The Difference Between a Steward & Owner 🤔

What is stewardship?

What’s the difference between stewardship and ownership?

Odds are, your mind probably went straight to how someone manages their money. Although that is not wrong, it is just a starting point.

Stewardship is much more than how you handle your money. It is all-encompassing. It is how we manage every area of our lives: our time, relationships, gifts (superpowers), energy, and opportunities. It is how we handle what has been entrusted to us. And it is something that takes a lifetime to master.

Here is a definition my mentor Steve Graves has used, and one I have chosen to adopt as well:

“Stewardship is the deep conviction that all I have is on loan from God, and my job is to grow everything given to me with vibrant faith, sustained inner joy, and unselfishness.”

Or said another way:

“I own nothing, but I am responsible for everything I have been given.”

I cannot take credit for much of what follows. Most of it comes directly from Steve’s new book, Radical Stewardship: Partnering with the Master in Everyday Life. These are my own highlights and the lessons the Lord has been teaching me through his work.

If you want the book for yourself, you can get a copy here.

This idea of stewardship is best captured in one of Jesus’ most well-known parables, the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14–30).

In the story, a master leaves on a journey and entrusts his servants with his wealth in different amounts based on their abilities. When he returns, he asks what they did with what he gave them. Two invested and multiplied what they had. One, motivated by fear, buried what he had in the ground.

This parable is part of a larger conversation where Jesus is preparing His followers for His return. He urges them to live with readiness, responsibility, and faithfulness while they wait.

The heart of the story is not about money. It is about trust and stewardship. It is about what you and I do with what is in our bag: our gifts, relationships, resources, influence, and the people God has placed in our lives.

• How well do we recognize those things?

• How well do we transfer them back to the Master and ask how He would have us put them to work?

• How courageously do we take risks for the sake of growth?

• When the Master returns, how will we answer for what we did with what we were loaned?

In the story, each servant receives a different response:

• “Well done, here is more.” (Stewardship mindset)

• “Well done.” (Stewardship mindset)

• “You are done.” (Ownership mindset)

Two invested, took risks, and multiplied what they had. The third had a wrong view of the Master, which led to a scarcity mindset. He ended up burying what he had been given, motivated by fear of failure rather than trust in partnership with the Master. The third servant was mastered by what he had (ownership mindset), rather than stewarding what the Master had given him. 

The message is simple but powerful. This is not about how much you were given, but what you did with what you were entrusted.

May we never become experts in knowing what others have, while forgetting what the Master has placed in our own bag for His use. I am not responsible for how others steward, only for how I partner with the Master in multiplying what has been entrusted to me.

Recognize: Inventory what is in your bag.
You cannot steward what you do not first recognize. Take time to see what has been placed in your hands: your superpowers, experiences, relationships, and assets. Ask others what they see in you, because sometimes they notice gifts before you do.

Transfer: Let go of ownership.
This is the heart move. Transferring means saying, “God, this is Yours.” It is releasing the need to control and remembering that everything we have is on loan. Ownership tightens our grip, while stewardship opens our hands.

Multiply: Take risks to grow it.
Stewardship is not passive. It is about putting what is in your bag to work, even if that means risk, failure, or discomfort. Multiplying might look like developing a gift, starting a business, leading courageously, mentoring someone, or using your platform to highlight SOMEONE ELSE. Multiplication is proactive, not reactive. It is taking risks, knowing you are out in front of your skis a little bit, in full dependance on the faithfulness of the Master. 

Answer: Give an account for it.
One day, each of us will answer for what we did with what we were given. Not in guilt, but in gratitude, responsibility, and faithfulness. If you read the story in Matthew, the gift the first two servants received wasn't their profits, but rather the ROI was to share in the Joy of the Master. 

Stewardship is not about ownership. It is about trust. It is managing with open hands rather than clenched fists.

So here is a question to sit with this week:

What is one “talent” in your bag that you have been burying instead of multiplying?

And remember, there is a big difference between epiphany and formation.

Epiphanies are those “aha” moments when truth finally clicks and we see it clearly. Formation happens afterward, in the quiet, daily decisions where that truth is lived out.

This idea of stewardship might begin with an epiphany, but it takes a lifetime of formation. We cannot master the idea of stewardship, but small decisions, day in and day out, may just lead to stewardship mastering us.

As always, we would love to know if this connects with you, and who in your world might benefit from reading The Yo Pro.

In Your Corner.

See you next Tuesday!