Welcome to the Journey!
Introducing ‘A Ministry of Freedom and Joy’
This post has been over five years in the making. It’s not that I am a ridiculously slow writer (although that is a possibility), it’s that my own life’s journey has been heading me in a certain direction and it has finally reached a milestone.
A very brief history. Over the past ten years I have been leading my consulting firm working with faith based non-profits in strategic planning, fund development and leadership development. I have also been writing and speaking about what I call “the journey of the faithful steward” on the side. While my consulting work was certainly kingdom work, my heart was always more with my speaking and writing on this important topic.
In a series of significant events starting last fall, God made it clear that it was time to shift my priorities. So, I have been ramping down my consulting work and preparing to invest more significant time in my writing and speaking. The plan is intended to move me from 80% consulting and 20% speaking/writing to about 20% consulting and 80% speaking/writing. While I will always do some strategic consulting, my future is aligning with the other side of my journey.
This process has culminated in the official launch of The Steward’s Journey.
We are a non-profit ministry and our mission is to equip and inspire God’s people to be free and joyful stewards of life. We are a ‘Ministry of Freedom and Joy’. We are on the steward’s journey when we understand and embrace our calling to be stewards of all of life. As we do, God sets us free to live the life we were created us to live. The result is genuine, overflowing joy. How awesome is that!
Our vision is big and bold: every Christian a faithful steward, every leader a steward leader. That should keep us going for a while.
To carry out our mission and pursue our vision, The Steward’s Journey has three areas of focus: 1) Writing and developing resources, 2) Training and equipping stewards and steward leaders, and 3) Culture shaping.
In the first, we will produce resources so people can learn, live and love the journey of the faithful steward. These resources include books, bible studies, videos, devotionals, curriculum, pastoral helps, blogs, webinars, podcasts, and more.
In the second area we will use these resources to teach, train and equip pastors and leaders globally to lead others to be faithful stewards with boldness and passion. Our definition of success is described in our vision – every Christian a faithful steward and every leader a steward leader.
In the third area we will challenge our declining moral culture by calling God’s people to repent of our thirst for ownership and control and encounter the God that created them to be faithful stewards set free to follow Jesus in a radically counter-cultural way.
That is the core of our new ministry. We believe God is at work in this message of the faithful steward. My prayer is that you will be inspired by what we produce and involved in supporting us with prayer, feedback and partnership.
Here are seven reasons why I hope you will be led to join us on this journey. As we join Him in His work, we are expecting to see God use The Steward’s Journey to:
- Advance a shared passion for seeing people set free from the bondage of ownership to experience the joy of the faithful steward;
- Raise up a new generation of leaders who hold obedience and faithfulness as their driving definitions of success;
- See marriages healed and families strengthened by viewing both through a steward’s lens;
- Equip new church leaders around the world to lead God’s people as faithful stewards;
- Engage in the spiritual battle against an enemy who has lied to us and put us in bondage to an owner’s mindset;
- Spread the gospel through the message of a generous God who so loved the world that He gave;
- Be a prophetic voice for repentance and freedom in a declining moral culture.
We have a vision, logo, website, board of directors, nine-month plan, budget and a lot of prayer. I invite you into our new adventure. Here are three things I ask you to pray about:
- Pray for the release of our new book, The Seventh Key. This is one of the most important books I’ve written and I pray God will bless it so it will touch the lives of tens of thousands of His people.
- Pray that, with God’s help, I can live fully into this direction and calling.
- Pray for God to prepare the way for this message with leaders and Christians around the world. We have seen Him change so many lives with the small amount of work we have done so far. We can hardly image what He might do with this greater focus from us.
Thank you for subscribing to this blog. I am encouraged that the message God has put on my heart is being heard by so many. Please share this post with anyone you think may be encouraged by our vision. We would like to grow our blog membership significantly as we seek to extend the reach of the message of the faithful steward.
As we launch this ministry I want to take every opportunity to spread this message of the faithful steward. So here is my mini-message for this blog.
In 1 Peter 4:10 we are instructed,
“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”
What does it mean to be a steward of God’s grace? Here’s one thought. Grace is the ultimate gift. It cannot be earned or bought or hoarded, or it ceases to be grace. As the ultimate gift we can only steward it. We do not own it or control it. It comes to us freely and without constraints, except this one admonition that we steward it on behalf of others.
Do you know the freedom and joy of the grace of God? If so, how can you steward that grace so everyone around you can experience it for them self?
Specifically:
- How does it affect your relationship to God – the giver of grace?
- How does it affect you own self-understanding, as the recipient of a lavish, loving and unending grace?
- How does it affect your relationship to your neighbor, as the one who is to experience that grace through you?
- And how does it affect your relationship to creation, as the place where God’s grace will result in final freedom and liberation as we ourselves are being redeemed through that same grace?
Commit today to search your heart and ask the Lord to show you how you can be a steward of God’s grace in its various forms. Stewards of God’s grace, now there is a life calling worth living for! It is the core of the steward’s journey, and we are all invited to walk it together.
Welcome to the journey!
