Stewarding Our Work

Pastors work hard and those outside of ministry (and maybe within) may miss that it is labor, a job, their share in Adam's gift of work. We're excited to share this devotion from Kara Martin whose ministry is to think, write, and teach about faith and work. 

—Stu Strachan Jr.

Stewardship and Parenting

I have two adult children. Right from the moment they were born I realised that I had to be careful in the way I thought about them. They are not my children, they are a gift from God. God has given me stewardship over them for as long as I live. They are a beautiful and treasured gift, but I try and make sure I hold them lightly. This reframing has been helpful as the kids have grown. When my daughter contracted leukaemia when she was six, I didn’t see it as God trying to take her away from me; but I accepted the possibility he might be asking me to entrust her back to his care. When my son went through a time of rebellion, I had to acknowledge that I couldn’t make him believe, because he wasn’t mine. However, I could continue to love and care for him, and model relationship with God, and pray.

The Gift of Work

My recognition that I am a steward of my children is the same attitude that I bring to my work, and it is a biblical premise. In Genesis 1:26, God gave humanity work to do, to be stewards over his creation. In Genesis 2:15 he tells Adam to work the earth and keep the garden.

Work is a gift because we have an opportunity to be stewards over whatever responsibility God has given us: to love that work, do the best we can with it and offer it back to God as a form of worship.

Not only does God give us work to do, he also gives us what we need to do it well. We read in Genesis 2:8 that God planted a garden and placed humans in it. Further on we read that God provided everything humans needed to work and live. The garden is the source of food, and in verses 10–12 we read that there are rivers and a variety of resources: ore, including gold, and resins for building and construction, and onyx stone, a precious stone possibly used for trade.

God also gives us the gifts and skills we need to do the work. In the Old Testament we see this in the famous story of Bezalel in Exodus 31 who is given gifts of wisdom and creativity and skill.

Meditation

What does it mean for a pastor to be a steward of the work God has called you to do? 

How is stewardship different from ownership of your work—why does that difference matter?

What are some of the ways God has prepared you for your work? What are the gifts he has given you? How has he provided for you along the way? What relationships have you been given to make it possible?

Key Passage

The key stewardship verses are Genesis 1:27–28, often known as the creation or cultural mandate:

So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’ (NIV)

Our role is to take the materials of the earth and use them to fill out the creation. We have a responsibility to look after and care for all that we see. Our working is the most significant way we fulfil this command from God.

Prayer

Dear Lord,

Thank you for this amazing responsibility you have given us to look after and take care of all the aspects of creation that are before us.

Help us to be worthy stewards of the relationships you have given us; our houses and possessions; the financial resources you have entrusted to us.

Help us also to use our working to creatively care for and sustain creation in a way that serves you and expresses love toward others.

If we have opportunity in our working, help us to use our imaginations to be creative in filling creation with good things and services.

Guide us, we pray,
AMEN.

Thanks to Kara Martin for permission to share this post. Some changes were made to tailor the reflection questions to pastors by TPW. It was originally posted on her blog on her Workship site on March 25, 2017.