Every church planter has failures. One of mine was the way I communicated about money in the first few years of our church plant. I knew that people didn't like it when preacher types talked a lot about money so I wanted to stay as far away from it as I could. In our first 12 months, we didn't even put out an offering basket. The problem with this - giving is one of the most faith-building disciplines of the Christian life.
The Bible is clear that giving is something that every Christian should do. Generosity is to be one of the distinctives of the culture of church. We, who have received the most generous gift imaginable (the grace of the cross), are to mirror that same generosity toward others. The Apostle Paul communicates this to the church at Corinth in this way:
"Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." (2 Corinthians 9:7,8)
New Testament giving is not something pressed on the Christian by some sort of compulsory law. It's a natural response to the generosity of God. This was my understanding of giving - and still is. My reasoning went something like this - If under the law, God's people gave 10 percent of their income back to Him, then Christians, who are under grace, should adopt at least 10 percent as their minimum standard for their giving.
I had adopted that minimum standard as my own when I was a college student. I was a 2 year old Christian. I had worked all summer painting and roofing houses. When I came back to school in the fall, I put in a tithe check for a few hundred dollars in the offering plate. From that point on, I have given at least ten percent to the church no matter what. Rarely has this worked out on paper. The writing of that check has always been an act of trust in God who is my provider and is intimately acquainted with my needs. Jesus says it this way:
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?" (Matthew 6:25,26)
Is God central to the reality that we live or not? This is rarely more real than when we are putting ourselves at financial risk in obedience to Him. When people ask me about trying to decide whether or not to give some money away to a friend in need or to a
missionary or our church, I tell them that you can't go wrong giving resources away in the name of Christ. Can we really imagine the God Jesus is describing in Matthew 6 scolding us for being too generous and letting us starve? I think not. In fact, the opposite is true. When we're generous, God gives us an abundant harvest of new intimacy with Him, changed lives of those who receive the gift, and yes, more resources to take care of our needs and give away to others.I was sitting in a conference a few months ago listening to the presenter talk about his own experience with giving. He and his wife had greatly sacrificed in order to bless their church and others. Then he started telling stories of how God had come through for them in concrete ways in order to meet the financial needs of their family. My mind immediately started to mull over my own list of stories. Cars given to us as gifts. Financial gifts of people I don't even know that enabled us to by our first house. A cabin in Maine that we're given the keys to every summer for a vacation at one of the most beautiful beaches in the country. Tens of thousands of dollars that have been given by individuals and one church that have paid our entire full-time salary for 8 years.
I started choking up thinking of all the ways God has blessed us even though our finances never work out on paper which is due in part because we give away over 10 percent of our salary each month. Then God spoke to me in my mind and He asked me a question, "Why are you hoarding this very meaningful spiritual discipline for yourself?" He was right. I had passed on the need for praying, for studying scripture, spending time with other Christians, sharing one's faith, but have rarely spoken to growing Christians about the importance of giving.
So I'm turning over a new leaf. I'm going to talk about money as part of the disciplemaking process. If you are reading this, I encourage you to do the same. To give extravagantly and teach others to do the same. It is one of the ways we can exhibit the grace we've been given to the glory of our exceedingly abundant God.
