The Steward’s Four Forms of Power
The four pillars of trustworthy power.
In our broken politics, power is often seen as something to be taken. Leverage is cultivated, favors accumulated, and motivations are shaped to be used as bludgeons to intimidate and manipulate. In Stewardship, power is seen as something temporary to tend. It’s something to be entrusted with, developed carefully, and directed toward the good of others. Every steward must understand that their strength comes from the four interlocking forms of power that sustain public trust and enable genuine leadership: personal power, relational power, communal power, and institutional power.
Personal Power: The Discipline of Integrity
Every steward begins with themselves. Personal power is about the strength of character, intellect, and authenticity that makes others willing to follow your lead.
A steward cultivates personal power through wisdom, competence, humility, and presence. They refine their craft, deepen their understanding, and practice self-control. They listen more than they speak, but when they do speak, it matters.
In today’s politics, charisma is often a mask for manipulation. A steward’s charisma is the opposite. It is grounded in honest messages of conviction and competence. It grows from a clarity of purpose and consistency of action. This is the first test of stewardship: to continually master oneself so that one’s words and judgment can be trusted with greater power.
Relational Power: The Circle of Mutual Strength
No one sustains public service alone. The second form of power arises from the steward’s immediate circle: the family, friends, colleagues, and collaborators who provide moral grounding, honest feedback, and the labor of love that keeps the mission alive.
These relationships are not transactional. They are built on mutual care and shared vision. A steward’s inner circle keeps them human, reminding them of what life looks like outside the halls of power. It is a network of accountability that says, “We know you, and we’ll tell you when you’ve lost your way.”
In contrast, corrupt politicians surround themselves with flatterers, consultants, and donors who only reinforce the illusion of power. The steward seeks the opposite: people who tell the truth even when it’s inconvenient.
Communal Power: The Mandate of the People
The third form of power extends outward to the steward’s community. The people whose lives are touched by the steward’s actions, and who, in turn, give legitimacy and purpose to the work.
The steward listens deeply to this community, not as voters to win over, but as partners in problem-solving. Their stories, struggles, and insights shape the steward’s moral compass. In turn, they carry the message outward, spreading the ethos of stewardship and bringing new hands into the effort.
This is the true “base” a steward builds. Not a fan club or a cult of personality, but a living network of citizens who see themselves as co-stewards of the common good. The steward serves them, and through their faith and participation, the Civic Covenant empowers the steward.
Institutional Power: The Fellowship of Stewards
Finally, there is the highest form of power: the solidarity of those who steward within institutions. Governments, agencies, and systems are vast and imperfect, but they are filled with people. Each holds a piece of the machinery of the public good.
When stewards in different positions recognize one another, something extraordinary happens: the machinery begins to work again. They coordinate, share information, and protect each other’s efforts from corruption. They use the powers of their offices not as personal fiefdoms, but as interlocking trusts, each supporting the others.
In this network of stewards, corruption finds no easy purchase, because no single node can be isolated or bought off. Each steward’s legitimacy is reinforced by the integrity of the others. This is the antidote to capture. The republic sustained by mutual and collective conscience instead of contracts and backroom dealings.
The Steward’s Allegiance
In the end, a steward is beholden only to the trust of those they serve and the principles they uphold. Their influences are chosen, personal, and transparent. Their conscience, their companions, their community, and their fellow stewards. That is the full circle of accountability.
Contrasting that with today’s politicians, whose real loyalties are often to the oligarch donors who funded their campaigns, the corporations that promise lucrative rewards, or the party machinery that dictates their votes. That is not stewardship. It is a servitude to power without principle.
The steward’s power, by contrast, is always relational, moral, and renewable. It grows through trust and shrinks through deceit. Stewardship is the principle that power is used to serve.
When we rebuild public life on these foundations, we begin to remember what democracy was meant to be. And perhaps more importantly, we remember what kind of citizens we must become to sustain it.