Five Practices of Fruitful
Congregations – Week 5
Extravagant Generosity
Midweek Meditation – October 24, 2012
BMC- John 3:16
Introduction:
This evening, we come to the last
of our Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Extravagant Generosity. And it seems to me that this practice makes a
fundamental shift that our other 4 did not.
Each of our other four topics contained a noun or phrase that I think we
readily identified with, but then added an adjective that took it to the next
level.
For instance, we began with
hospitality which is a very natural part of what it means to carry out the
“invite” portion of our vision. The
change was to consider what it means to be “radical” in our hospitality. Likewise, worship is something that we do
together on a weekly basis, but our author challenged us to consider what it
means for us to be “passionate” in our worship.
We have a Ministry of Nurture that
we would readily identify as a core part of our congregation’s faith
development, but we were encouraged to consider what it means to be intentional
in this effort. And we are well versed
in doing mission and service; but it is probably different for us to consider
taking risks in our outreach efforts.
Yet our fifth ministry at Bethel is
the ministry of stewardship, a ministry that is not directly alluded to in our
vision. But while we are talking about
the use of our resources and the idea of stewardship is a fundamental part of
this; it is not the focus here. When it
comes to our resources, we are being encouraged to make a fundamental shift in
terminology from stewardship to generosity and then to take it to the next
level of being extravagant in our generosity rather than extravagant in our
stewardship.
It seems to me that this is a
significant shift; not that they are mutually exclusive, but that they come
from a different starting place.
Stewardship has the connotation of managing the resources that God has
given us and discerning the best use of those resources. Whereas generosity has the connotation of
freely giving away what God has entrusted us with to people that are in need of
it. On top of that, we are to be
extravagant in our generosity.
John 3:16
Now this is
not to say that we do not continue to work at being good stewards of the
resources that God has entrusted us with, but it seems to me that it does shift
a bit what it means to steward those resources.
Perhaps it means that using resources is less about discerning whether
or not using the resources is a good investment and more about putting the
resources to work in helping others even if that means an occasional “loss” or
a use that may be less than ideal.
Because it
seems to me that while stewardship may be more about a return on our
investment, generosity is more about freely giving regardless of whether or not
we see any return. And while stewardship
may be more attune to our business sense, generosity may be more attune to our
heart sense. While stewardship tends to
function more out of a scarcity mentality, generosity tends to function more
out of an abundance mentality.
And
ultimately, that shift for us comes from the model of Jesus Christ. We are told in John 3:16 that God so loved
the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him might be
saved. That is extravagant generosity at
its finest. God freely gave of his most
precious possession. This was not a
shrewd investment of his resources for a return; though we might say that he
does get a return on His investment when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and
Savior. Rather this is about extravagant
generosity, about giving out of love regardless of the return on the investment
and it is a model for us.
Being Extravagant in Our Generosity
We are to be extravagant in our
generosity because God was first extravagant in His generosity toward us. We have received abundantly and out of our
abundance, we generously give to others.
We go to extravagant measures to share that generosity with those who
are around us. And we do this in at
least three ways which I will highlight tonight.
Extraordinary Sharing
First, we are extravagant in our
generosity through extraordinary sharing.
We look at what we have not as our own but as God’s and so we share it
freely with those who are in need. We
resist the urge to hoard and protect what we have and instead share it with
those who are in need.
A friend of mine has shared with me
that he has some relatives who are concerned enough about some type of
cataclysmic failure in our society that they have stock piled supplies for such
an event. And in the midst of doing so,
they have shared very openly with the family that those supplies are only for
their immediate family and that they will not be sharing them with the extended
family when the time comes. Here we see
the opposite of extraordinary sharing.
Willing Sacrifice
Second, we
are extravagant in our generosity through willing sacrifice. As Jesus willingly sacrificed Himself for us,
so we willingly make sacrifices for others.
We willingly give of our time and our resources for the good of others,
even if that means at times that we ourselves go without and give something up.
We read in
the Old Testament of the days of Elijah in which there was a famine in the
land. God directed Elijah to a gentile
widow where Elijah asked for something to eat.
The widow told him that all she had left was enough for one more meal
for her and her child and then they
would die. Yet Elijah instructed her to
feed him first and that then there would be enough for all three of them. She did so and made a willing sacrifice.
Joyous
Giving Out of Love
Third, we
are extravagant in our generosity through joyous giving out of love. When practiced rightly, extravagant
generosity is not done with grumbling and lamenting. It is done with joy and it is done out of
love. In order for this to happen, we
must have hearts full of joy and love because our motivation matters.
For the
last several years, our community has done a special thing on Christmas
Day. We have come together from our
different churches to pool our resources and offer a community meal for those
who don’t have people to celebrate the holiday with. And that is significant, but what is equally
significant to me is the spirit in which this is done. It is done with joy in giving and out of love
for people that we do not even know.
Conclusion
For God so
loved the world that He gave His only Son that who so ever believes in Him
might not perish but have eternal life.
God has been extravagantly generous to us. We in turn should be extravagantly generous
to others through extraordinary sharing, willing sacrifice and joyous giving
out of love.
Each table
has a sheet with some starter questions.
Feel free to use them in any order or to go in a different direction as
the spirit leads. If one person could
serve as a facilitator and take some notes, I would be very thankful as it will
help me in my sermon preparation for Sunday.
Also please note that the last three questions are more about this model
that we have been following over the last 5 weeks.
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