DISCIPLESHIP
MUST BE PRIORITY
I’ve been sharing over the past
couple of weeks the concept of generosity and discipleship being related to
each other. Many of us in our churches spend quite a bit of time on discipleship.
Sometimes because we take to heart the scripture that tells us that we are to
go and make disciples. Sometimes because we are told we have to prepare an intentional
discipleship plan. Sometimes for other reasons.
But I’ve seen enough discipleship
plans to know that time is spent on worship, service, teaching, spiritual
practices, etc., but few contain an emphasis on giving and generosity. Giving
and generosity needs to be apriority whenever we are focused on discipleship.
An article I was reading said it this way “if…two families who have the exact
same financial means and one gives liberally while the other gives very little,
the issue is typically not financial capacity. The issue is spiritual.”[1]
Our relationship with Christ obviously
affects our lives; I think we can agree on that. But our growing in our
relationship with Christ also changes our giving. Larry Burkett (an American
radio personality whose work focused on financial counseling from a Christian
point of view) said that a person’s giving is probably the single best
objective indicator of their relationship with Christ!
Wow! So what does that mean for us
specifically?
- ·
Pastors
must make themselves aware of the giving of their “flock”
- ·
Financial
leaders, by definition, may very well be the best ones to talk about generosity
and convey it. Have you asked them not “can you give more”, but “tell me a
little about why you are so generous to God and to the church”?
- ·
The
topic of money and possession appears in over 2,000 verses in the Bible. Why
should we be nervous about speaking about money?
- ·
Money
is a problem for us, for many in our congregation, in our community and for
many churches.
Discipleship and generosity work together and
must be tightly woven together!
Please
feel free to contact me at (315) 427-3668 or susanranous@unyumc.org if you’d like to talk about this and
how stewardship at your church can work together with discipleship and the
intentionality of it all!
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