Stewardship defined

What is stewardship?

Stewardship is an old English term that came out of the feudal system during the Middle Ages. A steward was a caretaker or manager of a castle. The steward was not the owner; the lord of the castle owned everything. The steward knew all the ins and outs of the castle and managed its day-to-day operations. The lord of the castle would be in contact with his steward to assess the state of his property.

The church world has adopted the term "stewardship" to reflect our relationship as a manager of God's property, because He owns everything and we are simply managers of what God has given to us.

Here are a couple of definitions I discovered on the Internet that apply very well to the Christian walk:

• Stewardship is personal responsibility for taking care of another person's property or financial affairs or in religious orders taking care of finances.


• The concept of managing the assets of a family business in such a way as to preserve or increase their worth for future generations.

I really like this second definition. As believers in Jesus Christ, we are called to increase the worth of our family business - the Kingdom of God.

So what are you doing to increase the worth of our family business?