12 Truths About Stewardship and Giving to Church

12 Truths About Giving, Serving and Worshiping God Through Your Church

 

• Giving, serving and worshiping are first about acknowledging that God created us, saved us and sustains/provides for us. From this should flow our desire to worship, give money and serve. How well does our financial giving, time in worship and serving in and through church reflect our trust in Him as well as our gratitude to God for all that He has done for us?

 

• Connect that we have received an “indescribable gift of salvation (2 Corinthians 9)” and our response to that gift must influence and impact every part of our lives – especially the worldliest parts – including money and time.

 

• Connect the truth that everything we have has come from God’s hand – therefore it’s not ours to “keep” but use what we need and give it back to Him (Deuteronomy 8).

 

• Connect that worship, serving and giving money are all part of this thanking God and giving back to Him. A faithful response to God includes all of these – not just one or two.

 

• Giving to God should be sacrificial. In other words we should be choosing to give money, worship and serve at church instead of other activities and opportunities. The model for this of course is God sacrificing His only Son Jesus on the cross to save us – and Jesus obediently sacrificing himself. Giving sacrificially glorifies God; it causes us to rely on God for giving, worshiping and serving – to trust that He will provide enough for us to live and give;  and is a powerful witness to our children and others.

 

• Every church has a calling and mission. At First Reformed, we are “Joyfully sharing and serving Christ with our friends and community.” Within our congregation there are people hurting and in need; there are young people in our congregation and in the community that need Christ and need ministry and mentors. There are thousands of people in Saddle Brook, individuals and families that need Christ. There are many in Saddle Brook and surrounding communities that are hungry, struggling and need help. God is calling our church to be the body of Christ for them. By giving, worshiping and serving – together we fulfill this call from God; there is no “plan B” – He’s asking us to do this job.  

 

• God has designed a church to work for His Kingdom based on members supplying the gifts, money and time (Acts 2, 4). Not fundraisers, not relying on endowments and surpluses – but on the faithful giving, worship and service of members. For those of you that are faithfully worshiping, serving and giving to the mission and work of First Reformed – thank you!! And a special thank you to the members who committed to increase their giving this year!! And, by this design, when a church is behind financially, and ministries are suffering because of lack of people and worship attendance is not at its full potential – all of this is on us – not the economy, or anything else.

 

• When we join church and are members of a church, we vow to give, support, worship and serve at the church. Members have to find ways to ensure their offering is received by the church weekly and/or monthly. Offerings can be put in the plate at worship, dropping off in person during the week, mailed to church from the home, banks now allow their clients to set-up mailed automatic payments. Members of a church should be held accountable for not giving on a regular basis – even during these difficult times – starting with small amounts and moving to larger amounts over time is fine. Giving nothing, not attending worship and not serving is unhealthy for our spiritual lives and for the health of the church.

 

• Believers and churches should be praying regularly about stewardship and God’s abundance. The basis of this kind of prayer starts with, “Father, please bless me (us) to be a blessing” as well as “change our hearts to reflect Your priorities.”

 

• We are spiritually enriched by worshiping, giving and serving (2 Corinthians 9:11). First, because we are trusting that God will provide. But also, in worldly terms – we are fulfilled spiritually by giving, worshiping and serving. Sometimes we think that we are “losing” when we are giving, worshiping and serving because it is costing us time and/or money. That’s how the world thinks. But what we think is a debit, God sees it as a credit. What we think is subtraction, God sees as addition. What we think is a loss, God sees as a gain.

 

• According to research, most Christians give about 3 percent or less of their income to their churches. Imagine what churches, what our church could do when more members are giving 3, 4 or 7 or more percent – (tithing is 10 percent). Remember the stories in the Bible when Jesus takes fish and loaves of bread (all that they had to give) and feeds thousands – when we give God our money, worship and service, He will use it mightily! There is so much that is possible when a church’s giving is healthy.

 

• If the members of a church, to which God called them to be a part, give, worship and serve as they should, there will be so much money, ministry and grace (“great grace was upon them all (Acts 4)” that we would have to have special meetings to decide how to use it all. God is a God of abundance and He provides so that our cups overflow as a blessing for us but also to share with others!
  

Rev. Christopher B. Wolf

Isaiah 42:7

cbrianwolf@gmail.com

www.christopherbwolf.com

 

Christopher B. Wolf is the author of Giving Faith a Second Chance: Restarts, Mulligans and Do-Overs (2007) and the forthcoming, With You: Every Step of the Way (2011).

“It is a matter of sharing and bearing the pain and puzzlement of the world so that the crucified love of God in Christ may be brought to bear healingly upon the world at exactly that point.” N.T. Wright

 

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