The Sacrificially Generous Church

The Bible is full of examples of sacrificial giving.

• David refused to sacrifice something that cost him nothing.
• Solomon sacrificed 1,000 bulls instead of one as an offering to the Lord.
• The poor widow put all she had into the offering.
• The immoral woman poured a bottle of very expensive oil on Jesus in a act of selfless worship.
• God gave the most sacrificial gift in history: his only son, Jesus.

As churches, we should give sacrificially.

I’ve heard of churches who’ve sacrificed to give big:

• Some give away 50% of their income or more.
• Some refuse to build a building to give more.
• Some don’t pay any staff and use all volunteers.
• Some have donated buildings to other ministries.
• In some parts of the world, people still give their lives for Christ.

How is your ministry giving sacrificially? How could you give sacrificially in the future?

9 comments

The Strategically Generous Church

I pray your church or ministry gives spontaneously to meet needs. But if we only give spontaneously, this style of giving will limit what we’re able to give. Another way to think about giving is to be strategic.

• Abraham thought ahead of time to send gifts with his servant for Isaac’s future wife.
• The Magi planned ahead of time to bring extravagant gifts for God’s son.
• God strategically showed His love for us by sending Christ while we were still sinning against Him.

Isaiah 32:8 says, “But generous people plan to do what is generous, and they stand firm in their generosity.” (NLT)

We could say generous churches plan to do what is generous. Instead of just planning our next building project or fundraiser, we should also “plan to do what is generous.”

Unquestionably we should plan to help the poor and needy. (Most churches do this well or at least are trying to do so.) We can also plan to help and support other churches or ministries.

In our meetings, we have learned to strategically ask, “What can we give to other churches to help them?”

• Do you have a building you could offer another ministry one day a week or more?
• When you upgrade choir robes, a van, or a sound system, can you give what you had to bless another ministry?
• Can you make your sermons, outlines, or videos available to serve other churches?

When you plan to be generous, you might be surprised how many ways you can be a blessing.

How is God using your ministry to serve others?

10 comments

Letting Go of the Fear of Failure

The fear of failure paralyzes too many people.

I’ve found one of the best gifts God can give a leader is the gift of failure.

Too many of us are not doing what we feel called to do because we’re afraid to fail.

As I observe the people around me, it seems the most effective have failed far more times than the least effective.

The people making the biggest impact seem to:

1)  Try something outlandish.

2)  Fail.

3)  Learn.

4)  Adjust.

5)  Try something that works better.

Failure is never final. It is often the first step to success.

If you haven’t failed in awhile, why don’t you try something crazy and see what happens.

16 comments

Letting Go of Old Assumptions

The world is changing faster every day. Too many Christian leaders are working off old assumptions rather than new revelations.

When we assume that our way of doing ministry is best:

• We stop learning from others.
• We rarely try something new.
• We quickly see faults in new ideas rather than seeing opportunities.

To reach people no one is reaching, we have to do things no one is doing.

If you think the way everyone else is thinking, you’ll do what everyone is doing.

It is time to let go of old assumptions about how to reach people.

What assumptions about church and ministry are you shedding?

14 comments

Higher Threshold for Chaos

When we’re entering into a new season, I always challenge our leaders to have a higher threshold for chaos.

Systems tend to produce predictable outcomes. When we are innovating and growing, we never know what the outcome will be.

Many “great” ideas bomb. Then God seems to bless some average ideas in a big way.

While we are willing to allow things to get a little messy, we also work hard to make sure we are students.

• What is God showing us?
• What did we learn from the last failure?
• What success is hidden in the last failure?

Our church is currently moving into a season of discovery. Once we discern what God wants us to know, we’ll recruit the right people. Then we’ll build systems and enjoy the ride—until God leads us into a learning and chaotic period again.

Personally, these are my favorite times!

17 comments

Breaking Up the Systems

Even a good ministry system will eventually limit what God wants to do if the system doesn’t evolve or totally change.

(By system, I mean any program, structure, philosophy, or culture that shapes and helps produce a desired outcome.)

Once people operate within a system long enough, they often start to do ministry out of “muscle memory.” They tend to do the same things and work with the same people, but the results often start to slowly (or quickly) diminish.

Because this is what “we’ve always done,” people might think we just need to do what we did—better. In reality, God might want you to de-construct some ministry philosophy or system so you can hear His new direction.

For example, years ago we were doing everything you could think of at LifeChurch.tv. God directed us into a season of focusing on only five things. This philosophy served us well for about four years. It allowed us to focus on our core ministries without being distracted by lots of less-than-our-best efforts.

After a few years, it became obvious this season was coming to a close. What used to seem freeing started to become limiting. After prayer, we intentionally broke the established system to learn something new.

26 comments

Leading Into the Future

When I want to lead into the future, I usually look into the past to see what I can learn from any patterns.

Sensing it was time to make some changes in our church culture, I prayerfully reflected over the different seasons of our church.

I noticed a distinct pattern that repeated itself at least seven times. (I’m not claiming this will be true for everyone, but might be true for many ministries.)

Phase 1: We create something new (new ministry or new innovation).

Phase 2: We recruit and train leaders for the new initiative.

Phase 3: We build systems to support the new effort.

Once the ministry system (or leadership structure) is in place, the ministry runs somewhat effortlessly for a while.

It could be months or even years that God seems to bless this season of ministry. Eventually, it seems that God slowly (or quickly) removes His blessings from what we “we’re doing” forcing us to seek Him for something new.

I’ll write all week about this.

Have you noticed anything similar in your ministries?

13 comments

What the Church Should Learn from Google (3 of many)

3. They haven’t arrived.

Most of us would say Google is pretty big. Just 11 years after they launched their search engine, they are one of the top ten most well known brands in the world. But despite how big they’ve become, they continue to think bigger. Instead of looking back at what they’ve accomplished, they look outward and to the future.

For example, with Google Translate they are aiming to break down language barriers across the globe. That’s a pretty ambitious goal, but it’s just the kind of big vision that helps propel organizations to go further.

As churches, it’s really easy to look at what God’s done–our history, heritage, or recent success–and become more focused on that instead of the big opportunities for what could be.

Is your church as big as Google?

No? Great, there are a lot more opportunities for your church to reach this world.

Yes? Great, there are a lot more opportunities for your church to reach this world.

Tags: Google

14 comments