SURRENDER REWIND: We have been on a family trip and wanted to be fully present with one another.  We thought it would be a good time and an even better idea to offer a refresher on the importance and implications of “surrender” for a faithful leader pursuing faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing. This post and our last one look back at that foundation.

This post is about encouraging faithful leaders to trust God enough to answer the call of the Creation Mandate by crossing the Safety/Surrender Gap to pursue what we call faithful stewardship rather than being satisfied with what we call religious stewardship.  

The Source of Stewardship

We hope faithful leaders will have the courage to embrace the leadership potential embedded in the call of the Creation Mandate.  As a refresher, the Creation Mandate (what some also refer to as the Cultural Mandate) is found in Genesis 1:28:

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

We are not just another species of animal created to co-exist alongside all others. We are different, and we were given a commandment about our purpose on earth. In fact, it is the first commandment God gave to those he created in his image. The Creation Mandate tells us the WHO, WHAT, WHERE and HOW of that purpose:

• WHO: We are to “have dominion”. Although that term sounds ominous and, on its face, seems to hold the potential to justify abusing the earth and its creation, we understand that call to dominion as a call to “stewardship”. We are to care for God’s creation as its STEWARDS.

• WHAT: In our role as stewards, we are to CULTIVATE FLOURISHING—”be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it”. We understand this mandate to include creating life-sustaining and life-affirming PRODUCTS, SERVICES, and CULTURE. God placed us here to subdue and bring order to the world. We are to cultivate nature to enable it to flourish.

• WHERE: In our role as stewards, we have GLOBAL RESPONSIBILITY—the mandate extends to “the earth”.

• HOW: We were created in the image of God, which means we are to steward with authority and leadership in that image–the image of a God who declared all of His creation “very good”. In God’s image, we have creativity and productivity that are to be used to CULTIVATE God’s creation in order to enable flourishing. Our cultivation of nature glorifies God, because it uses His raw materials (including us) and His design and mandate.

Theologian Tim Keller explains it this way:

The word “subdue” indicates that, though all God had made was good, it was still to a great degree undeveloped. God left creation with deep untapped potential for cultivation that people were to unlock through their labor. . . . We are called to stand in for God here in the world, exercising stewardship over the rest of creation in his place as his vice-regents. We share in doing the things that God has done in creation—bringing order out of chaos, creatively building a civilization out of the material of physical and human nature, caring for all that God has made. This is a major part of what we were created to be.

Richard Rohr captured the potential of the Creation Mandate call:

A more appropriate view of creation would be not perfection but potential. God designed the world to develop and function in a certain way, while allowing for creation to live freely into its potential. Sometimes creation will live up to and into its potential, while other times it will renounce it. . . . Potential reminds us once again that goodness is both an origin and a goal. It is given to us as a gift, but it is also given to us as a calling.

Two Types of Stewardship

Although crossing the Safety/Surrender Gap is not a prerequisite to leading with faithful integrity and aligning the purpose, values, and culture of an organization with Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities, we believe crossing this gap is necessary for true “stewardship” as commanded in the Creation Mandate.

There is much talk in the faith/work movement about “stewardship”.  We believe true “stewardship” is difficult and rare, because complete surrender is difficult and rare.

We suspect much “stewardship” is what we call “religious stewardship”–incorporating faith activities into work and making positive cultural changes.  It may be incorporating ministry AT work or ministry THROUGH work activities as we discussed in our last post.  It may be recognizing the ministry OF work by transforming the culture of the organization through the introduction of Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities into the operation of the organization.

While good, these efforts may fall short of recognizing the work and business themselves as sacred (e.g., when business is treated merely as a secular vehicle that opens doors to the sacred activities of evangelism or service to the “least of these”)—short of crossing the Sacred/Secular Gap—or may rest comfortably on a faith as usual Side Road. This is often true, for example, with what is commonly called “business as mission.” In this understanding, business and work are secular activities that enable sacred activities.

Even a leader who recognizes the ministry OF work and has crossed the Sacred/Secular Gap may stop short of crossing the Safety/Surrender Gap. “Religious stewardship” is still operating in the will of the faithful leader and stops short of true heart transformation—changing the organization’s WHY from Profit as Purpose to Humanizing People, Beautifying the World and Glorifying God.  Sometimes this is expressed through phrases like “Do well while doing good” or “Profit with Purpose“. It is safety.

