Pastor’s Corner “Deeper Discipleship Revisited”

In a few days you will receive a letter encouraging you to participate with God in being Pro-Vision by pledging toward Immanuel’s 2027 vision to Cultivate Healthy Growth. Your commitment to give generously will enable the provision of the people, structures, and resources needed tend the upward, outward growth of our church, the Father’s vineyard.

This call to pledging, however, involves more than meeting a budget. It is an opportunity to grow in the deeper discipleship of generous giving. I’m reminded of Bishop John Guernsey’s words to us at the end of the summer:

Giving is an act of worship. It is not paying our dues. It is not a religious tax. We give first and foremost not because of what the church does with the money, as wonderful as that is. We give first and foremost because of what it does for God. Our giving gives glory to God. Our giving, our gratitude, honors God. It is to be an act of worship.

I also want to remind you of the four truths Jesus is using to untangle my own thorny relationship with money:

·       Our relationship with money is an essential expression of our worship of God.“You cannot serve God and mammon,” says Jesus. “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19-24). Who really has the power over my life, my decisions, my contentment, and my commitment? My finances, or my heavenly Father?

·       All our money is gift from God.“All things come from you O God, and of your own have we given you” (1 Chronicles 29:10-14). All my money is not my money. It is God’s money entrusted to me to use, to manage, to steward as he directs.

·       Giving generously is essential to faithful stewardship.“You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way,” writes Paul, pointing to the example of Jesus, “that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 9:10-15; 8:8-9). The more generously I give—even to the point of self-sacrifice—the more others experience the love and life God intends for them, and the more God is glorified.

·       We are called to tithe—to return to the Lord ten percent of what he gives to us.“Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year,” the Lord commands, “so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always” (Deuteronomy 14:22-23). Bishop John traced the injunction to tithe from Genesis to Jesus to our own lives, reminding us how obedience to this command teaches us reverence for the Lord. Will I take the next step in my stewardship to give ten percent of my income, and see whether the Lord will indeed “open the windows of heaven” and pour down a blessing on my family and on Immanuel (Malachi 3:10)?

All of us have a next step in our stewardship, a movement farther into the deeper discipleship of generous giving. I encourage you to receive these next few weeks as an opportunity to take that step to give of yourself “not merely in a way that reflects the level of commitment you feel you already have, but in a way that reflects the commitment you want to have. God will honor that step. He will provide for you and he will do his loving work in you, filling your life more and more with his presence, his blessing and his joy.” (Yep, Bishop John again.)

Your Pastor in Christ,