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"Stewardship and Leadership Development”
(EFA Theological Consultation, Bangkok, Sep 4-7,2000)
Rev. Myung Hyuk Kim, Ph.D. (Pastor of Kangbyun Presbyterian Church, Prof. of Hapdong Presbyterian Seminary, Vice-chairman of Korea Evangelical Fellowship)
We, the human beings, are God’s stewards in the sense that God has given us various gifts or talents to take care of and develop for using them to the will of God and to the benefit of man.
Among the various gifts God has given us as his stewards are, first of all, emotional, intellectual, and volitional capacities to feel, think, and decide to the will of God and to the welfare of man. There are also time/opportunities, space/environments, material/possessions, and so on. When we use and develop the gifts we come to develop “leadership” of encouraging others to use and develop their God-given gifts.
In the following, I will try to describe my own personal stories how I came to use and develop God-given gifts and develop leadership of encouraging others to use their gifts.
Among the many gifts God has given me was the gift of faith. “Faith is the gift of God”(Eph 2:8). God has given me the gift of faith by means of the pious environments of my family and church in Pyungyang, North Korea where many martyrs shed their blood and many forefathers of faith lived out their lives. I cherished and nurtured the God-given gift of faith and fear of God when I was small boy in North Korea. I was punished at school because of my faith in Jesus Christ. When I was 11 years old, I left my family and country in order to cherish, nurture, and develop the God-given gift of faith. After I came to South Korea I had the blessing of cherishing and developing the gift of faith as well as of encouraging others to keep their faith strong. Even when there were political hindrances to the Sabbath keeping I dared to protest and be arrested to proclaim the right and freedom to keep the faith and to keep the Sunday holy. Such determination of mine encouraged many Korean church leaders to stand firm and caused to launch out the movement to keep the Sunday holy by such organization as Korea Evangelical Fellowship and Council of Church in Korea.
Among the many gifts God has given me was also the gift of compassion for social justice. God has given me the emotional and volitional capacities to sensitively respond to social injustices. My positive and active reaction has usually brought in a moral/social movement launched out. When I was a senior student at the Seoul National University in 1960, half a dozen Christian students including me responded actively to the socio-political unrest and injustice and launched out a “new life movement” which soon developed a nation wide reform movement. The “servant leadership” of the student movement, as we claimed then, do still play active roles of leadership in the Korean churches and societies. Thirty some years later some of those student leaders played key roles in launching out the “reform movement of honesty, temperance, and love” in the Korean church both by means of K.E.F. and C.C.K.
Among the many gifts God has given me was also the gift of concerns for other people. This gift was not at first manifest. It gradually developed to manifest. In fact, this gift of concern for other people was repeatedly practiced to be developed. Gradually I came to enjoy meeting various kinds of people and came to love and respect even those people whom I did not like before. I played an active role of starting various movements of establishing partnerships and mutual help with other people. Among them are establishing partnership and mutual help with the people in Burkina Fasso, West Africa, the people in Bangladesh, the Afro-American young people in Los Angeles, the church leaders in Japan, and the suffering people in North Korea.
Among the many gifts God has given me was also the gift of mission and unity work. After I earned my doctorate, I went to the Fuller School of World Mission and there I was challenged to commit myself to the work of evangelical mission. Since then, I gradually came to devote the God-given gifts of mine to the work of evangelical missions. I came to involve establishing mission/unity organizations in Korea such as AMA, KEF, EFA, AMC, Keswick Korea, KPMF, KWMC, KWMA, Mission for CIS, CCK, and so on.
Among the gifts was also the gift of teaching at the Seminary and pastoring at the local church. Since I returned home from the over sea studies in 1974, I came to involve both in teaching and pasturing ministries and I still continue. During the past 25 years I have taught thousands of students and stressed the importance of possessing a balanced historical perspectives as well as involving in pastoral ministries and evangelical missions. Many responded positively and followed my exhortations. During the past 25 years I have also involved in pastoral ministries and experienced much joy of meeting and serving people in the local churches. And greater joy has been found when I watch the people in the local church grow and develop their own stewardship of serving the Lord and the people.
Stewardship is personal, communal, and communicational. Stewardship is something a person could and should develop as well as something a person could and should communicate others as a community to develop their own gifts. That is why the apostle Paul exhorted Timothy to develop his own stewardship as well as to communicate and encourage others as a community to develop their own stewardship. “And the thing you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others”(2Tim 2:2). Faithful stewardship, therefore, leads to developing leadership in the community. The development of personal and communal stewardship brings power in the life of a person and a community in manifesting the presence of the kingdom of God. A right sense of stewardship also leads a person to humble himself as a servant and to exalt Christ as the supreme Lord and King.
The task of us is to use and develop diligently the God-given gifts to the will of God and to the benefits of others as well as to encourage others to use and develop their own God-given gifts. That is the way how the community of the church is to be empowered to manifest the presence of the kingdom of God. May God give us grace and encouragement to carry out this task
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