The Chief Steward

By Richard A. Borg - 

The Chief Steward, though an interesting read for all believers, is designed to help pastors be effective leaders to create a stewardship culture in their churches that transforms people into devoted followers of Christ. Author Richard Borg is well-qualified to address pastors on this subject, currently serving as the Director of Church Health for The Christian & Missionary Alliance, with previous ministry experience as senior pastor, church planter, stewardship coach, and capital campaign consulting.

 Key Strengths

The most striking feature of The Chief Steward is the well-organized, thought-provoking content. Below is a summary of the main themes in the book to help you decide if this would be a helpful resource for your church:

 Part 1: Biblical Models of Steward Leadership

Chapter 1: Recapturing Hearts - the main idea in this section is that God has called pastors to "be His partner in recapturing the hearts of His people."

Chapter 2: All I Have Commanded - the primary challenge for pastors is to "disciple people in the stewardship of a wealth that is not their own and to warn them that if they fall in love with it, it will become their spiritual undoing."

Part 2: The Character of the Chief Steward

Chapter 3: The Great Gain - this chapter makes the case that "the virtue of contentment [by the  pastor] is the foundation for leadership in the financial stewardship life of the church."

Chapter 4: A Well-Managed Family - Borg contends that "effective spiritual leadership flows out of character and is proven first in the context of [the pastor's] family life."

Part 3: The Stewardship Culture of the Local Church

Chapter 5: Changing the Stewardship Culture - practical strategies are offered here to positively influence the culture of a congregation, with a recommendation to "start small and gain momentum with quick successes."

Chapter 6: Strategies for Cultural Change - Building on Chap. 5, Borg offers ‘12 Transformations' for pastors to lead people through, and perspectives on helping people with money   management.

Part 4: Preaching for Excellent Stewardship

Chapter 7: Commanding the Rich - Borg goes way beyond the standard advice to pastors to simply preach on stewardship - he shows them how. Specifically, he addresses how to approach a pastor's fear of people and their potential accusations, the recipe for leading and preaching courageously, as well as recommended components for sermons on money.

Chapter 8: Extreme Giving - after first tackling 17 secular myths that hinder giving among Christians, Borg then lays out a roadmap for "extreme giving" in churches, advising pastors to tell their people that "they can take it with them if they first invest it in the kingdom of God."

Part 5: Keeping God's House in Order

Chapter 9: Stewarding Church Resources - the challenge here is to lead churches in the stewarding of its financial resources "to honor the Lord Himself" (2 Cor. 8:19) so that the stewardship culture of the congregation glorifies God and is a constant witness to members and a watching world.   

Chapter 10: Two Major Stewardship Challenges - Borg ends by tackling two potentially thorny church stewardship issues - pastor compensation and church capital campaigns. In both cases, Borg weaves in biblical perspective with practical application.

 Things to Be Aware of

There is a lot of really good content in The Chief Steward, with a unique focus on its message from a pastor to fellow pastors. The 400-page book could be strengthened, however, if it included visuals or a supplementary DVD and CD-ROM to provide pastors with ready-to-use tools to implement the excellent ideas presented here.

 Available at:  www.christianbook.com