Who Are the People God Has Entrusted to My Care?
Even the simplest conceptions around relationships are seldom straightforward. Relationships are multifaceted and complex. Dealing with people can feel like a burden of responsibility with weighty expectations or ambiguous next steps. Christian leaders may feel this even with Jesus as an example of a leader who stayed in relationship with people despite the complexities. How did Jesus navigate a demanding ministry with constant interruption and varied expectations?
I often wonder whether he was affected by the “extra grace required” disciple, the anxious spirit of the crowds or the self-righteous religious leaders who struggled to see what God was up to in front of their very eyes.
So, as I actively acknowledge the value of community, shared mission, and partnership with God, I also feel keenly that Christian leaders have a lot resting on their shoulders. In the fast-paced rhythms of life and ministry, the emphasis on relationships can become overshadowed by sermon writing, determining next year’s budget, planning the summer calendar, or ensuring that there are enough volunteers for Sunday morning. Christian leaders will often find themselves navigating the tension between the tasks and the relationships connected to ministry. In light of this tension, I would like to share a question that helpfully reminds me of the importance relationships hold as a Christian leader: Who are the people God has entrusted to my care?
In short, a Christian leader is a person who has persons entrusted to their care. This language was introduced to me through Scott Cormode’s writing, specifically in The Innovative Church: How Leaders and Their Congregations Can Adapt in an Ever-Changing World. Cormode argues that “Christian leaders do not have followers, only Jesus has followers. Instead, Christian leaders have people entrusted to their care.”[1] An immediate response to Cormode’s argument might be that leaders do have followers! Our social media accounts offer glaring numbers of followers, represented by people who stay apprised of our work, our lives, and even our ministries from a particular vantage point. Yet, even a brief glance at Jesus’ life and ministry suggests that Jesus’ followers were learners and apprentices of his way of life, which did not happen apart from the closeness of proximity. Jesus’ followers were those entrusted to his care, and Jesus stepped into that pastoral work with intentionality. Cormode believes that “wherever God plants you – in whatever position, and with whatever authority – the question that should orient you is: who are the people God has entrusted to my care?”[2]
Can such a question orient us? Think about it. Every one of us has people whom God has entrusted to our care. An immediate connection may be that of your children, grandchildren, spouse, spiritual companion, or other significant relationships. However, in addition to those people, as a Christian leader, you have people in your churches, congregations, and spheres of spiritual connection who are in your sphere of influence. God has entrusted people to your care as a Christian leader. In light of this reality, Cormode presents three key reminders for Christian leaders as they steward the responsibility to care for those who have been entrusted to them. I would like to offer those reminders to you as a framework to navigate the question, “Who are the people God has entrusted to my care?”
Everything we do derives from what God has done, is doing, and will do. God is the initiator, even in our relationships. It is God who has entrusted these people to us. Our response to God’s action is to imitate God by caring for them, being in proximity to them, and seeing them as a gift from God. As we care for the people entrusted to us, we echo the reality that God has acted, still acts, and will continue to do so. By entrusting those people to us, God calls us to imitate God by caring for them.
You are stewards of people who already belong to God. The people entrusted to our care are God’s people, made in the image of God. Consequently, they are not our people, made to accomplish our goals. We also cannot treat them like tools to wield for our own devices. In the same way a steward in a Roman household did not own the home they were responsible for, we do not own or possess the people God has entrusted to us. They are not ours, but God’s. They belong to God.
God calls leaders not to a task but to a people. Your purpose derives from people and not from your passions and plans. The needs of your people define the work you do as a leader. If your passions and plans for your congregation are different from the needs of your people, then Cormode believes you have to allow the needs of your people to overrule your hopes and plans. God gave you these people as a gift, and that gift creates an opportunity to become what those people need you to be.[3]
These three convictions—everything we do derives from God’s doing, we are stewards of people, and God calls us not to a task but a people—provide something significant to us as leaders in our communities of faith. Even when we have persons that God entrusts to us that are “extra grace required,” persons full of anxiety, or those who are clothed in self-righteousness, we can find and hold space to care for them. We can do the hard work of loving and leading people because the good we see in them comes from God. They are God’s people, not our own. And the gift of receiving the people whom God entrusts to us is a gift indeed. So the complexities and burdens of relationships are constantly re-envisioned by the reality of God’s action in my ministry and life. Cormode explains that, as Christian leaders, we are stewards, serving God and the people God has entrusted to us. When you interact with people this week, may you see them through the lens of the question, “Has God entrusted this person to me?”
1. Scott Cormode, The Innovative Church: How Leaders and Their Congregations Can Adapt in an Ever-Changing World, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2020), 43-45.
2. Scott Cormode, “A People Entrusted to Your Care,” Fuller Studio, Issue 10. https://fullerstudio.fuller.edu/a-people-entrusted-to-your-care/
3. Cormode, The Innovative Church, 43-45.
