Keeping from kidnapping stewardship
At The Living Pulpit, Charles R. Lane exhorts preachers to be brave enough to preach about money. And he urges us that in doing so, we not allow that topic to be "kidnapped" by the idea of simply paying the bills:
Although Jesus talks about money a lot, he never talks about the need of the church to receive. Jesus always talks about the need of the giver to give. This is the Bible’s stewardship message.It's a small distinction, but it's important.
posted by Milton Stanley at 3:23 PM
4 Comments:
Thanks for all the money quotes... i'm writing a book on the subject and you're giving me unwitting nudges in the right direction.
Glad to hear it, BF!
Last year I attended a global missions conference and in one session a panel of longtime missionaries were doing a Q & A.
The moderator asked each of them "If you had it to do over, what would you do differently?"
There was a variety of answers but the most striking was this. "I would teach the people to give."
Even the most poor, in the U.S. or in some impoverished place in Africa, have the same commands and resulting blessings of giving to God's work.
I am afraid even in my home church it is just accepted that some of our less fortunate folks are exempt from giving. That is sad and robs them of the blessing of God.
Thanks for stirring my thinking again on this vital subject which is important to every believer.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Royce. You're right that everyone ought to give something, even if, like the widow, it's no more than their two cents. Peace.
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