Jump to     PRACTICES The Ministry of Generosity Our Own Vulnerability ’Tis a Gift to be Simple: A Lifestyle Audit Aligning Budgets with Mission

Modeling and Leading Generosity

by BLAIR WHITE

Stewardship is the response of my people to the ministry of my Son and is required alike of all those who seek to build the kingdom...
—Doctrine and Covenants 147:5a

Modeling and leading generosity is showing by example what it means to be a disciple. Leaders, though imperfect and limited, model and lead generosity out of their own discipleship and teach what it means to be Christ-like. In a way, it is more than teaching; it is a way of helping people, far and near, experience the kingdom of God on Earth. Generosity is a spiritual practice. Like prayer, fasting, Sabbath, and study, generosity is a practice of the heart. Practices transform God’s people in mind and spirit and in words and action.

Caring for the Vulnerable and Being so Ourselves

An important aspect of generosity is the discipline of receiving and sharing. The discipline of sharing is more than doing for others. It is extending God’s blessings to be received by all. Xavier Le Pichon said: “…we have to rediscover that our community is not only made of the highly motivated competing individuals as in my own scientific world, but that it includes fragile, vulnerable, suffering individuals who reveal to ourselves our own fragility, our own vulnerability, who actually lay bare our own sufferings that have been hidden in our deepest self.”¹

People who are truly generous, especially with those who are vulnerable, come to know themselves. Perhaps they even fall in love with Christ. In that falling in love people gain something unexpected, unexplainable, and often beyond measure.

Mission-centered pastors and leaders can model generosity by allowing themselves to be vulnerable. This does not mean that we have to unveil our deepest secrets, or put ourselves in positions to be hurt. It simply means that when we are with members of the congregation, we are “real,” “human,” and “transparent” to appropriate degrees. It means that we are honest about our own dreams, concerns, pain, and joy.

How is this being generous? In a world where people learn how to wear masks in order to hide their true selves, it is a gift to learn that the congregation is a place where they can be authentically human. This is a hallmark of true community, and pastors and leaders can model this way of living authentically together.

Macedonian Joy

Some people consider generosity to be a luxury of the wealthy and will excuse themselves as they can always point to others who have more. Paul describes to the Corinthians what he saw of the Macedonian understanding of generosity by using the Greek word charis ten times. Charis means grace, privilege, a generous act or undertaking, blessing, offering, and thanks to God. At first, Paul misunderstood the Macedonians. The Macedonians were poor. Paul did not expect an offering. However, Paul came to see the Macedonians in a new way. He now saw them as an extension of God’s grace to the poor in Jerusalem (2 Corinthians 8:1—9:15). By sharing beyond what others thought they could or should, they no longer allowed their meager possessions to limit their ability to be generous. By emptying themselves, they became rich in God. Their generosity didn’t come out of sacrifice; rather it came out of their joy and need to worship God.

Pastors and leaders can give their congregations opportunity for such joy in the manner in which they invite people to give their offerings. The Macedonians gave because it was their joy to serve God by meeting a need they were aware of. Pastors and leaders can regularly remind the congregation that their offerings are an act of worship, because they are used for God’s purposes. But be specific as Paul was specific. Tell the congregation the exciting things that Mission Tithes are doing to support local, mission center, and worldwide ministries! Give people a reason to be joyful about what they are contributing to and enthusiastically invite them to give! Use the “Generosity Stories” that your mission center financial officer receives each month from the World Church (www.CofChrist.org/generositystories).

Help People Explore a Different Way of Living

Wealth and possessions can be great blessings for good, or they can control us. Jesus found this issue so problematic, that some report that he spoke of it more than the topics of heaven and hell combined.² Today’s culture bombards people with the message “we don’t have enough so we need more and we need it now.” Many Christians live by that message. They are imprisoned with debt. They value their stewardship of possessions over their relationships. Being generous is first about identifying God as the source and owner of all that one has such as time, possessions, love, resources, relationships, opportunities, jobs, and paychecks. Being generous is identifying oneself as simply the steward over one’s gifts. When disciples recognize everything is God’s, then being generous and sharing with others is no loss because they never owned it to begin with. By fasting from accumulation, disciples become free in receiving and sharing. The question is, “Are work and culture influencing us, or are we influencing work and culture as we model the kingdom of God come near?” When disciples find their hearts in God and model generosity, their work and their engagement of the culture become extensions of God’s grace.

