Stewardship in an Abundance Economy

Typical economic theory posits that the way to develop and sustain a healthy economy is by perpetuating a high demand and a low supply for a specific product or service. This kind of scarcity mindset produces attitudes of fear, greed, and aggressive competition among investors and entrepreneurs as they fight for and over perceived limited resources. But how does a gospel-driven lens on ownership and resources moderate this view of economic theory? JD Greear explains that for faith driven investors and entrepreneurs, the truth is that we are stewards in a world created by a God who is generous and provides abundantly. Check out his thoughts on what it means to be a steward in God’s abundance economy:

It's all from God. In Deuteronomy 10, Moses said to the children of Israel, “to the Lord, your God belongs to the heavens, even the highest happiness, the Earth and everything in it.” Paul would agree. In the book of Colossians, he would say that all things—including the breath in our bodies and the talents in our brains—they're all from Jesus. They're given for his purposes, and ultimately, it's his strength that sustains them all, even as we use them. They exist for his purposes and see, if God owns at all, that means that we are stewards. And the most important question we have to ask is what he wants from the things that he has given us. He tells us in 2 Corinthians that when he gives us financial success, for example, that part of the reason that he does that is to increase our potential for impact in his kingdom. In 2 Corinthians 9, Paul says to the Corinthian believers, “God will enrich you in every way to increase your seed for sowing.”

Why does God increase us and give us success? It is to increase our seed for sowing. What that means is that God has a lot more to give. But who is he going to give it to? Is he going to give it to the farmer who hoards it or is he going to give it to the farmer who increases the amount of his sowing? God wants to multiply and bless his people. But he does so under the assumption that his people will use the increase that he gives them to sow more into his kingdom, not just build more of their own kingdoms.

God multiplies our resources to increase our standard of giving, not just our standard of living.

When you understand this, you will see, in fact, that when you don't use your time, treasure, and your talents for God's purposes, you're actually stealing or embezzling God's resources and his money and his opportunity. Think about how upset you would be if you made a huge donation to Feed the Children, for example, and then found out that 90% of your donation went to the CEO so that he could upgrade his house or buy some new cars—that the money that you gave didn't go to feeding the children. You would rightly be outraged because that guy was stealing what wasn't meant for him, but was actually given for a different purpose. In the same way, when we don't use our talents and our opportunities and our resources for the purposes God gave them to us for, then we're stealing from God.

Listen, our enterprise is your enterprise may not all be nonprofits. In fact, we have a lot more for-profit businesses, but all of us should have that posture that what we have built is really what God has built through us. It's from God. And one hundred percent of it ultimately needs to be for God. God has made a donation to our business, and he expects us to steward it the way that he intends. He wants you to use his donations for his purposes. If you sit on them or you use them for your own luxuries, it's like in his mind you're embezzling money, you're stealing from it. We are stewards of God's resources. We are not owners of our own. You see, God did not create a world of scarcity. He created a world of potential abundance. This is a bedrock principle of entrepreneurship. There is not a limited amount of resources out there to fight over.

So, what you have your talents, your resources and faith. Invest wisely. Take strategic risks for the Kingdom of God and give a lot away and watch God multiply you in the New Testament. Jesus consistently praises the stewards who give it away, who invest it widely, creating more value for everybody. And the end result is that there's much more for everyone.

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Stewardship in an Abundance Economy

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