178- Stewardship and Giving... Lead by Example

This is the second of a three part series on pastors and leaders discipling the saints in the areas of giving and stewardship 

Not always an easy topic to address, but important. 

Jesus taught His disciples on the subjects of giving and stewardship.

Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples, teaching people to observe all things He has commanded us.

Therefore, we are to teach people about giving and stewardship as part of our discipling curriculum.

These short episodes are designed to give some practical ideas and tools to the equippers. Our prayer is that the Holy Spirit will make at least some of these concepts useful to the hearers.

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

178- Stewardship and Giving... Lead by Example

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 Hoyman Ministries. Welcome to podcast 178 of Strength for Today's Pastor.

Host/Bill Holdridge: Thanks for joining us. So this is the second of a three-part series on the overall subject of biblical stewardship, giving, congregational response to God in the matters of worshipping Him and giving to Him the first fruits of our increase, those kinds of subjects. And so this is the second episode, last week, or last time anyway, podcast 177, focused on stewardship and giving as a part of church discipleship.

So if you were to put this as a syllogism, a logical train of thought, the major premise would be we're called to make disciples and teach and train God's people to observe all things Jesus has commanded us. The minor premise would be Jesus had much to say about stewardship and giving. So the conclusion would be, therefore, we're to teach things about stewardship and giving to the people we're discipling.

That's the major premise. We're called to make disciples of all the things Jesus had commanded and taught us. The minor premise, He had a lot to say about stewardship and giving to His disciples and thus to us.

The conclusion, therefore, we're to teach those that we are seeking to disciple and equip the same things Jesus taught us, which would include stewardship and giving. So that's where we were last time, and that was the argument in podcast 177. Today, the subject is stewardship and giving and the importance of leading as leaders by example.

Stewardship and giving, leading by example. We have to live by example. We need to live the life that we proclaim to others is the life that should be lived.

So when pastors in leadership trust the Lord for their own personal finances and give to the Lord the fruits of their increase and so on, and are good stewards of their own personal finances, then that'll help them be good stewards of the finances of the church. And as the leaders and the pastors are good stewards of the finances of the church, others will be influenced because they'll see the integrity with which these things are done within that fellowship. So I remember pastoring in Monterey, and of course I remember it.

It was 27 years long. But I remember we asked something of our leaders and our elders and our deacons and our board members when they were put in those positions. They were selected through sort of a vetting process that we had.

And we asked of them this question as part of that vetting process. Are they regularly contributing financially to the Lord through the church? Are they regularly contributing financially to the Lord through the church or to the church by the Lord or in the Lord?

And so whatever they wrote on their piece of paper or whatever they told us in conversation with them, we honored their word. We believed their response was real; truthful. That's what they actually were doing. And they said, yes, we are regularly contributing. Then we took them at their word.

If there was ever any kind of a need to check if they were being truthful, maybe we didn't believe it or maybe the evidence didn't stack up, we would ask the bookkeeper the same question. We would go to the bookkeeper. We'd say, is so-and-so regularly contributing financially? We weren't asking about a specific percentage in all of this, of course.

We didn't ask the question, are you tithing, which would, of course, mean 10%. We didn't make any kind of a mandate or suggestion like that. 

And I didn't, as the pastor, ever go to the bookkeeper with this question. I had one of our elders, one of our other board members go and ask this question. And that person would say, is so-and-so regularly contributing financially to the Lord through the church? And so the bookkeeper's answer would be to look at the records, and the bookkeeper would say yes or no. We weren't asking for an amount, any of those kinds of details.

We just wanted to know if there was a consistent pattern. And again, I wasn't the one as a senior pastor who asked these questions. That would have been wrong.

And I, of course, never looked at the giving records or wanted to know what the giving records were in the church. That was none of my business. That's between that giver and the Lord.

So an assistant would ask, or another bookkeeper would ask, or another board member would ask, and they'd come back with the response. And then that part of the vetting process would be completed. But we have to lead by example.

