By Michael D. Novak

A lot of emphasis has been placed on the economy today. Markets have gone up and markets have gone down. People and the media have a tendency to focus a lot on this. Consider that the last decade of the financial cycle has produced about 4% over the broad index. (Note: that is a 4% total return for 10 years or a paltry .4% per year average). The regular investor actually did worse with a 2.6% total return for the same period. Our worry did not appear to help us.

But God’s economy does not start with money and investing. It starts with stewardship. Sadly, stewardship has lost a lot of its meaning in recent years. Stewardship now comes in many forms and can mean anything or nothing. Webster defines stewardship as the management of someone else’s property. This is a good starting point but in order to get a full understanding we need to look at the authority of Scripture. In the original Greek, we see stewardship has two root words; oikos (which means house and nomos (which means law). The combination of these words is oikonomia from which we get economy. Isn’t it interesting since we stopped teaching home economics in schools, we have seen a steady decline of how people manage their money. This is because people no longer have knowledge of the Biblical principles that were taught as practical application. Biblical principals always work.

As Christians, it is fundamental to understand that a part of our calling, at the point of our conversion, is to be managers of God’s economy. The Greeks may have used oikonomia to refer to household management but the Bible uses it with broader significance.

Psalm 24:1 says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it – the world and all who live in it!”

Observe carefully that we as Christians are stewards to all of the wonderful resources he has entrusted to us.

Consider these seven fundamental areas of life that require stewardship oversight:

• Material; all our possessions including the environment.
• Physical; our bodies as a temple of the Holy Spirit.
• Financial; money and resources.
• Vocational; what we do in life from student to retired.
• Temporal; the time we have been given.
• Relational; many we encounter daily.
• Spiritual; our growth and development with God.

It is very important to understand that all of the above have to be in proper balance. Ephesians 4:1 urges us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. Properly translated, this means to balance the scales. Scripture commands us that we are to manage as stewards his creation in every facet of life. Our stewardship of God’s resources is not a request it is an ordained fact of life. We do not choose to be stewards, God has already entrusted all his resources to us.

Consider a practical application of excellent stewardship from Exodus 36. Bezalel and Oholiab were given unique skill and ability to construct the Tabernacle along with other skilled craftsman who were willing to come and do the work. In addition, people were bringing freewill offerings morning after morning of all the precious metals, wood, cloth etc. that would be needed as God instructed. Eventually, Moses had to give an order to restrain the people from giving any more as an offering because there was already more than enough to do all the work. They gave in the form of resources, time, and unique skills. People of all ages were working together in community. Most importantly they sought the favor of God continually in this significant work.

It has been documented that if Christians would simply tithe a few percentage points above their normal giving and stay consistent, we would soon have enough to fund the work of the kingdom. That’s not even taking into account any of the other aspects of stewardship that we have just previously discussed. That would push what we needed over the top.

Finally notice from the passage in Exodus that we must first be willing to be good stewards. We have to choose principle over preference. Once we are willing, we begin to understand how much bigger God’s Economy is over our very limited understanding. Then we will be able to put into practice his wonderful plan for our own individual stewardship.

Michael D Novak is Executive Director of Life Stewardship

Life Stewardship Advisors, LLC Lancaster PA