KiNGdOM StEwARdShiP - The Lausanne Global Conversation ...

K i n g d o m S t e wa r d s h i p
technology as a tool, says Henry Kaestner, to transform the
life of “recipient and giver.”
In chapter 6, “Setting Standards,” we get an honest look at
the state of resource-sharing in the global Christian church
today from three authors who agree on the need for greater
unity, understanding, and more effective models for giving
across borders. Rob Martin describes “the sometimes acrimonious
and often confusing interactions between resources
and missions” and gives us hope in a new program within the
Lausanne movement called the Oxford Initiative. Phill Butler
explains that if we hope to become more effective stewards and
disciples, it means doing some serious research and analysis
of practical models. What we need, Butler writes, are “strong,
sustainable alternatives to the older, often dependency producing
models.” Finally, Henry Kaestner takes a look at the
Christ-Centered Economic Development Initiative (CCED),
again emphasizing the pursuit of dignity over dependency
and explaining how the practical strategies and principles of
CCED might be standardized.
When it comes to global stewardship, unity and effectiveness
go together, as Norris Hill, Terry Douglass, and Henry
Kaestner make clear in chapter 7, “Unity : Practicing Relational
Stewardship.” Hill opens the chapter with an eloquent
discussion of relational stewardship. Douglass reminds us of
the biblical call for unity in the body of Christ, the church.
Kaestner writes that, through collaboration, we must seek to
learn from the mistakes of one another and move toward clear
and common ways of thinking about and of heeding our call
to stewardship. Hill sums up the meaning behind relational
stewardship and brings us to the basis of all Christian stewardship
as he writes:
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