Dr. Glenn Miller, host of the Leadership and the Church podcast, and CEO of Miller Management, is joined by his colleague Janet Fogh, Head of School at Maranatha Christian Academy.
This month’s topic is a deep dive into “How to Balance Faith with Stewardship.” Our first episode in the series was defining both Faith and Stewardship. Today, we get to hear about an example of that balance played out.
Backstory
The theme of this story can be summed up into this quote: “Only God could do what God is doing right now, and he is the only one who is going to get the credit for it.” – Janet Fogh
When Janet first came to Maranatha, from several states away, she walked into a school in debt. After some realignment, faith, and good stewardship, MCA is now running a 20 million dollar campaign for their new building. She, her staff, and the school board had to rustle with faith and stewardship.
She claims the title of the past five years is knowing that God could do anything. But knowing and walking that out are two different things. “Totally increased our faith. When you are faced with really dire circumstances, you have to make dire decisions in order to survive.” – Janet.
“God moves when people take action,” she proclaims. He can do it without us doing anything, but when he calls us, he steps into our weakness. “God’s been faithful. God’s been the anchor.” – Janet
Cost of Stewardship
One of Janet’s favorite quotes of Glenn’s is: “Money follows stewardship, not the other way around.” And she has had a personal encounter with that quote over the past five years.
She says, “When you chose to be faithful, God doesn’t flip a switch of a lightbulb or something, and suddenly things are rosy….Stewardship is year in and year-out; and day-in and day-out.”
Success Story
With God’s provision, and a large gift, the school was able to buy land – debt free – and employ an architect to get the process started. The plans are to start the new ’22-’23 school year at the new campus!
What a difference five years, lots of faith, and good stewardship later, can have on an organization.
Leadership Lessons
Janet wanted to pass along this message: As Christian leaders we need to take a stand, no compromises. God doesn’t promise that he will bail us out of our problems, but it takes being faithful every step of the way.
“Stewardship is not something you do periodically, but something you do everyday.” Janet Fogh, Maranatha Christian Academy.
In Romans 5:3-4, Paul talks about how endurance produces character, and character produces hope. That’s where MCA is today. Character and Hope. “God is faithful. He requires action. That’s why we are leaders. We have to lead. We can’t be passive; we have to be willing to do the hard stuff.” – Janet
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Special thanks to our guest, Janet Fogh, and our master of all things podcasting, Chris Miller, for this second episode in the Balancing Faith and Stewardship series.