Building a LifePoint Culture of Stewardship

Giving to the Lord is a great blessing for a Christ-follower! Isn’t it odd then that when most pastors teach on money, they are very timid, apprehensive, and apologetic. No wonder the people in churches are confused and paralyzed about their giving, not to mention reluctant. There’s only one way to deal with this and that’s not to act as though there is no problem. The issue must be addressed regularly, faithfully, and biblically. Statistics on giving in the church have reported that 20% of the people pay for 80% of the ministry to be done. That may be a statistical fact, but it should be treated as an infectious disease. Just because it has always been that way, from one perspective, does not mean it should be left alone to remain that way. There is too great a blessing in giving for Christ-followers and too great a mission that must be financed for the church. God’s glory expanded through the mission of the church is worthy of teaching and challenging people to grow in the grace of giving.

LifePoint is in the midst of a growth curve regarding this matter. The Lord is maturing us as a church by giving us great responsibility with people and mission and challenging us with great vision. We readily agree that God can do anything he wants without our money, but he has ordained the tithes and offerings of his people to finance and accomplish his work. The conviction of LifePoint’s leadership is that God is doing a great work among us, calling and leading us forward to greater work, and he intends to use the treasures of his people in order to do it.

We are making intentional shifts to equip and encourage our people to grow in the stewardship of life. There are a number of different ways that we approaching this, but the most important shift is defining a path to teach and lead people along in order to become a people “ridiculously generous.” This is the path of a steward.

The first step of the stewardship path is obedience in the tithe. This step is for every Christian. True, tithe is not a New Testament teaching on giving. But it is the foundation from which New Testament giving is applied. Obedience in our finances begins with the tithe being brought to the local church. God’s faithfulness is tested and proved in the tithe. LifePoint believes, teaches, and practices tithing for three main reasons:

1. First, that it is an OT command does not nullify it for Christians, nor does obeying it make one legalistic. Jesus said, “I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill the law.” The law is fulfilled in Jesus’ righteousness. Therefore, obedience is from different motivations, but it is still obedience. Just because our motivation has changed does not necessitate that our practice must.
2. Second, tithing is not legalistic. Some believe that since tithe is not specifically taught in the New Testament, it is therefore an Old Testament legalism that is not to be practiced by Christians. In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, the main teaching on how a Christian is to give identifies nine principles of giving by grace: systematic, proportional, sacrificially generous, intentional, lovingly, cheerfully, voluntarily, excelling in, and grace-dependent. (For a more complete listing of these nine grace-based principles, read this previous Journal entry.) When tithe is practiced as a discipline in life, it equips a person to fulfill five of these grace-based principles for giving: systematic, proportional, intentional, excelling, and grace-dependent. It potentially fulfills all of them.
3. Third, tithing is a starting point in giving, not a top goal. Since we are under grace and not law, how much greater our compulsion to give than any Old Testament command.

Tithes provide a vital role in the life of the church. They sustain the regular, ongoing ministry and mission of LifePoint. As we grow, our tithes must continue to grow so we can advance ministry and mission forward. Tithes should be given as a general offering unto the Lord for this purpose. This balances the work of the church by understanding and addressing our needs. The elders are responsible to oversee and administrate the offerings and budget. We must be responsible and accountable in financial matters. We have been and are through the systems and processes we have put in place and operate by.

The second step of the stewardship path is generosity. This step is for every Christian. Generosity is the standard of giving and receiving by grace. Needs arise in life above and beyond the normal demand of ministry and mission. God has prepared us by teaching that no “demand of need” shall overcome the grace in his people to give to meet that need. “The grace that God has given … welled up in rich generosity” (2 Cor. 8:1-2).

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich (2 Cor. 8:9).

Once obedience is practiced, generosity is the practical expression of treasure that we return to God to express our gratitude for the work of his grace in us. The gospel calls us to be generous, for we have been generously given to. Every Christ-follower should labor to this end. Generosity is not what we do when we get rich or have more. It is a state of the heart that is expressed through life. Remember, whoever sows sparingly, reaps sparingly and whoever sows generously reaps generously (2 Cor. 9:6). We are made richer so we can be generous (2 Cor. 9:11).

At LifePoint, it is our goal that every person would “live generous”. I pray the reverberating testimony from this church would be, “LifePoint is a richly generous people.” This will first be determined by what we did with all that God has given us.

The third step of the stewardship path is the spiritual gift of giving. This gift is a supernatural, spirit-empowered gift of grace given for the purpose of meeting needs and building up the body of Christ (Rom. 12). The Bible teaches that some have the spiritual gift of giving. Part of LifePoint’s blessing and generosity to date is this gift being active among our people. We are laboring to nurture this gift in as many of our people as possible. We know that not all will have it, but we labor so that many will desire it.

The fourth step in the stewardship path is talent. Talent is the natural, God-given ability to gain, grow, and produce wealth. Some people have a natural, God-given talent toward making money or growing wealth. When this talent is utilized for and pressed upon the church, it has the capacity to move the church farther down the road faster on mission! This is no different than one whose talent would be in singing, painting, crafting, etc. We are laboring to create a pathway and equip people with this talent to bring their life to bear upon this church and move her mission forward.

Ignorance is painful and condemning, for the church and for Christians. People ned to know what God’s Word says about giving our money and why it is so vital to the church. We need to celebrate this aspect of participation in mission more highly. We have already heard several testimonies of how God has done a great work in people’s lives by transforming their finances and blessing them through giving. We’ve only just begun. Faithful, generous, and growing stewardship will be a great point of celebration for LifePoint!

—–
Photo source