I’m Learning to Give… tagged: , ,

I’m Learning to Give…

Posted by in Church & Missions

I met last week with a very discouraged pastor in our association who shared with me of his church’s decline and of the fact that his church had not been able to pay his salary for some time.  I mentioned his situation to our congregation on Sunday morning and suggested that offerings could be given to bless this pastor if individuals felt the Holy Spirit’s leadership.  I met with this pastor again yesterday and handed him a check for $5,185.

A similar thing happened a few months ago when I shared with our church the financial difficulties that our mother church was having.  Our text for the day was Acts 11:27-30 that discloses how the Antioch church collected an offering to send back to the Jerusalem church to assist with the coming famine.  Though I did not specifically ask for an offering to be given, I was able to deliver to the pastor of our founding church a check for almost $11,000.

How does this happen?  Simply put, we have allowed God to create among us a spirit of gracious and generous care.  It really has less to do with stewardship and more to do with love (1 Corinthians 13).  Our people for the most part do not give out of religious duty but rather out of their relationship with Jesus.  It might surprise you to know that I do not regularly teach our people to tithe.  Rather, I teach our people to give.  I encourage our folks to be prepared to give their offerings to meet needs that they might encounter on the way to church (James 2:14-17).  I’ve taught our people that God is greatly honored when we use our tithe to buy food for the hungry (Malachi 3:10-12).  I’ve taught our people that when they give their fish and loaves—God will then provide for the multitude (Matthew 14:13-21).  You may ask, “But aren’t you afraid that people won’t give through the church?”  To the contrary, I understand that the people ARE the church.  “But how will you meet ongoing expenses of the building, the staff, and the ministries?”  My friends, God has already promised to take care of that—it’s not my worry! (Philippians 4:19).

More important I suppose than even the amount of the gift is the spirit in which the gift is given (Luke 21:1).  I ask our people NOT to give if they are aware of broken relationships that need mending (Matthew 5:23-24).  I encourage offerings to be withheld if the gift is being given begrudgingly, pride fully, or even disobediently (Acts 5:1-11).  I ask our people before we receive our offering to listen carefully for the Spirit’s direction in giving and to obey even if it means tearing up a check and writing a new one for more or less—or nothing at all.  God may require a gift that does not involve money.  He may ask for anything and everything including relationships, problems, jobs, families, attitudes, addictions, virtues and vices (Psalm 51:16-17).

This gracious spirit has enveloped our church in the ways in which we do ministry.  We never charge for anything that the church does.  We never charge anyone for using our facility whether it’s a wedding, a funeral, civic club, birthday party, etc.  In fact, we encourage the community to come and use our building for free.  You may ask, “But don’t you incur extra expenses when groups use your building?”  Yes, we do.  That’s just one of the costs of being Jesus to our community.  At present we have dozens of groups (outside of our church) that use our facility regularly—including some other churches.

Finally, let me close by reminding you that I pastor a rather small church in Colorado (less than 300 worshippers).  Our budget is not huge (about $370,000).  We have some debt and we struggle at times to pay for everything that we would like to do. We don’t always get it right!  However, God has yet to fail us!  His promises are true!  I write today in an attempt to encourage any of you who may be discouraged financially.  I want to remind you of principles that we all know and teach and yet may not fully implement within the living organism called the church.  Perhaps, if nothing else, this will spark a discussion on how churches operate financially.

Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment.  Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others.  By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life (1 Timothy 6:17-19, NLT).