Part 4: Stewards of the Mission

Covenant Presbyterian Church

A steward is someone who takes care of another person’s possessions. We may be a steward of someone’s home or land or investments. A steward has great responsibility but also great privileges. In the opening chapters of Scripture we learn that stewardship is basic to our self-understanding. God created man and woman in part to steward the earth. He gave humanity great responsibility to exercise dominion over the earth but also great dignity as his vice regents.

Essential to Christian stewardship is generosity. Throughout the Old Testament God tutors his people in the discipline and joy of generosity. As with everything else, the advent of Jesus and the birth of the church brought about great changes. In terms of stewardship, the example of Jesus calls forth greater generosity from his followers. From her first days, the needs of the church were provided for through the generosity of God’s people. Ultimately, Christians steward their resources generously and freely out of gratitude for the grace that they have received: “I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. [9] For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:8-9).