Creating a Culture of Generosity (Sheppard & Johnson)

5 Steps to Creating a Culture of Generosity

Plant and water the seeds—and trust God for the increase.

By Jim Sheppard & Patrick Johnson

Churches may be taking a hit from the economy, but there is still much that can be done to generate a culture of generosity. Here are five specific field-tested ideas (in no particular order):

1. Be a generous leader
Generous churches are led by generous pastors and leaders. You can’t take people where you haven’t been—especially in the area of finances, which so often gets a bad rap in the church context.

Chris Willard of Leadership Network’s Generous Church Leadership Community notes, “I’ve seen generous pastors without a generous church, but you cannot have a generous church without a generous pastor.” Indeed, generous giving should be a characteristic of your entire leadership team.

Jimmy Seibert of Antioch Community Church in Waco, Texas is an example of a pastor who really practices this principle. He and his wife Laura have given sacrificially for more than 20 years and their life example of biblical generosity and God’s provision are known by both church leaders and members alike. One member of Jimmy’s church recently told him, “I give because I see you give. That’s what motivates me.”

A key question to ask yourself as the church leader is, “If everyone in my church gave like I do, would that be a good thing for the Kingdom?”

2. Adopt generosity as a core value
An excellent example of this is Fellowship Bible Church in Brentwood, TN. Around three years ago, the elders were struggling with the question of whether to do another capital campaign to fund expansion. Like many churches, they found that a campaign motivated people for a short season but had very little lasting impact on most of their members’ giving.

After much prayer, the church felt like God was calling them to adopt generosity as a core value of the church and to call all people to “raise the tide” of generosity at their church to what they deemed the “training wheels of giving,” the traditional tithe of 10 percent.

Beyond Castles in the Sand: A Summer Challenge

Reposted from 2009. -JB

 If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don’t work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards” (Matthew 7:25-27 MSG).

I watched the little tike as he built his sand castle with great care and pride on the beach shore.  He must have been 5 years old.  Just as he was putting the finishing touches on his castle wall, a large boat pulling a wake boarder cruised by just a stones throw out from the shore.  Within seconds the waves hit the shore and wiped out the boy’s sand masterpiece.  And he ran to his mommy in tears.

Life went on for this little boy.  He soon got over the destruction of his sand castle and was soon laughing on the playground minutes later.

Unfortunately, many of us never completely grow out of the foolish practice of building fragile castles in the sand.  

Grace & Truth

American musician John Mellencamp once said, “I know there’s a balance in life. I see it every time I swing by it.” There is perhaps no more profound realization in the entire Christian experience than grasping the necessary balance and tension between GRACE and TRUTH.

Most individuals, churches, denominations, pastors, teachers, and movements tend to choose one over the other — or at least emphasize one at the expense of the other. My own journey has been one of sliding back and forth from one extreme to the other. I think I’m learning how to keep both held in an appropriate tension these days….but it’s always a fragile balance with many necessary “reality checks.”

I went through a TRUTH season where I was banging people over the head with my Bible trying to get them to understand the truth — but I was missing grace in the process.

Before that I had gone through a GRACE season where it was all about love, acceptance, and singing cumbaya — but I lacked a conviction for the truth about sin, judgment, the urgency of reaching lost people, living according to God’s standard as revealed in scripture, etc.

One thing that has helped me keep this balance is to broaden the theological and church circles I run in and learn from. I read Brian McLaren and Francis Chan; I listen to sermons by John Piper and Greg Boyd; I have pastoral mentors who are both evangelical and more moderate mainline; I’ve served in a Methodist church and evangelical churches; I’m inspired by the lives of Shane Claiborne and Chuck Colson, Mother Teresa and Billy Graham. And so on.

Andy Stanley sums it up extremely well…

Confirmation Message: Walk the Plank!

Here’s a reposting of a message I gave to the Confirmation class in 2009.  

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28″Lord, if it’s you,” Peterreplied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

(Matthew 14:22-32)

Dear Confirmands:

This familiar story, which most of you have heard many times, is not to be toyed with or passed over lightly.  This story has been preserved and passed down for centuries just FOR YOU today.  This morning you are not just a curious bystander, a casual observer or a detached reader of this story. This morning YOU are in the boat with the disciples, feeling the wind against your face and the splashing of the waves against your skin.  Jesus is approaching YOU on the stormy waters and YOU will have the opportunity to either join Peter as he takes that bold step of faith off the ledge of the boat or whether you’ll remain a mere passenger in the boat.

NEW! Merge Forums in Mound!

This Friday we launch a key new initiative in keeping with our MainStreet vision. MainStreet is founded on the conviction that the church needs to engage unchurched people beyond the walls of the sanctuary.  Many people today are not interested in coming to worship on Sunday, but are open to conversation about spiritual topics. They are spiritual explorers who are not too excited about church. They want to find Christians who are not afraid to wrestle with tough questions.

MainStreet’s MERGE forums strive to provide a public venue for believers, skeptics and seekers to have open discussion on some of faith’s toughest questions such as “Did Jesus really rise from the dead?” or “How could a loving God allow so much evil and suffering?” or “Is the Bible trustworthy?”

Join us this Friday at the Depot at Mound Bay Park at 7PM for refreshments, live music featuring Rich Larson and Mike Poukey, and a presentation and Q&A on our evening’s hot topic: “Resurrection: Historical Fact or Religious Myth?”

Invite your friends!

My Week with Billy Graham

Ok, not really WITH him. But I spent my week in Florida studying the life and ministry of Billy Graham. I read a biography, part of his autobiography, watched a documentary and the movie Billy: The Early Years that came out a couple years ago.

What – a – life. What – a – legacy.