By contrast, the stewardship of surrender—”faithful stewardship”—means leading the organization in line with God’s will, which includes aligning its purpose, values, and culture with Biblical beliefs, principles, and priorities and transforming its WHY—its heart—from what the world values to what God values.  It is surrender. Surrender is a posture of yielding our will to God that must be lived out and renewed in daily decisions; it does not mean we will never struggle, stumble, or need to repent.

Faithful stewardship demands more than a faith focused on “being a good Christian.” Transforming the WHY of an organization to what God prioritizes rather than what the world prioritizes requires putting profit in its proper place as a means rather than the end toward which a business is managed and optimizing profit to maximize the flourishing of all creation touched by the organization, particularly people.

If it is true that “we cannot lead anyone farther than we have been ourselves“, then a prerequisite to faithful stewardship is a faithful leader who has surrendered their life to God’s will.  Surrender is difficult and rare.

The Importance and Challenge of Surrender

Writing in Fear and Trembling, Søren Kierkegaard said “faith” requires “infinite resignation”:

The infinite resignation is the last stage prior to faith, so that one who has not made this movement has not faith.

Kierkegaard goes on to explain that without “faith” (i.e., without infinite surrender), “[H]e who loves God without faith reflects upon himself, he who loves God believingly reflects upon God.”  Surrender is needed for a faithful leader to pursue God’s will rather than their own will—faithful stewardship rather than religious stewardship.

Oswald Chambers declared in My Utmost for His Highest, “There is only one thing God wants of us, and that is our unconditional surrender.”

In a sermon titled “Authentic Christianity”, theologian Tim Keller examined the dire warning by Jesus in Matthew 7:21-23:

Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then will I declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

Keller explains that the first “Lord” meant the people had an orthodox faith and recognized Jesus as God, the second “Lord” meant they had passion, and it is clear they were actively engaged in ministry activities.  He concludes that the missing piece was they had not surrendered their will to God’s will.  In other words, they did all they did with the wrong WHY, and that made all the difference.  Keller suggests surrender is a key to entering through the “narrow gate” of Matthew 7:13.

Religious stewardship is not “bad.”  Evangelism and serving “the least of these” are good. Engaging in the unquestionably good faith activities along the faith as usual Side Roads is “good”.  Oswald Chambers observed:

The things that are right, noble, and good from the natural standpoint are the very things that keep us from being God’s best. Once we come to understand that natural moral excellence opposes or counteracts surrender to God, we bring our soul into the center of its greatest battle. Very few of us would debate over what is filthy, evil, and wrong, but we do debate over what is good. It is the good that opposes the best.

Faithful stewardship of an organization answers the Creation Mandate call to the faithful leaders entrusted with it.  Faithful stewardship is the stewardship required in order for a faithful leader to embrace fully the potential of the Creation Mandate in their life–the potential of their leadership.  Anything less is to renounce that potential.

We believe embracing the full potential of the Creation Mandate requires a leader to cross the Safety/Surrender Gap, because only on the surrender side of the chasm is faithful stewardship possible.

Embracing fully the stewardship potential of the Creation Mandate requires an obedience that is difficult and rare in our broken world.  Dr. Skip Moen laments:

[God] intended human beings to be His vice-regents, His hands and feet in creation, and to alter the course of the universe in the process.  Such a lofty goal failed to inspire obedience, and Man’s infernal obsession with self propelled him away from God’s divine-human syncopation.  Nothing grieves God more.

In a broken world, the “faith” required for “faithful stewardship” of an organization–submitting completely to God’s will in its leadership–requires radical trust put into action.  Having the right beliefs can live alongside and fuel “religious stewardship”, but it is not enough to embrace fully the potential of the Creation Mandate.  Again turning to the insights of Dr. Moen:

Faith is my active attitude of total reliance on God’s absolute trustworthiness.  That means that my “faith” is demonstrated in the action of putting myself in His care, no matter what the circumstances!  Until and unless I act on His reliability, I just don’t have faith.  I might have a set of written beliefs that I can recite, but I won’t have any active relationship.  Faith is only found in the action, not the declaration.  Israel claimed to have “faith” in God, but their actions revealed denial of His claim on them.  The truth is that they were faithless. How much faith does it take to please God?  The question itself is wrong-headed.  If faith is the action of trusting Him, then I either act or I don’t act.  I either trust Him, or I try my own way.  There is no half-full measure here.

