Giving It Away
From Greg Groeschel at Lifechurch.tv
When I was a kid, I was consumed with thoughts of making money.
There has got to be a way to make a lot of money.
I tried collecting golf balls from the bottom of a lake and selling them. I tried catching crawdads and selling them. (Who knew there wasn’t a market for dead crawdads?) I raked leaves. Mowed yards. Threw papers. Baby sat. Walked dogs. Whatever the gig, the goal was the same… make more money!
Sometimes it seems like churches are asking, “How can we raise (or make) more money?”
• Let’s have a bake sale.
• Let’s do a garage sale.
• Let’s hire a guy to do a three year fundraiser.
• Let’s sell raffle tickets.
• Let’s have an auction.
• Let’s sell all our products.
What if we asked another question?
Instead of asking, "How can our church bring in more money?"
What if we asked, "How much can our church give away?"
When I was a kid, I was consumed with thoughts of making money.
There has got to be a way to make a lot of money.
I tried collecting golf balls from the bottom of a lake and selling them. I tried catching crawdads and selling them. (Who knew there wasn’t a market for dead crawdads?) I raked leaves. Mowed yards. Threw papers. Baby sat. Walked dogs. Whatever the gig, the goal was the same… make more money!
Sometimes it seems like churches are asking, “How can we raise (or make) more money?”
• Let’s have a bake sale.
• Let’s do a garage sale.
• Let’s hire a guy to do a three year fundraiser.
• Let’s sell raffle tickets.
• Let’s have an auction.
• Let’s sell all our products.
What if we asked another question?
Instead of asking, "How can our church bring in more money?"
What if we asked, "How much can our church give away?"
If we fleece the flock for more and more money and use it unwisely or use it for in reach (ourselves) then that will be a big problem because we get fat and the community as a whole starves.
ReplyDeleteIf we use the money to do good for others, the trickle down effect has a 10 fold reward. When others see us using money wisely they then will give more freely and feel good about themselves while doing so.
The first thing people do when they think money is being wasted is to channel it to what they deem a better cause in their eyes and encourage others to do so.
What if I ask another question?
ReplyDeleteIs the church using the money, they are trusted with, wisely with total accountability?
The church expects the congregation to be good stewards, but often fail to be good stewards themselves.
Mark,
ReplyDeleteYou asked the correct question. Instead of asking how much more can we get, we need to ask, how much more can we give.
Sam and I have found that the more we give, the more we are blessed, and the more we have.
Churches get in a rut of wanting more money to spend on themselves. They forget about missions. And missions is anything outside their door.
People also want to know that their money is really helping someone.
Kaylynn is totally right. There should be accountability. I have always believed if we 'watch the pennies, the dollars will take care of themselves'.
IT IS NOT HOW MUCH MONEY WE GET, IT IS WHAT WE DO WITH THE MONEY WE HAVE!
A few pit fall's we may run in to when giving money away.
ReplyDeleteYou have to be careful to give a hand up and not a hand out.
People can become dependent on and take for granted the kindness of others.
Teach them to fish and feed them for life.
The other big problem is when we give money in the form of no bid contracts and sweet heart deals to
"Good old brother Smith" or
our church leaders and their family's. They soon take the attitude that God is blessing them by support their life style and business using the church to do so..
Others in the church will see this as waste and may keep their mouths shut, but will resent it and if not corrected, the money flow will stop.
The community needs to see that the money is being used for the better ment of all, not the desires of a few.