Raise More Money. Lesson One: Start With Your Heart. This Road Map is designed to help you raise more money in the life of your church.

Transcription

1 Raise More Money Lesson One: Start With Your Heart This Road Map is designed to help you raise more money in the life of your church. I know that every pastor, every leader has a vision but without the provision for the vision, you're not going to fulfill it. It's going to stay a wish or a dream or an idea, but I know as the Lord has put things into your heart for the future of the church, to lead them into the future, there is a need for you to raise resources to fulfill that vision and dream The first lesson is Start With Your Heart. I think if you have foundations in your own heart and your own life, that'll flow into your church, because it's a truth that what's in you, will get into your church. As we look at the foundations, we need to understand that you have a financial world. Your church has a financial world. In fact, everyone in your church has a financial world. Within that world, there are values, there are cultures, there are ways that we do things, there are thoughts that we have about finances. It's the coming together of these three different worlds (your world, your church's world and the people in your church, their financial world) that makes the stewardship of resources, the raising of finance one of the most challenging and stressful realms of ministry. I find that whenever you are wrestling with this area of finance, you're always going to be juggling faith and wisdom. I don't think there are many areas that are as intimidating as the raising of resources and helping to disciple people into becoming stewards of what God has put into their life. It requires us to be prayerful, knowledgeable and discerning as we lead our church into the stewardship of the resources God has given them. Start With Your Heart I want to look at a number of areas as we lay the foundations, and first area is your heart.

2 When you stand before your people and get them to look at their financial world and order their finances appropriately, that you will speak from your attitudes and the way you see God and money. This is going to flow to your people. So I want to start with your heart and make sure the foundations are right because out of those foundations, out of your heart will flow the very issues of life. 1. God is your provider The bedrock foundation of our heart is to see that God is the provider in our church's financial world. Now, I know there are various income streams that come into the church. There can be general weekly tithes, special missions offerings and building projects for which you raise money. Amongst all the people there might even be a couple of people who are very big givers, who give a large percentage of the church's income. You may also raise income from hiring out your building for various purposes. You may have investments that create income streams or you may have estates that bring finances to the church. However, below all that giving is this bedrock foundation: Jesus Christ is the provider of the finances in your church. When you look at scripture, you see a wide array of stories of God providing. Whether it's Abraham about to sacrifice his son and God says, no, no, here's this sheep. Right at that very point of provision there's the hand of God as the children of Israel going through the world with all manner of meat and water. There's a provision of houses, vines, fruit trees and crops in the Promised Land. In the NT we see Jesus providing again and again. Even paying the temple tax for his friend Peter with a coin in a fish s mouth. Ultimately God is the provider of every resource that we need in this church. This is the bedrock foundation you must have in your heart as you approach your church to raise more resources.

3 2. You are a steward not an owner Another bedrock foundation principle is that you are a steward and not an owner. In fact every single person in your church has to adopt and understand the principle of stewardship. Stewardship is defined as the entrusted management and care of resources that belong to someone else. In fact, this very desk that I'm working on, this microphone, this computer, this house I'm in, this land that we're on, the car that's in my garage. You know what? None of them belong to me. Sure, they're in my name, but really, they don't belong to me. I'm just stewarding them, I'm managing them for the rightful owner. David declared in Psalm 24:1, the Earth is the Lord's and everything in it, not some things, not a few things, not many things, every single thing in this planet is the Lord's. The Lord is the owner. We manage the resources that God has given us, for the purposes of advancing the Kingdom and building the church of Jesus Christ. I think this principle needs to be embedded in our hearts and lives. Job says it in Job 1:21: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart." There's a magnificent truth that stewardship, that recognizing again and again, that you know what, Lord, this is not mine, this is yours, I need to steward and manage this to your glory. This alerts us to the question of accountability. Stewardship a bedrock principle of the heart. 3. Contentment I coined a proverb many years ago: Always content, never satisfied. This is the tension that we live with when it comes to money, possessions and resources. There needs to be a level of contentment where we draw a line and say, that's enough. However, I'm not totally satisfied. The Lord could prosper me more, help me find innovative ways to create income streams or help me to spend less.

4 I like to keep this tension in my heart where I m contentment and thankful for what Christ has given us. It helps me protect my heart from being covetous towards other churches because they've got more resources. While I want to be content with what I also I want a holy dissatisfaction with the status quo so that I will not stop from continuing to raise more resources for the Kingdom. I want to be like Paul in the latter years of his ministry, writing Philippians 4. "I've learned the secret of being content in every and any situation whether well fed, or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want." There is a place in Christ of thankfulness, appreciating what God has given us. However, I know as pastors we always want more. Whether our church is 100 people or 1000 people we all want more resources. There is this holy dissatisfaction that keeps us hungry for more of what God wants to pour into us but at the same time, we're thankful. We appreciate what we have. We thank the Lord for the house, the car, the provision, the people, the flow of finance that we have and I think that is part of the secret, but I think it's also got to do, I think in prayer. Pastors and leaders wrestling to the ground envy and being jealous of what someone else's resources. I think there's a place of contentment God wants us to find. 4. Generosity You should be known as a Christian leader for being generous. You're the one who's giving gifts, you're the one who's been thoughtful with your generosity, that you're thinking beyond yourself and you engender that spirit of generosity into your church. Your church is known as being generous in terms of the fact that with your whole budget, you don't take 100% of your budget and spend it all on your church, your programs, your activities, your staffing, your needs, but you decide that you need to bless the people in our community. You say, we need to help poor, vulnerable people who are not in our church. We need to do things in our community that bless, and help and reach our community. We also need to think overseas, globally. We don't want to be tight fisted and stingy and miserable with our money. We want to be generous.

5 When members come into financial hardship, we want to make provision in our budget that we're able to help those members that are not doing well financially and get them through a hard time. Also with staffing, it's so important, so important that pastors and church staff members are well paid. I think there are fewer miserable things in the church than when a church decides to underpay their staff and there is a poverty attitude towards the pastor and staff. I think if you have that spirit of generosity, it kind of leaks out of you into your leaders and into your church. 5. Integrity One last area in the area of the heart in this Establishing Foundations is the issue of character and integrity. Financial scandals in any organization are damaging, but in church life they are destructive. They are like a typhoon, like a cyclone just going through and smashing a church when people know that there's been fraud, embezzlement, when people have been stealing finances and misusing finances it will damage that church. When people give their tithes and offerings, they expect your dealings to be scrupulously honest, moral and legal and Christ honoring in every way. A pastor or Christian leader must have integrity and character firmly set in their life, that they're honest people. I think that is seen in practices such as annual audits by a reputable firm with clear explanations to the congregations where the money is being spent. All processing of any cash must be attended by at least two people and there should be processes in place that prevent theft. Also there must be honesty about designated offerings. When you stand in front of your church and say we're going to take an offering for this mission s project and then you spend it on something else that is fraudulent behaviour.

6 Download and Complete the Check List Rate your: ability to see God as provider attitude of stewardship level of contentment level of generosity level of integrity 1 = abysmal 5 = average 10 = brilliant