Kingdom stewardship is not only related to the use of finances. It is related to everything we have received from the King (e.g., time, passions, gifts, opportunities, power, wealth). Will we bury what has been provided, or will we put it to use in a manner reflective of Kingdom wisdom?
Over the past fifteen years (that was when I started taking notice), many evangelicals have used a great deal of energy with the Church Growth Movement, Seeker Movement, Megachurch Movement, and Missional Movement (just to name a few influential movements) only to find ourselves, especially in North America, still focusing most of our missionary activities on reached people groups.
Even with all of our conversations about disciple making and not sheep-stealing (or sheep-shifting, because churches do not steal), we still crave and celebrate numbers that are not reflective of preaching the gospel to all peoples (Fifteen years ago, we attributed this to a maintenance mentality. Now, I think it has a great deal to do with a survival mentality. But that is a future blog post.).
There are 7 billion people in the world, 4 billion are not followers of Jesus, 2 billion have never heard of Jesus, and the United States and Canada make the top-five list of countries when it comes to unreached people groups. Most evangelicals do not allow these realities to influence their local and global church planting strategies.
If the King has made His Commission clear, then what does it say about Kingdom citizens who look at these realities and ignore them when it comes to the development of missionary strategy? Is that wise Kingdom stewardship? If such realities are true about North America, then why would we expect to plant churches among reached peoples? Why would we continue to use enormous amounts of energy, time, and money (all of those things the King has provided) to reach reached people?
We are more concerned with the numbers of churches started than with the number of churches birthed from the harvest of unreached people groups.
Yes, we lack an apostolic imagination, but there is something else lurking in the shadows. This was best communicated to me several years ago. I was speaking with a denominational leader who emphatically said that such missionary labors would not “support” his denomination. And by “support” he meant they would not produce the needed financial income and leadership to maintain the denominational systems and structures. He made it very clear that such activities were not going to happen in his backyard while he was keeping watch.
How should the Kingdom steward think about these matters?
We need to ask: “How is my church, denomination, network, mission agency, Bible college/seminary doing when it comes Kingdom stewardship in light of our North American realities (not to mention the global ones)?” And if we find ourselves not doing so well, we must ask “why?” And then, we must ask, “what fundamental changes need to take place as we move into the future (Lord willing)?” And finally, we have to ask, “what needs to change immediately–not next year–but now?”
And then the wise Kingdom steward makes a change.
We can continue the trajectory we have been on for decades. Big religious systems do not go away overnight. We can continue to set and celebrate our accomplishments of reaching reached people groups. Most of us should be able to coast and retire from status quo-ministry. The Millennials, however, will be unable to follow our example.
We can keep living with the “not in my backyard” mentality, but such is not wise Kingdom stewardship. And a day is coming–maybe after we retire–when we will have to give an account of our stewardship.
Lord, on that day, may none of us need to go and get a shovel (Matt 25:25)!