177 -Discipling Our Fellowships in Biblical Giving and Stewardship

This is the first in a three part series which can be helpful to senior pastors and church leadership teams re: how to practically deal with giving and stewardship in their churches. 

First, we'll look at where teaching and leading on giving and stewardship fit within the overall concept of equipping the saints for ministry ... which we pastors are called by God to do.

It may be a new thought for some, but teaching and leading in these areas is part of Christian discipleship, which we're also called to do.

We'll even go so far as to say that we can't develop fully mature believers without helping them discover and practice these truths.

If Jesus instructed His disciples (and us) in these matters, then this must be part of our curriculum as we disciple others. 

The transcript of this podcast is attached. 

For Poimen Ministries, its staff, ministries, and focus, go to poimenministries.com. To contact Poimen Ministries, email us at strongerpastors@gmail.com. May the Lord revive His work in the midst of these years!

Transcript

177- Discipling Our Fellowships in Biblical Giving and Stewardship

(0:09 - 3:27)

Announcer: 

Welcome to Strength for Today's Pastor, conversations with current senior pastors and leaders which will strengthen and help you in your pastoral ministry. And now, here's your host, Bill Holdridge of Poimen Ministries. 

Bill Holdridge: 

Welcome to Strength for Today's Pastor. Today we have podcast number 177 and this is going to be the first of a three-part series on the subject of Congregational Giving and Stewardship. And so I'm going to be doing this one solo. I'm not going to actually interview myself, but I'm going to be just sharing from my heart things that I've learned, things that I think are obviously important to me at least.

So that's the subject, and this is the first of three episodes on this particular subject with nuanced focus in each of these episodes. 

So, let me give you a little bit of my own backstory. As a young pastor, I really hadn't given much thought about giving and stewardship and in terms of how it related to the congregation that I pastored.

I knew what our family believed and practiced and had strong convictions in those areas. We had habits, we had developed patterns of giving and stewardship and generosity, but I never really developed any kind of a systematic theology about giving, nor had I developed a systematic thought process about how I as a pastor might approach this whole subject with the fellowship that I was charged to oversee. Now about two years into the pastorate in Monterey, we made a decision.

I can't remember exactly what built up to all of this, but we made a decision that we were going to start taking up a physical pass-the-bag kind of an offering instead of the agape box approach that we had been using for maybe one and a half years or so. And you know the box is in the back and don't say much about it and just maybe mention it in the announcements. If you'd like to give, then drop your money in the agape box.

Nothing wrong with any of those kinds of things, but we decided that we're going to shift and go ahead and start passing a bag. But before we began receiving offerings in this new way, I taught a single message on New Covenant giving. I have to be honest, I was nervous about doing that, but on the other hand, I'd researched enough to feel confident.

I had a great model having grown up at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, and I saw how it was approached there. So I knew that what I was going to be telling the fellowship about New Covenant giving was true, and I knew that God's Word taught these things that I was going to be saying. But I was still inwardly, internally, a little bit nervous and awkward about it.

 But you know how it is. When you have the authority or Scripture behind us, when we have that, we're confident. We go into the pulpit knowing that what we have is from God.

 (3:27 - 3:50)

That's how I felt about it, even though I was a little bit nervous. So we went for it, and I taught that message, and we began the next week to pass a physical offering bag, which I do believe is still the practice in that church a long time ago. Now, you may be in a church culture that never talks about money.

 (3:51 - 5:30)

That's a rarity, I think, in today's world. You might be in a culture like that, that rarely talks about money or stewardship or finances, or you may be in a church culture that talks about it too much and actually pleads with God's people to give more. My prayer is that what we're going to be doing in the next few podcast episodes is a balanced approach, full of faith, focused on discipleship, and the kingdom of God.

 We don't want to be like that one minister that I heard years ago. He said, well, when you give in this offering that we're going to be receiving this evening, when you give, I want it to be a lean forward offering rather than a lean back offering. And he was kind of joking as he said it, but a lean back offering meant that you could reach into your front pockets for the loose change.

 A lean forward offering meant that you could reach the back pocket where your wallet was, and that's the money we want. We want the paper stuff, not just the loose change. They're kind of humorous.

 Of course, we're not going to go there. That's not the type of thing that we do. But the bottom line is giving and stewardship, they matter to God, and they matter to us.

