What Is Stewardship?

When you think of stewardship, what comes to mind?

Maybe fundraising or a capital campaign. Possibly taking care of the environment. Or maybe you think it’s just a stale old word you’ve seen in history books. Maybe, if you’re being honest, you’re not really sure what it means.

Stewardship is managing God’s blessings God’s ways for God’s glory. But the reality is, many people today—including lots of Christians—don’t understand this meaning. And that’s a tragedy. Why? Because stewardship is our ultimate calling as Christ followers.

In fact, the Bible is full of verses about money and how we should manage it. It’s the first assignment God gave the human race in Genesis 1:28, when God told Adam and Eve to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (NKJV).

See, the Bible tells us in Psalm 24:1 (KJV) that He owns it all: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fulness thereof.” And if He’s the owner, that means we’re not. Instead, we’re His stewards—His managers.

God commands us to be stewards over everything He blesses us with. Everything. That means our time, talents, treasure, relationships, jobs and, yes, stuff. It’s all God’s, and He trusts us with it.

Did you catch that? We get to manage all of the Creator’s stuff. How awesome is that? It’s both an honor and a serious responsibility! When we get that in our spirit, well, it changes things. It changes our perspective on our family budgets, our daily decisions, even our purpose in life.

When we understand true, biblical stewardship, everything changes. We stop chasing our own agendas and start making decisions based on God’s will. We begin to build a legacy of stewardship in our families. We treat our spouses and kids differently. We approach our work with a new sense of purpose. We become grateful for everything we have. We live within our means. We have more money to give. And we have hope for the future.

Stewardship isn’t just a personal calling—it can transform entire church communities when families put God’s financial principles into practice.

When your church family is less stressed about money, your whole church improves. But it’s up to all of us to make sure every believer understands God’s role as owner and our role as stewards. Financial Peace University (FPU) for Churches can give your members the biblical lessons and practical financial tools they need to live and give like no one else.

And pastors, we want to equip you first—when you sign up, you’ll get a full year of FPU access completely free.

One day, we’ll all stand before God and give an account of how we managed His resources (1 Corinthians 4:2). Our prayer is that He’ll say to each of us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”