by Rev. Blane Young || Executive Director, DCXA
(Bonus) A Stewardship Issue
It might be helpful, in this short bonus post, to provide a definition for stewardship.
Here’s a great definition from Crosswalk.com:
The Bible mentions property managers or “stewards” several times. A steward works for the owner, managing money, land, employees while the master is away. “An overseer, as God's steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain” (Titus 1:7). God’s instructions for landowners described how much to harvest, how much to leave for “the poor and for the sojourner,” and made it plain that the land and harvest ultimately belongs to himself for “I am the Lord your God” (Leviticus 19:10).
Helping students choose one campus ministry and one local church (and also expecting our student leaders to live out that vision) is a stewardship issue in my book. Now, there are five other reasons why we parse out this conversation the way we do so I’m not saying this is the most important one (or the one that you will resonate with the most). However, I think leaving it out would’ve been a mistake.
It’s a stewardship issue in two ways:
time / talent
treasure (financial resources)
We all have limited time (and funds!). As you may know, Chi Alpha exists because of the monthly financial generosity of individuals, families, and churches. This is how staff get paid and how programming gets paid for.
We wouldn’t be wise or even good stewards, if we spent all of our time / talent and treasure investing in students that are being invested in by a handful of other campus ministries. Not to mention the moral implications of doing so when so many on our campuses are lost or unengaged!
When s church in Kansas, alumni in CA, and families in PA invest in Chi Alpha — they hope that we are adding value to people that need it most. They are sacrificially giving, not so that we can saturate Christians with more events and resources, but so that we can form a community focused on loving the lost and inviting people to take new steps in their faith journey.
Let’s steward our lives well, for God’s glory and for the sake of those that might currently be far from Him.
Thanks for taking time to read this, over the next few days, we’ll have 4-5 more blog posts published in this series.