My experience in discipling people for stewardship and generosity initially surfaced through a capital campaign for my church plant. We discerned that to fulfill our vision of becoming a ministry hub that proclaimed the gospel for generational impact, we would need to purchase land.
As part of the process, we engaged a firm that specialized in capital campaigns. One of the first tasks I was assigned was to conduct a thorough analysis of our giving to gauge an estimate of what we could expect to raise. As part of this analysis, I needed to look at our givers’ individual giving. Some church leaders would hesitate to do this for fear that it would affect how they would treat people. But I have been convinced otherwise, because one of the best ways to discern a person’s spiritual maturity and relationship to the church is through their relationship to money and wealth. In Matthew 6:21, Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
As I looked through our list, my heart was encouraged by the number of people who, as best as I could tell, gave sacrificially and generously. However, I also noticed several names whose giving levels were not representative of their capacity to be generous. So, I started to have conversations. What I found was that most of those conversations went better than I could have imagined. They went well, I think, because the conversation was about discipleship far more than it was about money. Through that season, our people grew in their faith, which enabled us to raise a significant amount of money to expand God’s Kingdom. The lesson I learned was that money isn’t the issue: discipleship is.
Why do we struggle when it comes to discipling people in generosity? Here are 3 reasons why, and some wrong conclusions that church leaders come to:
1. Talking About Money Is Awkward
We don’t like to talk about money because it’s awkward, like bringing up politics at Thanksgiving. We’ve been conditioned by our culture to not talk about our salaries, what we spend money on, and how much things cost. We look sideways at people who bring up such topics because they can be perceived as uncouth and rude. The logical conclusion, therefore, is to avoid money conversations in the church.
2. The Church Stigma Around Pastors and Finances
Another reason we struggle to talk about money is that there’s a stigma in the church around pastors and finances. Throughout American church history, there have been and currently are church leaders who talk about money to manipulate people into funding their lavish lifestyles rather than the ministry. They talk about money to grow their personal bottom line instead of growing the number of people meeting Jesus. It infuriates us, and we want to stay as far away from being identified as one of those ‘pastors’ as possible. Because of this fear, we overreact and fail to talk about money, leaving the only voices in the church talking about money as the voices that should never do so, thus perpetuating the problem.
3. An Assumption That Discipleship Will Always Lead To Generosity
We also struggle with the wrong assumption that discipling people in general will lead to discipling them in generosity. The truth is, we can only disciple people in the areas we live out and talk about. It has been said that when someone comes to faith in Jesus, their wallet is the last thing to get saved. Money has a way of getting entangled in our hearts. Greed, lack of generosity, and disobedience in stewardship are insidious and hidden most of the time. Therefore, we must talk about giving with precision and care to disciple people to handle their finances in a way that is pleasing to God. We must be intentional in this area of discipleship.
So, what can we do about this? Here are 3 ways church leaders can disciple those in the church about generosity:
1. Nurture Our Biblical Convictions in Stewardship And Generosity
As church leaders, we must nurture and grow our biblical convictions in stewardship and generosity. I say convictions because we must believe at a foundational level that we as pastors are called to disciple our people in this area. Anything less than a conviction will continue to become an excuse to avoid the subject. We must search the Scriptures in our hearts to develop theological convictions that will help us fully shepherd our people.
2. Grow Our Vision Around Generosity
We must grow our vision around generosity as a church. We must grow our vision for what the lives of people will look like when they escape the bondage of greed and experience the freedom that comes through giving. Instead of our people trapped on the consumeristic hamster wheel, we need to lead them to be free from the burden of debt and the stress of money.
3. Look To Your Ministry’s Potential With Generous People
We must also grow our vision for the ministry that’s possible when people become generous. Imagine the people you’ll be able to reach and baptize at your church. Imagine the new churches you could start around your city. Imagine the marriages and families put back together. Imagine the missionaries launched to unreached parts of the globe. That vision is currently not being realized to its fullest in our churches, and while it’s not totally an issue of funding, it’s certainly part of it. When that vision captures a leader, that leader will be much more courageous to have new discipling conversations around finances. This happened for me, personally.
When we went through our capital campaign, I had a conversation with a man (I’ll call him Tom) about his giving. He was an executive who made a very good income, but his giving didn’t reflect his earnings. I built a discipling relationship with him and brought up the issue of finances at one of our early morning meetings. He admitted that he had not been leading his family in this way and was going to make some changes, which he did. Not only did he begin to give much more generously, but his joy and impact started multiplying around our church.
Many of the conversations I had in that season went the same way. A couple did not go that way, but those were far in the minority. I grew as a leader, and our church grew the funds it needed to pursue the purchase of land. Our people and our church grew because we started to disciple people in generosity.
Eric Creekmore
Church Planting Director
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Eric Creekmore is a dynamic leader, disciple maker, and church planter working to make a difference in the world for the glory of God. We love hearing from leaders like this on how we can all work together to further the Church and its mission! Want to discuss building a generous culture at your church some more?
MortarStone services provide strategic and effective tools to not only give a church management software with insight and metrics on giving, but also coaching to help high-capacity givers think more creatively in their giving and learn how to leave legacy gifts to the Church.
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