Promote a Spirit of Generosity
Read Matthew 6:19-24
I can’t remember which General Conference it was, but what I do remember is that my life-partner attended a workshop on the subject of giving. Having recently given my obligatory once-a-year stewardship sermon, I refused the invitation to join her and went off on my own to a totally different workshop. When we met for lunch that afternoon she was super-charged from the concept she had learned in her workshop. She said, “I really need to share this information with you and then present it as a workshop for our church when we get home.” Having never seen her very jazzed about the disciplines of tithing I preached, I was intrigued.
In the workshop she had learned that giving was not really about principle and discipline. Instead it was something that flowed down and came back around to bless you as it blessed others. Being a visual person the image that came to my mind was that of a fountain. If we place water into the fountain it flows and splashes down and then comes back again so that it is constantly flowing. When I shared my idea about the fountain with her she said, “Yes, it’s a very joyful process! The blessings keep flowing when we give out of a place of joy and generosity rather than out of discipline and obligation.” This scripture popped into my mind almost immediately:
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and
whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each one should give what they have decided
in their 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 9:6-8
She continued, “And it’s about giving from a place of generosity, not obligation. It’s giving with abandon. So many times churches try to stockpile as much money as they can. That’s fine if it’s in a fund for a particular purpose, but if we are storing up money as our church treasure, we’re missing out on what ministry is all about.”
My mind was swirling with these new ideas. Our church was small and every penny counted as we had regular bills to pay. We had some money in savings, but that was our emergency fund; we surely wouldn’t want to give it away and not have it if we needed it! But as I read over the handouts from that workshop I agreed that taking this information home to our congregation was important.
The next month, in preparation for the workshop, I preached a sermon titled: The Heart of a Matter.
Let’s look at it from a scriptural standpoint:
The scripture in Matthew
6:19-21 tells us that where our hearts are, there our treasure will be. We are warned about putting our hearts in
three specific areas:
1) Where moths can destroy
2) Where things can be eaten and destroyed
3) Where things can be stolen from us.
The simple questions might
be, “what is your treasure? What do you value most?”
This is what Jesus seems to
be driving at when He calls up three pictures from daily life in
1) Avoid the things the moth can destroy. They didn’t
have mothballs in ancient
Jesus
seemed be saying in Matthew 6, that it’s silly to set your heart on clothing
because you can’t wear more than one garment at a time. What you’re not wearing is hanging there
being eaten by moths. There’s nothing permanent about clothing, so if that’s
where your heart is, you’re settling for something in life that’s very cheap.
2) Avoid the things that rust can destroy. The word that is translated “rust” is brosis
(long o). it
literally means “eating away” which is what the rust we might think of does,
but Jesus wasn’t talking about rust as we know it.
·
In His day a
person’s wealth was determined not only by the clothing they owned, but also by
how big their barns and storage bins were and how much was stored there. They
had to be careful, however, because the more they stored up, the more problems
they had with worms, mice, rats and other creatures who ate the stored food and
polluted it.
I
believe that Jesus was saying: Don’t put
your heart into storing up so much more than what you need, because there’s
nothing permanent about that stored-up food.
There’s no real quality there. If
you put your heart into how much food you have in your bins and barns, you’re
selling yourself short. Besides, the
vermin will just ruin it anyway.
3) Avoid
the treasures of life that thieves can steal by digging through. The houses
in that day were made of baked clay.
·
Thieves would
literally dig through the walls to break into the houses, so what good was it
to hoard up gold and silver only to find that someone had dug through and
stolen it all?
“If you put your heart into how much money you have you miss the point of ministry.”
These are the words I spoke
to my congregation that day as I encouraged us to become a faith community that
lived out of a spirit of generosity rather than a congregation of
hoarders.
I was surprised at how well
this message was received! In fact, at the next board meeting someone brought a
proposal for the church to participate in the upcoming Relay For
Life, a community event to raise money and fight in the cure for cancer. A team was put into place and eight or nine
people spent the night out there making sure that we had someone walking the
track all through the night.
