The Stewardship of Relationships

M. Scott Boren “Being relational and being missional are intricately connected. We cannot divide the two.”

One thing that God has been reinforcing in my life lately is what I term and view as the “stewardship of relationships”. My intention in this post is merely to “scrape the surface” on this subject and begin to stir in our hearts and minds the potential that exists in this opportunity of being wise stewards.

This takes several forms in our lives just like relationships in our lives take on many different forms as well.

I believe that God places relationships in our lives as entrustment opportunities, which we are to be wise stewards of.

On some levels, I believe we generally “get this”, but it traces much deeper than we often realize. For instance, we generally grasp the concept of our spouses and children are entrustments from God and that we should be wise stewards of those relationships. Some, may extend this concept toward other close family members as well.

But how about your neighbor? Both the figurative “neighbor” and your literal neighbor? Do you view those relationships as stewardship entrustments given to you by God? Or are they just there as part of the background of your life…

How about your co-workers? Do you recognize the stewardship entrustment that is given to you by God with your coworkers or do you see them also as background images of your life…or maybe for others they are viewed more as inconveniences.

Luke 12:48b “When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.”

A careful inventory and examination of the relationships, which have been entrusted to me and likewise to you, will reveal how we are stewarding these precious entrustments. And as we engage in acknowledging these relationships and treating them more as precious entrustments the more occasions, which will arise, where our Gospel stewardship intersects our relational stewardship.