What is Stewardship?

If you’re part of a church, you’ve probably heard the word stewardship a few times. You hear it often in churches as church leaders tend to use it when talking about money. They say things like, “We want to be good stewards of our money” or “practice good stewardship.” To me, it’s always sounded like good stewardship means don’t spend too much and save save save! But am I misinterpreting? What does the concept of good stewardship actually look like?

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word stewardship as “the job of supervising or taking care of something, such as an organization or property.” I love the “taking care of something” part. If we are to be good stewards of our money, we take good care of it. That doesn’t necessarily mean not to spend it. But it means there’s an intention and a carefulness to how we use it.

As a Christian, I see my assets not as my own, but as they belong to God and I get to steward what He’s given me. I use the talents and abilities that he has given me to work hard and bring honor to Him. One of my rewards for that hard work is a paycheck that I also try to use to honor Him.

So the money I have is just for me to “supervise and take care of” for the Lord. How I spend it, save it, grow it, and give it should bring honor to Him first and foremost. That’s healthy stewardship because it’s intentionally caring about how I use it.

Good stewardship gets fuzzy because it’s so broad. We may know that we are to intentionally supervise and take care of our money, but there’s no real instructions for how to do that. How do you know when it’s wise to buy something or not? Because of the vagueness, most people who are really committed to being a good steward decide to just spend the least amount possible. They believe that being especially frugal is how to practice good stewardship.

But is that all there is to it? Just try not to spend money? Buy the cheapest stuff? Is that the key to how God wants us to manage our assets?

I think there’s more to it. 

We can be good stewards by comparing costs on an item and then choosing the cheaper option. BUT, could we be an even better steward by choosing one that costs more? 

Suppose you are in the market for chocolate. You indulge every once in awhile, and hey, we’re all fine with that. Let’s say you also want to be a good steward of money and don’t want to waste money on treating yourself. So you decide to go with the cheapest mass produced chocolate out there. You can save money that way, sure. But what if you found a chocolate that practiced fair-trade and honored the land and work of their laborers? It probably costs a little more money, but if you see that as an honoring way to use your money, that’s being a good steward too.

You see, practicing good stewardship is more than just not spending money frivolously. It’s about applying money to things you care about in the world. It’s about using the money you’ve been entrusted with to take care of your loved ones and spread love out into the world. 

Maybe that means investing in a vacation to expose your kids to different cultures and types of people or even just making memories together. Maybe that means spending some money to update your home to make it a welcoming environment to honor guests. Or maybe you decide to dedicate money each month to support a charity doing work you love instead of spending that money on yourself. Or maybe it’s spending a little more on chocolate or coffee you always buy to make sure it’s honoring.

All of these things can be ways we make steps toward good stewardship. Just like anything else in life, it’s mostly about being intentional. If money comes in and goes out of our accounts without us even thinking about it, we’ve missed it. But if we choose to use the money we earn to honor God and other people, we get to be a part of something bigger. 

Money surely isn’t everything, and we aren’t supposed to obsess over it or worship it. But it’s wise to examine how we use it and be intentional with our choices.

How do you feel you’re doing with stewardship? I know it’s a continual process of growth for me. I encourage you to spend some time this week thinking about how you view your assets and how you could steward them more wisely. And I’d love to sit down and talk with you about it anytime and hear your views on it.

Next week on the blog we’ll look at a growing number of mutual funds that aim to be good stewards of your money by only investing in companies that are themselves good stewards. Sometimes this is called sustainable investing, ESG investing, SRI investing, etc. Next week I’ll dive deeper into this “new” form of investing.