If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:5
I post this today as I meet with the board of Christian Super in Sydney to discuss biblical suggestions for helping them better serve their 26,000+ members.
“Since accountability is one of the three principle lenses of steward leadership [the other two being ownership and motivation], it is important to define to whom the board and chief steward is accountable, and for what? We have already demonstrated that the board as steward and trustee of the organization is accountable to the explicit and implicit owners for how the organization is governed. So, in general terms, the board is accountable for achieving the goals and objectives of God and the stakeholders.
A board puts itself in a position of accountability when it develops an accountable relationship with God and the stakeholders. Boards of faith-based nonprofits will often engage in certain religious activities such as prayer and Bible reading to develop their relationship with God as the primary owner of the organization. However, in my experience, I have found that often these activities are either engaged in minimally (such as starting each board meeting with prayer) or the board leaves the spiritual relationship with God up to each individual member to pursue.
Faith-based boards often justify this hesitancy by saying that one’s spiritual relationship with God is an individualistic matter and are hesitant to push any one approach to spiritual engagement on all of its members. But as Christians and believers in God’s generous desire to share His will and wisdom with us (James 1:5-8), shouldn’t the board as chief steward lead by example seeking to continuously improve its relationship with the owner of the resources and its ability to hear from Him concerning His desires and objectives for the organization? As board members, we owe that level of commitment to a growing and vibrant relationship with God.”
Kent R. Wilson in Steward Leadership in the Nonprofit Organization (Downers Grove: IVP, 2016) 165. This is a great book for nonprofit administrators. Hot off the press. It was a privilege to endorse it.
Wilson’s wisdom applies to my meeting and relates to each of us who serves on a board or has any responsibilities linked to oversight. Because we are accountable to God for our governance, let’s position ourselves to hear from God during our board sessions because He desires to richly, generously, and abundantly give us the wisdom we need to steward His organizations.
How might this thinking shape organizations that you know and support? God generously desires to lavish wisdom for steward leaders from above. I thought of this as I snapped this header photo from above the clouds over the Pacific Ocean a few hours outside of Sydney.