituencies will go deeper, and we will have more substance and wisdom when we write articles or fundraising appeals.

Wearing our corrective lenses, let us make the following discoveries about stewardship:

1. I am a steward. The Bible doesn't use the word stewardship, a more detached word describing the state of being a steward. Rather, it uses the word steward—a title, a role, an identity I am called to claim.
2. I am a steward of the gospel. The Bible never uses the word steward in reference to how one manages economic affairs. Instead, it is always in reference to the Kingdom of God and its message (see I Corinthians 4:1,2 for one of the most profound examples).
3. Jesus' favorite subject was the kingdom of God.

So much stewardship literature has been written through other lenses instead of corrective ones. The sad result is that the stewardship focus becomes money. To support our mistake we point out that Jesus talks a lot about money, or we identify thousands of verses about money in the totality of Scripture. But Jesus spoke the most often about the Kingdom he offered! His frequent references to money and economic life help us understand how one enters and lives in that Kingdom. He used economic illustrations to make his point but they were not the point in and of themselves. He didn't say "You can't serve God and wealth" (Luke 16:13) because he was raising funds for something. Neither did he say it because money was important. He said it because God is.

4. A steward is no different than an ambassador. The apostle Paul was fond of developing metaphors to help his readers understand how fully a servant of God gives themselves to God to do God's work. He uses the word steward to convey the idea, sure, but he also uses ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20) clay jars that hold a treasure (2 Corinthians 4:7) and prisoner in the Lord (Ephesians 4:1).

We who are Christians render our lives to Another and we serve in a particular way—as a representative of our Master. Our Master's mission is to dispense grace so that the Kingdom grows greater and stronger with each person who embraces the peace of Christ.

It is not easy to wear corrective lenses. Many will not see matters as we do—particularly being a steward where we organize all assets of life and ministry, including those of the ministering organization, for God to spend us. To embrace a leader's role in a Christian ministry organization is to embrace the service of treating the gospel as the costliest of all treasure—even when others do not yet see as we have learned to see.

Open our eyes Lord. We want to see Jesus …

[1] If you do an internet search you will discover that the most frequent contemporary use of "Stewardship" is in relationship to earth care, and not necessarily in a religious or theological context.

Adapted from an article "Seeing Biblical Stewardship Clearly" that first appeared in the Feb. March 2009 edition of Outcomes magazine.