 It affects our walks. Billy Graham is quoted as having said, if a person gets his attitude towards money straight, it will help straighten out almost every other area in his life. And I think there's a lot of truth from that, and I think we'll see that in these episodes.

 (5:31 - 7:44)

So there's an awkwardness, obviously, about talking about money in certain circles within Calvary Chapel circles, which I've been a part of for over 50 years. The subject of money, and giving, and finances, and stewardship are dealt with, but most of the time, only when we as Calvary Chapel pastors happen to land on a text that deals with these matters. Because our practice is to teach through the books of the Bible, and so as we're teaching through the books of the Bible, we land on a text that deals with these subjects, then we'll address them, even though it might feel awkward when we do it.

 And I think sometimes you can almost feel a Calvary Chapel pastor squirming as he reluctantly tells the people what God has made clear in his Word, and has emphasized to us as being important. And we don't need to be that way either. Remember that Jesus, the Word who became flesh, he talked about money, and he talked about stewardship issues a lot, and we're supposed to teach and train the people in the very things he's taught and trained us in.

 It's all part of Christian discipleship, part of the Great Commission mandate. Therefore, our need as pastors, the way I see it, and our goal as pastor is to disciple converts, as it's stated in the Great Commission, and to do it Jesus' way. And since he talked extensively about giving, he emphasized generosity, he emphasized humility in giving, and he emphasized the heart's intention behind the act of giving, well, since he did, we ought to also do the same thing.

 So let's just think about what Jesus taught about the subject a little bit. Here's a few passages. Matthew 6, Jesus talked about, when you give to the needy, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret, and then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

 There's a lot there. He talked about how we shouldn't be with self-awareness when we give. Don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

 (7:44 - 8:02)

Don't congratulate yourself, might be another way of saying this, when you give. Give in secret, so give humbly, but also give in secret. Give in secret, not to be seen by men as the Pharisees wanted to be, but give in secret as unto your heavenly father, and then he will reward you.

 (8:02 - 10:50)

So there's reward in giving, there is humility that must be part of giving, and there is a level of secrecy involved in giving, anonymity, if you will. But the key point is Jesus warned against giving for public recognition, and true giving should come from a sincere heart and not for the praise of man. Another passage in Luke 21, well-known passage, Jesus was observing the people, and especially the wealthy as they were putting their gifts into the treasury in the temple court.

 And as he was watching, there was a poor widow that came, and she put in two very small copper coins. And Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all of the others, for she, out of her poverty, put in all that she had to live on. And obviously, the point that Jesus made to his disciples and to those who might hear this later, is that the value of the gift is not in the amount of the gift, but in the sacrifice and the intent behind it.

 Just to circle back, these are things Jesus taught. We're supposed to teach the people the things that Jesus taught, and train ourselves and train others into the things that Jesus trained us in. This is part of his training.

 So why should we omit this from our curriculum, so to speak, as we pastor our churches? Another passage, it's more blessed to give than it is to receive. This is Paul the Apostle in Acts 20, quoting Jesus. It's more blessed to give than it is to receive.

 And the key point here, of course, is that giving brings spiritual blessing, and it brings spiritual joy beyond anything material that we might receive. It's more blessed to give. It's more blessed to be a giving person than it is to be a receiving person, and it's more blessed to engage in a single act of giving than it is to have a single act of receiving.

 So another teaching of Jesus. Another one is in Matthew 6 as well, the Sermon on the Mount passage, where Jesus said to his disciples, do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. So giving is an expression of where our heart is, and it also express where our true priorities and affections lie.

 (10:51 - 11:56)

And so where are we to place our treasures? Not here on earth, but our treasures should be in heaven. That's what we're aiming at. So just a few things that Jesus taught about giving.

 He had other things to say, of course, but obviously, he taught on the subject. And if we're going to make disciples, we need to teach on the subject as well. So giving and stewardship, by the way, are really, again, what I think should be called Christianity 101.

 I think a lot about the parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16, the story of a man who used his present position, he was being fired from his job, and many of his master's debtors still owed the master money. So he went to his master's debtors one by one, said, how much do you owe my master? Well, 100 barrels of...or 100 measures of weed or whatever. Okay, well, here's your bill.