And that's the point, is that if a man in a position of leadership isn't giving to the Lord consistently and regularly and indicating some of that giving to the church, then how can they be trusted with the important things of the spiritual lives of people or with the responsibilities that they've been given? Again, Podcast 177 made the point that Christianity 101 is teaching people about stewardship and giving and generosity. Well, if somebody's not a good steward and somebody's not giving and someone's not generous with what God has given them, then how can they be entrusted with the true riches? The lives of people, the gifts of the Spirit that God gives them, the work of the Spirit in their lives. So we have to lead by example.

And leaders, on the same track, the same thought process here, leaders together need to trust the Lord and be in regular prayer for God's provision for the church. We pray to the Father, give us this day our daily bread. Why don't we pray regularly as a church leadership team, Father, please give us this day what our church needs in terms of our daily bread and release, Lord, the resources that you know you've intended to be directed in our direction so that we can fulfill the work that you've called us to do.

So leaders together must trust the Lord and be in regular prayer for God's provision. So that means the board and elders should pray about these things. Now, we were taught in the Calvary Chapel tribe and world that I'm from, we were taught that where God guides, God provides.

And we really believe that. And if by some reason there's no provision coming in for a thing that we think should be done, maybe we should question whether or not God has guided in that particular area. But there were a couple of times when our faith was tested in Monterey as a board, more than a couple of times.

But there were a couple of times where a bill was due and we didn't have the funds to pay that bill by the time the due date came. And that happened a few times. And I remember one particular time when there was a fairly sizable bill that was due the next day.

And I found out that we didn't have in our accounts the money to pay that bill the next day. I was a stickler on that kind of thing. I wanted to make sure these bills were paid on time.

And we never were late on a payment. I didn't want to start then at that time. So what I did is I had all the board members contacted and the elders contacted and we told them the situation.

We said, pray. We need to pray. The Lord said that on a personal basis, we should pray, give us this day our daily bread.

Well, let's apply that congregationally. And then we asked the Lord to provide. And on that particular case that I'm talking about, we needed several thousand dollars within 24 hours.

You know, and the great thing was the Lord provided. That next day, I think, the mailman dropped off the mail and a check was in the mail that covered that particular bill payment. And what a blessing that was.

What a blessing that was to our leaders. What a blessing that was to me as the senior pastor. What a blessing that was to the board members.

What a blessing it was to the men and women who prayed over that particular need and took it to the Lord and trusted the Lord to provide. That was a great thing. And we were the beneficiaries of that answered prayer, not just in the provision, but in the fact that the Lord heard us when we cried out to him.

So leadership, we lead by example and we lead by praying for these things for our church on a regular basis. So it all starts with the pastor and it all starts with the church leadership. So another point here is that pastors, as we approach the subject of giving and stewardship, we need to cultivate within our fellowships a culture of trust and a culture of vision, a culture of generosity.

You know, I grew up in the Lord in my early years at Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. Pastor Chuck Smith was the pastor, of course, for all those years. And Pastor Chuck was a trusted man.

He was known as a generous man, a generous pastor. He gave and he was generous with what the Lord had provided Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa. He never begged for money.

He never asked for money. He never made a plea for money. In all the years I was there and I'd never heard that he ever did after we left to go start the church in Monterey.

Pastor Chuck—we know this to be true because we saw the fruit of it in the way he conducted ministry. He was all about the kingdom of God. He wasn't all about the kingdom of Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa.

So the church bought property in various countries and all over the United States. They bought property. They helped churches with short-term loans that could enable them to get into a property of their own and to build a property.

They opened up conference centers and Bible colleges in various places and in other countries. They helped churches, like I said, build facilities. All of this was with Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa's dime.

We heard about these things. We learned about these things that Pastor Chuck would do. It just reminds me so much of the passage in Proverbs 11 where it says there is one who scatters yet increases more and there's one who withholds more than is right but it leads to poverty.