But where will people learn about this in a world filled with messages about accumulation? Pastors and leaders should create opportunities for people to consider A Disciple’s Generous Response principles (www.CofChrist.org/generosity). Classes, worship services, youth group discussions, and numerous other places provide opportunity for congregational leaders to discuss these principles with the congregation. Of course, these discussions are most powerful if leaders can testify of their own efforts, successes, and struggles to live by these principles.

From God’s Heart to Ours…and Back

For the ancient Hebrews, faith became a system of legalities. When Jesus comes on the scene he turns those legalities inside out and upside down. The Law was a good place to start, but simply obeying it by command or constraint failed to reveal the heart of God. The nature of God and the way disciples are to live, as revealed in Jesus, is not to give 10 percent of one’s self, but to give 100 percent. This does not imply that disciples are to give everything away. It does imply however, that faithful stewardship calls us to look holistically at our lives.

Pastors and leaders are not concerned only about the tithing given by the congregation. Rather, they are concerned about how members of the congregation understand their relationship to their resources in the most holistic way possible. This concern rises out of the leaders’ desire for people to be free from burdens of unreasonable debt, the chains of unquenchable accumulation, and to know the joy and peace of generosity.

In this regard pastors and leaders can help by planning classes and services of worship that celebrate the simple fact that we are to be generous not because of law, and not just to meet the budget. Instead, we are to be generous because that is simply what disciples of Jesus do! For followers of Jesus, generosity is joy!

In addition, pastors and leaders can share the resource Becoming a Generous Disciple, available from Herald House (www.HeraldHouse.org). This resource will help people explore the following six principles:

• A disciple practices generosity as a spiritual discipline in response to God’s grace and love.
• A disciple is faithful in response to Christ’s ministry.
• A disciple’s financial response, while unique to individual circumstances, expresses love of God, neighbor, creation, and oneself.
• A disciple shares generously through tithing so that others may experience God’s generosity.
• A disciple saves wisely in order to create a better tomorrow for self, family, the church’s mission and the world.
• A disciple spends responsibly as a commitment to live in health and harmony with God and the world.

As a restoration movement the church’s purpose has always been to be engaged in Christ’s work of establishing God’s kingdom in this life, in these days. Our hope is with Christ’s that this earth would resemble heaven. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon [us], because he has anointed [us] to bring good news to the poor. He has sent [us] to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18–19) To do so requires a generous heart; one that finds its roots, faith, wealth, heart, rest, and work in God.

There are many lives waiting to hear the redeeming words of the gospel, or to be lifted from hopelessness by the hands of loving servants. But they will be lost to you without the generous response of disciples who share from their own bounty that others may know the joys of the kingdom. —Doctrine and Covenants 162:7a

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¹Xavier Le Pichon, Ecce Homo: To welcome the suffering is the sign of our humanity, http://being.publicradio.org/programs/2010/fragility/essay-eccehomo.pdf, accessed May 11, 2011.

²Randy Alcorn, The Treasure Principle, (Sisters, OR: Multnomah Publishers, 2001), 9.

 

The above principles are challenging because they prompt us to ask important questions about our own lives and ministry. Some of those questions are the following.

1. To what degree am I being “real” with the congregation about my personal hopes, concerns, joys, and pain?
   
   You don’t have to “spill your guts” or reveal things that are uncomfortably personal. The question is, are you being “authentic,” “human,” and “real” when you are with the congregation, or do you feel pressure to appear close-to-perfect, immune from personal struggles, or one who has all the answers? It will be very difficult for the congregation to form true community if leaders are signaling that it’s not safe to be fully human.
2. How can we help the congregation better understand the difference for good that their tithing makes?
   
   People need to know how families, neighborhoods, and villages are being changed for good because of what mission tithes make possible. They need to understand what is possible in their own community if they are generous with congregational offerings.
3. Is the pastor’s leadership team being intentional about teaching the six principles of A Disciple’s Generous Response?
   
   Individuals and families need the blessings that are experienced through this holistic understanding of generosity and discipleship.
   
   Generosity is at the heart of the gospel. The practices that follow can help give attention to generosity in practical ways.

		The Ministry of Generosity
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OBJECTIVE
To increase generosity by helping the congregation become more fully aware of the life-changing ministries that their contributions make possible.

PROCESS
This process is simple but important.

