Growing in Generosity
By Gary
DeLashmutt
Lead Pastor
The church in every era must embrace God's call to be counter-cultural—to allow him to radically transform our values rather than being conformed to the values of our culture (Romans 12:2). In 21st century America, we will either allow God to transform us into generous stewards, or we will be conformed to our culture's affluent individualism and materialism.
On one level, this is an individual challenge, because God works with us as individuals. But on another level, this is a challenge for us as a church. If our church as a whole continues to embrace God's way in this area, he will continue to work through us in powerful ways. But if we conform as a church to our culture's materialism, we will forfeit this privilege.
a matter of identity
At the heart of this matter is the question of identity. Do I see myself as an autonomous owner—or as God's steward? Our culture teaches us that we are the exclusive owners of our wealth and possessions, that we are to use them primarily for our own enjoyment, and that we are not accountable to anyone (except the IRS for taxes!) for how we manage our wealth.
Standing against this monolithic cultural consensus is the biblical view—that God is the owner of all that we have, that he entrusts wealth and possessions to us to manage in ways that advance his interests, and that we will account to him for how we managed his wealth. Jesus' parable about the three managers in Matthew 25:14-30 is one of many passages teaching this radically counter-cultural perspective.
But there is more. God not only rewards individual Christians in the next life for being good stewards. He also entrusts steward-minded churches with more opportunity and spiritual power in this life.
Luke makes this point in Acts 4:32-35. He notes in 4:33 the unusual power God granted the apostles and the Jerusalem church for their evangelistic work: "With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all."
Why did God grant them this amazing spiritual anointing? Because they were living as radically generous stewards. They viewed themselves as stewards, not as owners: "Not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own" (4:32). And they were generous:
"There was not a needy one among them, for all who were owners of land or homes would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales... (4:34 ,35). " God grants greater spiritual power and evangelistic opportunity to churches characterized by generous stewardship!
correlating the Bible with our experience
We have experienced this correlation in Xenos time and time again. God has granted us additional power for growth when we have embraced his call to generous stewardship.
In the early 1980s, our church's willingness to begin giving consistently enabled us to hire desperately needed staff (namely lead pastors, Dennis McCallum and myself), and to lease adequate facilities for Central Teaching and classes.
The result was an explosion of growth.
In the early 1990s, we once again faced crippling obstacles to growth—woefully inadequate children's classes and office space. Again, hundreds of us embraced this challenge with sacrificial giving, and God moved supernaturally to grant us our amazing Main Campus—which has enabled us to keep growing.
In the late 1990s, many adults gave sacrificially so we could add staff and facilities for our high school and college ministries—and God has granted us a spectacular harvest in student ministry.
Those of us who have responded to these challenges know personally the fear of giving more sacrificially—but we also know the excitement of seeing God pour out his power through us.
Speaking personally, God has protected me from materialistic greed through these challenges to trust him and give sacrificially. He also has granted me deeper security that he will take care of me and my family, because I have seen him do this when I live as a generous steward. And he has awed and humbled me by granting greater power in ministry.
embracing radical stewardship
Now we face another challenge in our service to God. He wants to grant us greater power and increased fruit in South Linden, on OSU campus and among adults. But as always, this opportunity is connected to embracing his call to radically generous stewardship.
Those of us who have answered the challenge in the past will need to step up again. And many of us will need to trust God financially for the first time.
Will we embrace this challenge as a church and continue to allow him to transform us—or will we allow ourselves to be conformed by our materialistic culture and forfeit this opportunity? Let's live as generous stewards and experience God's blessing of increased spiritual power and fruitfulness!