The generous soul will be made rich and he who waters will also be watered himself. We saw that Pastor Chuck, as the pastor of Calvary Costa Mesa, was very generous with what the Lord provided and gave it away and built buildings and facilities and all these things that happened in the kingdom of God as a result of that giving heart. That connected us with Pastor Chuck.

We trusted him, we trusted the board, we trusted the leadership that they would be handling these funds with vision and be handling these funds with generosity. I remember those prayers over the receiving of the offerings and the gifts on Sunday morning. Always the one who prayed would be praying for those who had responsibility in the disbursement of these funds, that God would give wisdom and that he would bless them.

We saw that attitude day in and day out, week in and week out there at Calvary Costa Mesa. It all starts with church leadership. In fact, I'll tell a little personal story about Pastor Chuck.

We had gone to Pastor Chuck to look at a set of plans that we had gotten approval for to build out the inside of a warehouse in the city next to Monterey. I wasn't quite sure about it, so three of us went down to Costa Mesa and asked Pastor Chuck if he'd take a look. He did, he took a look at it.

It didn't take him long to see what the project was and what it was going to cost. He strongly recommended that we go ahead and find a piece of land and build a building. It would be much better financially in the long run if we had our own facility rather than leasing a building that was going to be fairly expensive to lease.

On top of that, we would be building a building on the inside of that building. That's essentially what we were going to be doing. He suggested that we not do that.

We went back and we started praying. Miraculously, the Lord found for us a piece of property right next to the Monterey Airport, which I had always thought was going to be the perfect location. If ever we could have a church there, a facility there, that would be the place because it's the crossroads of so much traffic that happens on the Monterey Peninsula.

Anyway, we prayed and we had an opportunity to buy this piece of land. It was six acres. Part of the land was unusable, so we got permission to subdivide it.

The 3.31 acres that was usable, that's what we were going to buy. We didn't have the money though. We only had $84,000 in the bank.

We took a trip down to Costa Mesa and we met with their board and we asked them if they'd be willing to lend us the amount to complete the purchase of the property and start the process of construction. We gave them a figure and they deliberated on it. They decided no, this is going to be way too much for our congregation to handle, so they rejected the deal.

Pastor Chuck went with the board on this one because they had such strong feelings about it. So that's what the decision was. So we waited.

We were in a holding pattern. While we waited, the price of the land went down. I don't know how, but Pastor Chuck heard about it. Later, I was at a conference and Pastor Chuck was there and he came up to me and he said, "You know, I've heard about this (our situation) and so I've sold a piece of property on my own. It's my own personal property. And I would like to, I want to loan you the money out of those funds." And so he was going to extend a loan to us to buy the land at a reduced price out of his own finances.

And I'm not sure exactly what happened, because I never asked anybody this question that was on the board ... but it just seemed like the board must have heard about it, that Chuck was going to loan us his own money. And rather than have him do it, the church said, okay, we'll loan them the money.

So they loaned us that money to complete the purchase of land and get into a loan for a construction loan that would enable us to build the building. So that's what happened. But again, it just illustrates the fact that there was a generous heart, a giving heart that started with Pastor Chuck.

And so that can start with the senior pastor and his leadership team. So where does a church start with this whole issue of stewardship and giving and leading by example? We've already mentioned a couple of things, but another good starting point as a suggestion would be for the church to lead by example by doing what a great number of churches do. What the churches do is they set aside the first 10% of their monthly giving, and they put that in a fund that can be used for outreach and missions.

So the first 10%, they don't spend their budget expenditures and then try to see if there's any money left over. They take the first fruits of what God has provided to them, and they set aside that 10%, and they put it in a fund, and they use it towards outreach and missions. And the reasoning is this way.