Our congregation got very
excited about giving time and money to this worthwhile cause! The next Sunday we announced who had
participated and how much money our church had donated to the fight against
cancer. The applause was deafening and
the excitement was contagious.
At the next board meeting
someone brought a proposal that suggested the church send a donation to Habitat
for Humanity. You cannot imagine my
surprise when the board enthusiastically voted in the idea. Thank God I had a teachable spirit because I
too was learning along the way!
Two months later a
remarkable thing happened in the life of our church. A local businesswoman called me to say that
she didn’t attend church but felt she was supposed to give ten percent of her
earnings to our
To this day I don’t
understand her rationale, but she was obviously a spiritual woman and she was
certainly true to her word over the coming year. Once a month she would give me a call to say
that the check was ready. I would drive
to her place of business, have coffee with her, and fill her in on all the
places that her money was going. She
laughed heartily as I told her about our joy at being able to send it so many
places, how the board meetings had gone from drudgery to the happenin’ place to
be.
Our church had gone from
being hoarders to feeling like Santa Claus!
We sent money to a horse ranch for disabled children, to PFLAG, to a
health clinic that served impoverished people, to a new gay bar that was opening
in town and needed sound system repairs, to a social worker’s organization that
provided needed items for children who had just been taken from their homes and
placed into protective care, and more.
We came to love board meetings because each month we could see how much
money we had to give and then decide where to give it.
We were also able to
purchase brand new hymnals for the church, start a building fund, purchase much
needed supplies and pad our conference fund.
Our church had become a fountain; we had started the flow but now it
just kept pouring out and running over.
“Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into our lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
Luke 6:38
Additionally, as the church
received letter after letter of thanks from these organizations we were giving
to, as we heard each and every month about how our giving was touching lives,
our own offerings began to mysteriously go up.
The congregation sat enraptured as I read these letters from the pulpit
each month. Our little church was making a difference in our city! As a result:
·
Giving in general went up significantly. Not only financially, but also in the contribution
of time and the sharing of talents. People wanted to give to our church because
they were happy with how their contributions were being used.
·
The level of joy went up significantly. People got
excited and wanted to be involved in the church like never before. Social opportunities began to abound.
·
The church began to grow spiritually. We could see
what God was doing in our midst; it was as though the scriptures were coming
alive for us.
·
The excitement was contagious. Some people
came back who had been away for a while and some new people came.
·
We earned respect from the greater community. We began to
network with some of these organizations and that resulted in their coming to
our church to learn more about us and even to provide speakers and
workshops. We also began to team our
efforts with some of these organizations.
A well known philanthropist was once asked, “How is it that you give
away so much and yet have so much left?”
He replied, “I guess it’s because I shovel it out and God shovels it in;
God must have a bigger shovel than I do.”
In the midst of our church’s experiences my family has also developed a spirit of generosity. We are no longer concerned with going over the ten percent tithing principle. Instead we choose to give from our hearts whenever we sense God calling us to give. We, of course, give weekly based on our salaries as well, but that amount is closer to twelve percent than the typical ten percent tithe. In addition we claim what we give on our taxes and when we get our tax returns we tithe on that amount. It has become a very joyful experience for us to give out of a place of generosity rather than a place of discipline or obedience.
As a result we too have
grown spiritually as we learn to trust God to supply our needs. Now we don’t
always have everything we want, but we have everything we need. On top of that, we have joy in our lives, and
it’s just like a fountain, ever flowing, ever coming back around again to bless
us.
If you want to know
blessings in your life and in the life of your faith community, promote a
spirit of generosity.
What were you taught about
the subject of giving throughout your lifetime?
Is it different from what
your church teaches you about giving today?
If so, how is it different?
What metaphor describes your
congregation best: A flowing fountain or
a dam?
Why?
How might your church
finances be affected if your congregation developed a spirit of generosity?
How might your personal
finances be affected if you developed a spirit of generosity?
In the experience we read
about, the church began to give and things went UP from there:
Are these things you would
like to see happen in your faith community?
Does your church have the
teachable spirit(s) needed to bring this about?
Explain
In your personal life, what
place would you like to be giving out of?