We
look at mega churches and are often impressed with their international missions. We feel that we could never do what these mega
churches do in terms of worldwide impact.
But that is only partially true.
A
friend of mine ministers in a church that has an international impact. His church runs a fantastic mission in
Central America. This mission has a
school for children, a medical clinic, a training center for native evangelists
and several churches in the area. Their impact
is disproportionate to their size as a congregation of several hundred. There are two factors that have made this
possible. First, they have made missions
a priority in their budget and second, they have developed a mindset of
generosity over years of training.
We
cannot do this kind of training if we do not honestly and frankly teach about
giving in our churches. A mission giving
campaign is an excellent way to teach generosity as a lifestyle in our
churches.
Let
me offer four reasons to develop an annual missions giving campaign in your
church:
·
First: most churches don’t talk enough about giving.
1. Giving as an act of worship is God’s ideal
not ours. We sometimes act as if we are
embarrassed to talk about giving. God
was never shy to talk about giving; we should not be either.
2. There is some really bad teaching about
giving and unless we present the truth about giving bad information will
spread. In fact, some teachings about
giving are 180 degrees opposite of what Scripture tells us about giving.
3. Where your treasure is there your heart will
be also. As we stopped talking about
giving people have left. We have lowered
the commitment level in order to attract people and as a result many churches
are a mile wide and an inch deep.
·
Second: Jesus talked about money more than any other subject except for
the Kingdom of God.
1. Sometimes He used money as a metaphor or
teaching tool. If you want people to pay
attention talk about money; they may not like it, but they will listen.
2. Jesus also warned against the affection that
humanity tends to develop toward material things. In our consumerist society that message is
too rarely heard.
·
Third: Giving is good for people.
1. Generosity is a powerful tool for our well
being. The data is clear; giving is good
for us. It is contrary to our nature, or
I should say the flesh, but the evidence is irrefutable giving is the best use
of our resources.
2. Failure to talk Biblically, honestly and
faithfully about giving robs God’s people of the full council of God. We would never withhold God’s words about the
destructive effect of hate, addiction, or racism. So, why do we do that about the soul cancer
of greed?
·
Fourth: The resources of God’s people can do great good.
1. The church needs to put its money where it’s
teaching is. There is a world of good
that needs to be done. Often doing that
world of good requires capital to be accomplished. It takes money to pay the salary of Bible
translators, printers and distributors.
The food that will stave off starvation has to be bought with money not
good intentions, feelings or Facebook likes.
2. The care of the hurting and needy can be a
great witness. No one else in the world
other than the church is doing the great work of the Gospel. It is God’s intention that the freewill
offerings of His people ought to support the propagation of that message.
We
will one day give an account of what we did in this life and with the resources
God entrusted to us. When that day comes
we want to be able to answer well and part of that includes that we taught
people to be generous.
If
you would like more information about how to develop a mission stewardship
program please call me.
Charlie
352-548-4837
No comments:
Post a Comment