 (11:57 - 14:21)

Take it, cross this number out, and write down 80, and did the same thing with oil. And he went from household to household, reducing the debt that each of these debtors of his master owed his master. And so that made him a popular man in the eyes of those that owed money to his master, because now they owe much less than they had owed before, because of this unjust steward who was being fired from his job, having the foresight of realizing that I got to do something to prepare for my future, because, you know, I'm not able to dig holes, I'm not a physical laborer, and I'm too ashamed to beg, so what am I going to do? And he came up with this scheme of being able to basically rip off his master by reducing the bills of the creditor or the debtors that owed money to the master, so that he, once he was finally relieved of his entire duties, he would be able to go back to them and say, hey, you remember that bill that you had with my master? Remember how I reduced it for you significantly? Yeah, yeah, I remember that.

 Well, I'm in kind of a tight spot. Can you put me up for a couple of months? Oh, happily, gladly. You know, this was his approach, using his present position for his future advantage and being shrewd about it.

 Jesus, in the parable, commended the shrewdness of the unjust steward. He didn't justify the shrewdness; he commended the shrewdness of the unjust steward because he used his present position for his future advantage. And Jesus, as he told the parable, after he was finishing saying the parable, he said, the sons of this generation are wiser in relation to their own than are the sons of light.

 In other words, he said that the sons of light, the believers, they don't tend to think this way. They don't tend to think of what they have in this life and what God has blessed them with in this life as a way of preparing for their future blessing once they reach the kingdom of God. We don't tend to think that way.

 (14:21 - 18:17)

We tend to think of the moment. We tend to think of the moment we're in here. And so Jesus wanted his disciples to be thinking kingdom.

 He wanted his disciples to be thinking future. He wanted his disciples to be thinking of stewardship of what God had given them and to be generous. And he said that they should be making friends for themselves by means of the unrighteous mammon so that when the unrighteous mammon fails, these friends that they had made would receive them into everlasting habitations.

 And so that's what's waiting for the generous believer. The generous believer, the giving believer will have made friends by money, by good financial practices, by good stewardship, would have made friends through all these things. And so when that money fails and when our lives end and we're in heaven, those friends that we have made will be there waiting for us, welcoming us into the kingdom.

 That's kind of the idea here. And so Jesus is finished with the parable. He's finished with the primary application.

 And then he says to them, and this is in Luke 16, verse 11, he says, therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if you've not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own? And then he will say, he who is faithful in that which is least, money, possessions, things over which we're stewards, he who is faithful in what is least will be faithful in that which is much, the true riches of the kingdom, a kingdom of God, the things of God's kingdom, the things of the Spirit. All of that comes out of Luke 16 in that important passage. In other words, we take care of what God gives us.

 We're generous with what God gives us. And we make friends by use of the things that God gives us, and they'll receive us into everlasting habitations. And if we're faithful before the Lord in these matters, as Jesus is talking about here in Luke 16, if we're faithful this way, then he, God himself, will entrust to us the true riches.

 In other words, if we want more of the Spirit, if we want more of the kingdom of God in our own personal experiences, where do we start? We start by being faithful in that which is least. And Jesus said the things having to do with our money, with our finances, with our stewardship, these are the things that he defines as being least. So this is where we start.

 This is Christianity 101, having to do with giving and stewardship. And if we don't help the people understand these things, and if we don't create a culture and train them and discipling them into these matters, then we're doing them a disservice. We're doing them an injustice.

 So what clearly defines what new covenant giving and stewardship actually are, these are the very things that have to be a key component of our discipleship curriculum. Giving and stewardship, again, are part of this class that we might call Christianity 101. So we need to get out of our minds that this is not something that we talk about.

 (18:17 - 19:13)

That doesn't mean we talk about it every day, doesn't mean we talk about it every week, doesn't even mean we talk about it every month. It just means that our emphasis, our practice, our example, the way we worship God with what we have, the way we corporately worship God with what we're giving back to him, all of this comes under the heading of being faithful stewards and being generous. This is what we teach the people, this is what we example to them, and this is what is part of this curriculum of discipleship, Christianity 101.

 And a lot of good things come from it. A lot of good things come from it. And probably the most important thing that comes from it is the fact that the Lord then entrusts to us, his people, the true riches, the most important things, which are material.

 (19:13 - 22:35)

The most important things are the things that are spiritual. This is why we should bother with a focus on giving and stewardship. Somebody, and I don't know who said this, jokingly said, salvation is free, but ministry is expensive.