Commenting on radical trust, Oswald Chambers said, “We act like pagans in a crisis—only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.”

The Importance and Challenge of Trust

Faithful stewardship requires radical surrender, which requires radical dependence, which requires radical trust, which is the manifestation of radical faith.

We have written a lot about trust in our posts.  In the RE-ALIGN step of pursuing faithful integrity, trust is one of the five key ingredients for executing a Re-Imagined Vision, Re-Imagined Values and a Re-Imagined Culture.

The Bible is pretty clear about the importance of trust in God:

Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. (Isaiah 26:4)

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. (Jeremiah 17:7)

He trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel, so that there was none like him among all the kings of Judah after him, nor among those who were before him. (2 Kings 18:5)

Trust in God is trust in His sovereignty, trust in His commands, and trust in his promises.  When God calls, He promises to equip the one called as they answer that call.  What God promises, He can deliver. Consider these examples:

When God commanded Moses to build a sanctuary, He equipped the Israelites with all the skills they needed to carry out the command:

The Lord said to Moses,“See, I have called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah,and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship,to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze,in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft. And behold, I have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. And I have given to all able men ability, that they may make all that I have commanded you. (Exodus 31:1-6)

When God called Jeremiah as a prophet and commanded him to speak whatever God told him to speak, Jeremiah felt unequipped.  God reassured him:

“Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.” Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.” (Jeremiah 1: 8-9)

When God called Gideon to strike down the Midianites, God sent an angel to reassure Gideon “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” (Judges 6:12)

When God called Saul to be king, Samuel told him:

Then the Spirit of the Lord will rush upon you, and you will prophesy with them and be turned into another man.Now when these signs meet you, do what your hand finds to do, for God is with you. (1 Samuel 10:6-7)

When David was called to be king, we are told “The Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward.” (1 Samuel 16:13).  When David faced Goliath, he trusted that God would equip him:

The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine. (1 Samuel 17:37)

The Creation Mandate in Genesis 1:28 is a call to every faithful leader.  It is a call filled with potential to be realized or renounced.  We believe it is a call to lead with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing and a call to cross the Safety/Surrender Gap.  It is a call to the “best” God has for a faithful leader, but a call few faithful leaders pursue with the radical dependence, trust and faith needed to embrace fully that potential, in part because God’s “best” may look to the world like failure.  It is a call to faithful stewardship.

PERSONAL NOTE (from PM):  Our children went to wonderful Christian wilderness camps that we recommend highly. James attended Deerfoot Lodge and Annie attended Tapawingo, both in Speculator, NY in the heart of the Adirondacks.  One summer, Annie came home and was particularly excited to share about a talk by former NBA player Bay Forrest and his wife Peg.  She told us they talked about being “all in” for Jesus. She said she wanted to be “all in” for Jesus and asked Lisa and me if we were.  As I recall, the best I could offer was “I try.”  I don’t know that I could answer any differently today—still trying.

ESSENCE:  This post is about encouraging faithful leaders to trust God enough to answer the call to stewardship in the Creation Mandate and embrace fully its potential by crossing the Safety/Surrender Gap to pursue what we call faithful stewardship rather than being satisfied with what we call religious stewardship. We believe it is a call to lead with faithful integrity through business a better way toward Biblical flourishing, surrendering the pursuit of the leader’s will for the pursuit of God’s will.  For a faithful leader of an organization, the stewardship of surrender—”faithful stewardship”—is required to embrace fully that potential. Anything less—even unquestionably “good” things like evangelism, serving the “least of these,” and faith as usual activities pursued without that surrender—is to renounce it.  Faithful stewardship is a call to the “best” God has for a faithful leader, but it requires a level of obedience, dependence, trust, and faith that is rare in our broken world, even among the faithful, in part because God’s “best” may look to the world like failure.  It requires radical surrender, which requires radical dependence, which requires radical trust, which is the manifestation of radical faith. When God calls, He promises to equip the one called to do his will.  What God promises, God can deliver. 

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