I have been looking through several of my stewardship resources in preparation for my 9-month stewardship coaching network and thought it might be helpful to you if I shared some of the ideas on this blog. We will start this week looking at one assumption that needs to be made.
Assumption 1: Our church members are poorly trained on the foundations of biblical stewardship.
When it comes to the truth about stewardship, a big, black hole of ignorance hangs over our people’s heads. They don’t know what
they don’t know, and there are numerous tools that we can put in place to help them. This is one of the reasons why I am starting my Stewardship Coaching Network.
I will detail a plan for growing people up in financial knowledge and accountability. We will talk in depth about creating an atmosphere of generosity that models corporate stewardship, as it cultivates individualstewards.
On a side note, as you begin implementing the system we will discuss, I want to encourage you to start using your members’ level of stewardship as a means of gauging their spiritual growth. Unlike some of the other spiritual disciplines we talk about so often, such as daily time in the Bible and prayer, stewardship is something we can teach on and then track.
We can observe the extent to which our people digest and apply the teaching. We can train our people on immersing themselves in scripture, but we have no idea whether or not they really are. We can exhort prayer until we are blue in the face, but we have no way to measure the health of someone’s prayer life.
We can never really know how often, or how effectively, people are sharing their faith with their friends. Stewardship, however, gives us a unique opportunity to keep our finger on the pulse of someone’s spiritual development.
When we see someone growing in how much they give, this generally implies a step of spiritual growth. If someone who has given sporadically at best begins tithing faithfully, we know God is working in her life. This gauge also works the other way. If someone who used to give faithfully has stopped giving, we can be sure something is wrong.
Around The Journey, my staff and I have been able to head off potential heartaches and problems before they hit by checking in on someone whose giving has dropped significantly. Now, this is not a black and white tellall, but it is a good thing to keep your eye on.
The interesting thing about discipleship is that people can be very mature in one area and still immature in another. I’m sure you have run into those who are extremely mature in biblical knowledge, but have not given a dime in twenty years. Or you may find people who are mature in the area of finances, but are immature when it comes to relationship practices in scripture.
Obviously, this is a sliding scale. But taken for the measurement it is, keeping up with your people’s level of stewardship will prove to be a helpful tool in knowing where their hearts are.
I think that is enough on stewardship for today’s post. Keep your eye on this blog for the next several weeks as I continue covering some assumptions to help prepare our churches for proper biblical stewardship.
Also, if you are not yet signed up for my Stewardship Coaching Network, it only takes a few minutes. Click HERE to register.
Nelson
PS – Join other Pastors like yourself who are truly concerned with seeing their people discipled in the area of Stewardship by joinging my upcoming 9-month Stewardship Coaching Network where I will walk you through the steps to systematically help your people advance in the area of giving. Join now to get the Early Bird Price.
Share This Post
© Nelson Searcy. All Rights Reserved.
About Nelson Searcy