 That's absolutely true. It's a true saying on so many levels. Yet, we aren't motivated and we must not be motivated to teach on giving and stewardship in order that we might get them to give.

 No, it's more along the lines of we're communicating these things, training the people, training our own hearts in these things so that we'll have the true riches that God wants to give us, the things of his kingdom, and eventually be preparing for the reward that the Father has for us in his kingdom when we're with him in heaven. So, the proper motivation, back to this, is the Great Commission. Jesus instructed us to make disciples of all nations.

 He instructed us to teach them to observe all things that he had commanded his disciples. Giving and stewardship were important themes of his instruction to the 12 and to the multitudes. So, we cannot develop fully trained disciples without teaching them about giving to the Lord and stewarding what he has given us.

 So, we have to be motivated by this biblical mandate to make disciples as well as by the biblical mandate to equip the saints for the work of service. We teach these biblical principles with regard to giving. Giving is an act of worship.

 It's part of biblical stewardship and something that pleases God when done by faith, Hebrews 11.6. Without faith, it's impossible to please him for he who comes to God must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. Without faith, it's impossible to please him, but with faith, in all of these matters of life, it pleases him very much. And so, the teachings of the Bible guide us in these areas.

 And if God said it and deems it important because he put it in his words, so should we. We have to teach the whole counsel of God. Another thing we can do in our churches and in our fellowships—and the next two podcasts are going to get even more specific—we can regularly offer stewardship training.

 We can offer classes or workshops on budgeting and giving, for example. Wouldn't it be great if our entire church congregation, on an individual basis, had been responsible and was able to somehow live debt-free or as close to debt-free as possible? That would be awesome. People would be free if they were more debt-free.

 So, classes on budgeting and giving, getting out of debt, spending wisely, investing intelligently, giving generously, they're all-important aspects of these trainings. So, we can offer classes like this. You may have people in your fellowship that are experts in these areas, and they can lead classes in these areas.

 (22:35 - 22:50)

That would be great if that was true, and you had those kinds of folks in your church. Dave Ramsey is a popular figure these days. He's got this syndicated radio program and podcasts and all of these things.

 (22:50 - 23:29)

His material is good. His Financial Peace University is well-received and used by many churches. That's one go-to possibility for classes and workshops.

 Crown Ministries is also good. There's a way to find out about Crown Ministries. Just Google that.

 Crown Ministries was founded by Larry Burkett, who back in my early days as a Christian was basically looked at as one of the experts in these subjects. And I'm sure there are a lot of other fine sources. But bottom line is, this should be a regular curriculum.

 (23:29 - 23:51)

But we need to train ourselves as well, because if somebody comes to us for any kind of stewardship or giving-related questions, we need to be able to answer them biblically. We need to be able to answer them practically from Scripture and from common sense. So that's it for this first episode.

 (23:51 - 24:51)

We wanted to just talk about discipling our fellowships in biblical giving and stewardship. And so we've made the point in this episode that the Great Commission enlists us to teach people what Jesus taught us and to train them in the things that Jesus trains us in. And so giving and stewardship are part of that, so we pass that on to God's people.

 And this is something that we should be intentional about, because it is an intentional teaching of Jesus to us. So, as we wrap up this podcast 177, may the Lord bless us all as we focus on making disciples, as we teach men and women, as we teach young men and young women, as we teach boys and girls how to observe all things that Jesus has commanded us. That's our vision, and that's what He has called us to do.

 (24:52 - 25:35)

May the Lord bless you. May the Lord strengthen you. And if you have any sort of a need where we, as a ministry, Poimen Ministries, can come alongside you as the senior pastor of your church, please reach out to us.

 The announcer will follow up with details on how to do that. May the Lord bless you. May He bless the stewardship of your church.

 May He bless the abundance and generosity of your church. May He give the joy that only He can give in being givers, rather than just those who receive in Jesus' name. Strength for Today's Pastor is sponsored by Poimen Ministries.

 (25:35 - 26:02)

You can find us at poimennministries.com. That's spelled P-O-I-M-E-N ministries.com. If something in today's program prompts a question or comment, or if you have a topic idea for a future episode, just shoot us an email at strongerpastors@gmail.com. That's strongerpastors@gmail.com. 

May the Lord bless you as you serve Him, His pastors, and His church.