Every month, instruct the individuals scheduled to share offertory remarks to do four simple things:

1. Keep the remarks brief and focused on the offering.
2. Tell about the life-changing ministry that is made possible by the congregation’s generosity:
   • Use generosity stories found at www.CofChrist.org/generositystories, or available from your mission center financial officer.
   • Share how contributions to local, congregational ministries are making a difference.
3. Invite people to give generously.
4. Thank God for the joy of giving to things that matter.

		Our Own Vulnerability
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OBJECTIVE
To help pastors and leaders explore their own vulnerability and attitudes about generosity through relationships with people who are fragile or suffering.

PROCESS
The previous article quoted Xavier Le Pichon regarding how our communities “include fragile, vulnerable, suffering individuals who reveal to ourselves our own fragility, our own vulnerability, who actually lay bare our own sufferings that have been hidden in our deepest self.”

Exercise: Identify someone in your community that is “fragile, vulnerable [or] suffering” that you presently either don’t know or only slightly know. This could be someone that is homeless, suffering from addiction issues, a parentless or troubled child, someone who suffers from emotional, physical or mental health issues, has recently lost or is losing a child, or otherwise marginalized in a host of different ways. Commit to develop a relationship with that person over an extended period of time of at least a year. This person is not your project to fix; rather they are simply a child of God who needs your generous love, acceptance, and presence. Consider appropriate ways to share your generosity with this person with the expectation of receiving nothing in return, not even an appropriate response.

• Identify a trusted friend or mentor that you debrief with when needed after sharing with your new friend.
• As the relationship develops identify how this person is revealing to you some of your own fragilities, vulnerabilities, and sufferings.
• How is this relationship impacting your ministry and life?
• What is this relationship helping you to realize about your own response to God’s generosity?

		’Tis a Gift to be Simple: A Lifestyle Audit
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OBJECTIVE
To help people consider the difference between “wants” and “needs” in order to free resources for Christ’s mission.

PROCESS
Paying for things we don’t need with money we don’t have needs to be replaced with remembering that it is a gift to be simple. Simplicity is not about restricting the abundance of life, but about cutting out the things that aren’t really important so that life can be lived more fully. This can become both a regular practice and a spiritual discipline.

The following exercise can be used with the pastor’s leadership team, the congregation as a whole, youth groups, etc.

Exercise: Review your calendar and checkbook to uncover wants vs. needs. Are your “wants” revealed in too many trips to the coffee shop? Going out to eat too much? Too much expensive entertainment? That extra car? Too many expensive vacations? Find something in your life that you know is a want rather than a need and try giving it up for a while. Next time you are shopping, before you pull an item off the shelf, ask yourself whether it is a want or need. Spend that extra time or money on other priorities in your life or give it to an organization or cause you believe in. Afterward, ask yourself again, did you really need it?

From Jim Wallis’ Rediscovering Values on Wall Street, Main Street and Your Street: A Moral Compass for the New Economy, (New York: Howard Books, 2010), 231.

		Aligning Budgets with Mission
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OBJECTIVE
The pastor and the pastor’s leadership team meet with other congregational leaders and members to align the congregational budget to the Mission Initiatives.

Community of Christ has committed itself to align the World Church budget with the five Mission Initiatives identified in President Stephen M. Veazey’s April 2011 address to the church. The initiatives are:

• Invite People to Christ—Christ’s mission of evangelism
• Abolish Poverty, End Suffering—Christ’s mission of compassion
• Pursue Peace on Earth—Christ’s mission of justice and peace
• Develop Disciples to Serve—Equip individuals for Christ’s mission
• Experience Congregations in Mission—Equip congregations for Christ’s mission

PROCESS
Invite others from the congregation into a conversation about the budget. Determine if there are pieces that don’t fit. Look for ways to bring all congregational budget items into alignment with the Mission Initiatives (be prepared to eliminate programs and expenses that do not fit). Explore the following questions:

• What part of the congregation’s budget would be the most difficult to align to the Mission Initiatives? Why?
• How would the budget look if it were truly aligned with the Mission Initiatives?
• How would a budget aligned with the Mission Initiatives impact life and activities of the congregation?

Share with the congregation your proposed way of aligning the budget and explore what impact it may have on supporting and doing Christ’s mission. In addition to aligning the congregation budget to the Mission Initiatives explore with the congregation how to apply the above questions to individual household budgets and expenses.