The Essence of Stewardship

When asked to describe "development", how do you answer the question? For most of us, I suspect, it begins with a explanation of the needs of the school and how we can raise money from our various constituencies. And, yes, our school is worthy of support; that almost goes without saying.

"Listen" to one of the leaders of the biblical stewardship movement, Wes Willmer:

“Stewardship is God’s way of raising people, not man’s way of raising money.”
Wesley K. Willmer, God & Your Stuff (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2003), p. 9.

I need to hear this. You see, it's not so much the "what" of development and fundraising (auctions, appeals, golf outings, etc.), it's the "why" and "how" that is critical. Be sure that the Lord cares very much about how we "do" fundraising; it reveals so much about how we think about ourselves, the donors, and how God works in providing for our school.

For instance, when you think of ways to "close the gap", does your mind race to the people who have the most wealth, or the ones with the fanciest car? These are the people who SHOULD be willing to give because they have so much, right?

Some of these donors need to be "raised", but not just asked for a gift. Other donors are well on the path to living like they know the Provider, and they are naturally more generous. The approach we should employ is different for each, but it should always be with their spiritual growth in mind.

In these days when we are planning for the next school year, take some time to evaluate and pray about the essence of stewardship and how that is manifested in your actions.

Prayer and Practice: A Summer Stewardship Project

I have been blessed to meet many other Christian school administrators over the past decade. God has raised up godly and capable men and women who have much to contribute to their schools and local communities. They have taught me and supported me in growing into the position I hold in my school. I suspect many of you have done this for the "youngsters" who move into leadership roles.

Here is an idea to consider for this summer: find a "prayer and practice" friend with whom you can spend time.

Recently, I was approached by a long-time friend in Christian schooling to do some "visioning" together. He has lots of experience that is different than mine and I have some background that could be useful to him. In our first meeting we ranged over a number of issues and we were able to find a few areas where we could be helpful to each other. We agreed to come back together on a regular basis to discuss further how we could begin to enhance our respective schools.

How can you do this? Think of a person who you respect and who you could meet with on a regular basis. Summers are less structured times; we can think a little more creatively without the normal pressing schedules. Call and meet for coffee; a non-school venue is conducive to out-of-the-box thinking.

Lastly, pray with and for your friend asking the Lord to reveal His ideas to both of you. No need to worry about competition. There are plenty of students available if our parents get the big idea of Christian schooling.

Stewardship Can Begin at a Young Age

Like many middle-aged administrators I find myself behind the curve when it comes to the latest advances in technology. Telephone and email are my standard electronic modalities. The "smart phone" is a recent acquisition, but many of its features go unused.

However, I know that I must stay up with the times and take advantage of the constantly-improving technologies. My latest foray is to develop a social networking strategy to link up this blog with Advance Christian Schools so that we might be able to connect with and help more school leaders.

So, right under my nose, I find one of our own students who is very proficient with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. and I have asked him to share his abilities with me. Of course, he can set up the accounts and do the automatic links and feeds, but he started with me asking really good questions:

1. What is my passion and objective for this networking capability?


2. Who are the people I am trying to reach? What messages do I want them to receive?


3. What is my end goal or action I desire for these interactions?


4. What does success look like?

Wow! This interaction sounds a lot like the kind of questions we want our upperclassmen to be asking.

My young protege is unleashing his passion (social networking), using his provision (vast computer skills), and applying them to a Kingdom purpose (connecting and equipping leaders).

Look around your school and see if the Lord has placed a young gem right under your nose.