I was especially draw to the early break-through years for Billy in the late 40s and 50s. Many of us think of the internationally respected Billy of his later years.  But there was a time when Billy Graham was a nobody. I’m drawn to the faith and boldness that led him and his entourage to first step out and begin holding evangelistic rallies back in the old days.

Would anyone turn out?  Would they invest money and advertising, spend thousands on setting up big tents in Los Angeles and have no one show up?  Would his message (more fiery and intense in his earlier days) have any impact on the modern minds skeptical of this traveling preacher?

Before his career as a traveling evangelist, Billy was a young, scared Bible student yet to preach his first sermon. I loved the story of his very first preaching experience in 1937 as a 19 year old. The Dean of his school volunteered him to fill the pulpit of a backwoods little Baptist church in Bostwick Florida. Billy was up in a cold sweat the night before, running over his 4 prepared sermons.  Each sermon he suspected could last 25 minutes or so.

His debut was a humiliating disaster. He breezed through his sermon so fast that it only lasted 2 minutes. He went on to the next and the same thing.  After he had preached through the notes on all four sermons, only 8 minutes had gone by. He sat down thinking to himself, “I’m never doing that again!”

Well, I read this story sitting by the pool in Florida and wondered where this church was where Billy preached his first sermon. On Friday Keri and I went on a pilgrimage to find it. The church is still there, looks much the same on the outside, and they even put up a historical marker outside last year!

As someone who has also had his share of humiliating preaching experiences but continue to press on in obedience to God’s call, this was a wonderfully inspiring week with Billy Graham.

FATHER’S SONG (13): Dancing Together As One (Paul)

Jesus lived his entire life completely swept up in the rhythms of The Father’s Song. Remember that in the very beginning, before the creation of the world, all that existed was the eternal dance of the Trinity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit enjoying pure, self-giving, mutual joy and love between their three eternally distinct persons.

This is a mystery for sure. But when “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14) we were given a glimpse of what it looks like when a human being lives in perfect oneness with the Triune Godhead. This is the One who said: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does” (John 5:19).

Before Jesus left this earth to return to the Father he prayed a most majestic prayer on behalf of his followers. His famous prayer is recorded in John 17:

FATHER’S SONG (12): More Than Sheet Music (Jesus)

As the OT comes to a close, God’s plan to bring a tone-deaf and clumsy footed people back into the harmonious rhythms of The Father’s Song seems a giant failure. If only these notes on a page could become music in one’s ear.  If only someone could learn to play each note perfectly, perhaps the world would be irresistibly drawn to the music and join in the chorus. If only someone could breathe life into the sheet music and make it dance like those dry bones did in Ezekiel’s vision. If only the Word, God’s very wisdom, power and purposes, could become flesh and dwell among us.

Enter Jesus.

“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).  This shocking statement brings us to the climactic point of “The Father’s Song” survey of the Bible.

FATHER’S SONG (11): Country Break-Up Songs (Prophets)

There is the right song for every situation.  There is music for every mood.  And everyone’s musical library should include a good collection of quality break-up songs.  Country music provides plenty of options for this category.  My go-to-guy for heart-wrenching, gut-punching break-up songs is without question Chris Isaak.

I bought Chris Isaak’s Forever Blue album back in ’95 when I was 16-years old.  Every single track is a tale of romantic woe, heartache and a hopeless outlook on love.  Isaac’s matchless Elvis-Orbison-like voice and soothing acoustic guitar makes this otherwise painfully depressing collection of songs enjoyable.  My friend, Peter, is still upset a decade and a half later that I made him listen to the entire album start to finish in my car as part of his “healing” the night he broke up with his girlfriend.  I thought it would provide some solace and sympathy reminding him he wasn’t alone.  He claims it was pure torture and only threw salt on his wounded heart.

The stars have all stopped shining,
the sun just won’t break through.
Each days the same, more clouds more rain.
You’re left forever blue.

(Chris Isaak, Forever Blue)

On second thought, maybe he was right.

Unfaithful lovers.  Wounded hearts.  Longing and regret. Fighting and forgiveness.  Pain and sorrow.  Long, lonely nights. All core elements of a good break-up song and all part of the universal human experience — going back thousands of years by the way. As we continue our melodious trek through the Bible, tracing the theme of The Father’s Song, we come now to the books of the prophets of Israel.  

Many People in this city (Acts 18)

“One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: “Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.”  So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God” (Acts 18).

Don’t tell me God doesn’t still speak today. He does. The way he most powerfully speaks to us today is through His Word by the Spirit. One of the most significant words God ever gave me was to bring to my mind a promise he gave to Paul when he was trying to minister in Corinth.

In Acts 18, Paul was scared, facing no little opposition, and growing discouraged as he tried to establish a church of believers in this city. I can relate. God had called me back home to Mound in 2005 to start my own ministry and community of Jesus followers. More than a year had passed since I said ‘Yes’ and started ministry in Mound. Sometime in the summer of 2006 I was discouraged, afraid, doubting and ready to throw in the towel. The vision God had given me for a vital new youth ministry was simply not materializing. God had given me a vision of a crowd of teens attending a music event and hearing about Jesus. One year in and we were still a group of about 6 youth meeting in my basement.

In this hopeless state of mind, I went on a walk one night. I remember like it was yesterday, walking slowly behind the Memorial Garden at Bethel Methodist Church on Tonkawood Road. “Oh, God, help me!”  I was a walking example of Romans 8:26: “ The Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.”  God knew just what my heart’s cry was that night.  I was so alone. Feeling such a heavy burden to reach an entire school’s youth with a fresh vision for what it means to follow Jesus today, I was collapsing under the weigh of it. I needed co-laborers for help me realize this vision.  I needed people to help hold my arms up when they got tired.

I needed to know that I was not the only servant of God in this city.