All aboard the steward ship!

I've lived and breathed ministry for long enough to know that the Steward Ship is cruising off the coast of all of our churches.

We tell people to be good stewards of their money...their time...their resources...their talents.

This is good stuff.

Where we need to be wise is in how we define the word.

I remember a church in Alliance that had portable music equipment. Amps, Monitors, speakers, the whole nine yards. It was 10 grand easy to get all of that. The heart was to use it for a new worship venue and allow new people to connect with their church in a different environment. One of the unpaid servants of the church offered up the materials for our college ministry to use at a retreat. As he was helping us load it up, he said that a while back some of the leadership in the church advised that policies should be in place on how the music equipment could be used and there was actually opposition to letting us use it. The opposition said that under the guise of 'good stewardship' of what they had purchased, it would not be a wise thing to let us use it because it could get damaged.

The leader quipped in a remark that has really changed my view of stewardship..."Stewardship isn't about protecting what's been given to us...its about using and wearing out what's been given to us for the Kingdom."

His whole thing was that the church had made an investment in something to reach people for Christ and now it was their duty and responsibility to wear that equipment out for the kingdom.

Yes, you can wear your resources, money and gifts out in wise or unwise ways. But stewarding anything that God has entrusted to you means using the bejeepers out of it in ways that leverage the grace of God to the world.

So if you're hopping on board the Steward Ship and you find that it is staying too close to the shore for safety and protection...you might find its time to repent and push out to deep waters. Chances are, God will meet you in the depths.

So, what have you been given that needs to be leveraged more for God?