Prayer in the Life of a Steward Leader by Howard Rich

By Howard Rich ~

Some of my biggest failures and frustrations in life have had their roots in arrogance.  Through the pain and mess of those failures, I have come to realize I need to stop trying to reinvent the wheel.  When I am approaching a new task – something I haven’t done before – I need to pray and seek out examples of those who have gone before me.  A great starting point is Scripture; it is foolish to ignore the valuable lessons contained in God’s Word.  This is especially true when it comes to Kingdom work.  Jesus’ example of praying before He selected His inner circle should be our blueprint for building a leadership team (Luke 6:12-16).  Before we ask anyone to join our team, we as leaders must bow before the true authority, asking Him to supply the right people for the organization.

An enormous part of leading is looking toward the future for our organization, creating a vision for that future, setting the course toward that future, and assembling a team to move us into that future.  When we view our role as a steward, we can see the position we occupy is not ours; it is God’s, and we are challenged to take His organizations where He wants them to go.  We are free to move in uncertain directions without worrying about our own position and standing.  The steward-minded leader recognizes the absolute necessity of prayer and realizes the importance of asking God to create the team.

As stewards of the particular organization and group we are leading, we must realize that it is God’s work, He is the one who will provide leaders with the particular gifts needed for our organizations to operate properly.  The leader’s success is measured by how well he stewarded what is under his care.  Everything entrusted to the leader is on loan from God; realizing this truth liberates the leader to help people in his organization soar in their own leadership responsibilities.  Once we have prayed, and allowed God to direct us in the selection of a leadership team, we must operate as caretakers as we navigate the path to our future.

But first, we must pray.

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Howard Rich is the President of Steward Development Group, a leadership training and coaching firm established to help business professionals discover the freedom of generosity and stewardship. He is also launching CLA Leader2Leader groups in the Memphis Metro Area.

To learn more about the Christian Leadership Alliance-Memphis Leader2Leader groups, email Howard at howard.c.rich@stewarddevelopmentgroup.com.

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