If an individual believer can't outgive God, doesn't it stand to reason that a church congregation can't outgive God either? I don't know if I've tried very hard to outgive God, but in any times where I felt like, wow, this is pretty sacrificial to do this, He's always abundantly provided above and beyond what I gave. And this is what happens with churches. When churches lead by example in doing this kind of thing, setting aside the first 10% of their monthly giving towards outreach and missions, well, the people in the fellowship find out about it.

What does that do? That increases congregational trust in the leadership of that particular church. And so the pastor will then have cultivated a culture of trust, of vision, and generosity which is so important. And when congregants, again, know that this commitment to the kingdom is being made, they have more confidence in the leadership's focus, they have more confidence in the leadership's integrity with regard to the church's vision and the commitment of the church to the Great Commission.

That's just a fact. You know, in traveling around and visiting all kinds of churches and talking to all kinds of pastors, I've never been privy to a church that does this type of thing, that sets aside the 10% towards outreach and missions. I've never met a church who does this that has an ongoing need or that is impoverished.

I've never seen it. They may exist, such a church like that, but I don't know about it in my own personal experience. Paul the Apostle, he wrote to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 9, a familiar passage, verses 8-11 I'm reading.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that is the congregation as a whole in Corinth, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance to every good work. As it is written, he is dispersed abroad, he is given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.

So that's 2 Corinthians 9, verses 8-11, God giving his bounty toward us as churches, we have sufficiency in everything, we now have an abundance for every good work, and he supplied seed to us as the sowers, and may he abundantly multiply that on your behalf, and so on and so forth. The congregation is enriched through this kind of giving, and this kind of generosity, and the result is even more opportunity to extend those resources for the kingdom of God. So what are the lessons we learn from 2 Corinthians 9, verses 8-11? Well, number one, God's grace is able to make churches abound financially.

Number two, God's grace and finances is intended by God to create an abundance that can be used toward a great number of good works, outreach, and missions. Number three, as God multiplies what a church has, and as that church sows the seeds of abundance, God will increase the fruits produced by that church, and their fruits God calls fruits of righteousness. And number four, churches like this will continue to be enriched in all things toward even more liberality, and this liberality toward others and toward the kingdom will always cause thanksgiving to God.

Many will thank God because of this generous church. So as a church, a good practice, in my opinion, would be to start with giving from what God has given you, just like in our own personal finances. Do you remember if you are a consistent giver when you first started? Do you remember what that was like? And I remember what it was like for me.

I'd never even thought of a concept like that before. I mean, growing up as a Roman Catholic, I can remember giving a quarter or two every once in a while through the offering baskets, but giving serious money, more money—that was something that hadn't even entered my mind. I remember those first forays into giving, but I also noticed that the Lord always provided more back to me than I had given.

Ultimately, eventually, he provided more. So it began to up itself and increase and so on until it became what it is today, and I'm sure it's going to grow from here. But churches can learn the same lessons.

As a church, the church can start with baby steps and then step into greater levels of generosity, and when they do, the Lord will make all grace abound toward them as well, as he did with the church at Corinth. So I think we as pastors should ask ourselves these kinds of questions. Are the folks in our fellowship generous people? Are they good stewards of their finances? Are they givers? Well, have they been trained? And how strong is my example as a pastor? And how strong is our example as a church body, as a church leadership, as those who are generous and joyful givers for the kingdom of God? Those are the big questions, and again, this is podcast number two of a three-part series, Podcast 178, entitled Stewardship and Giving Lead by Example.

So may the Lord bless you. May he cause all grace to abound toward you and to your fellowship, and may your church experience the abundance of God's resources to accomplish the things that God himself is calling you to do, in Jesus' name. And now the announcer is going to give you ways that you can contact Poimen Ministries, should you desire one of our pastoral team members to contact you and reach out with any particular need or area that we can strengthen you in, in order to strengthen your church, in Jesus' name.

Strength for Today's Pastor is sponsored by Poimen Ministries. You can find us at poimenministries.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.