The Four Giving-Related Questions You Should Ask Each Person Each Month

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part XI of our series on Doing Good

In our last post, we noted how the gold standard for Christian giving is purpose. So every month we should be praying, “God, how may I be a part of your giving this month?” That’s a very different question than, “God, how may you be a part of my giving this month?”

It’s God’s money, and you are God’s instrument. Never get that backwards!

So this is why at .W Church we collect the offering monthly instead of weekly. Each of us needs to be purposing what to give, not deciding at the last minute.

Throughout the month, each of us is disbursing the 70% of our offering that has been entrusted back to us and practicing the Works of Mercy we’ve learned about. As we pray daily and meet daily in family worship, we ask God and one another, “What should we be giving this month? What is God doing around us? How is he asking us to join him in that giving?”

We also conduct our “AAR” (After Action Review), asking each person or family to answer the following four questions about the giving they did for the month.

We don’t ask, “Did you tithe?” Because someone could tithe and still not give with purpose. And for most Christians (the ones who, for example, are not homeless or hungry), the tithe should be the minimum they give, not the maximum.

(And Christians who are poor should still give generously, by the way. You’ll see in the Scriptures that God uses the gifts of the poor to accomplish his most important work, whether it’s the widow feeding Elijah or the boy giving Jesus the fish and loaves. Everyone should give, sharing whatever they have. Everyone.)

So the four questions you should ask each person each month in each .W group are these:

Step 1: What was the intent of your gift last month? In other words, why did you make that gift? How did you decide to do it? What were you seeking to mirror about God’s character through your giving?

Step 2: What happened? Why? What are the implications?

Step 3: What lessons did you learn?

Step 4: Now what? In other words, how will you give differently—or more, or the same, or to a different person, or to the same person, or whatever—in the future?

It doesn’t matter if their giving was $0.05 or $50,000 for the month. We need to ask these four questions to each person each month as a means of accountability and as a means of helping them to grow.

Do not fail to be diligent in asking each member these questions each month. Few things can help members grow more than asking these questions. Few things can prevent members from growing than neglecting to ask questions like these.

Have you ever incorporated questions like these into your giving?  If so, how do you feel they helped?  What other questions would you add to this list?

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The Gold Standard of Christian Giving

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part XI of our series on Doing Good

People ask me, “So what’s the deep theological reason for doing one offering a month in the .W Church? And should Christians tithe?”

My answer to these deep theological questions is that I have no deep theological answer.

I’ve known people who would argue passionately that all Christians should tithe and that no Christians should tithe, and each side is convinced that the other is in apostasy or bondage. And I’ve also met people who insist that an offering should be taken every time the church gathers together.

My own solution to these dilemmas is that if something is specified in the Nicene Creed, it is a core belief which all Christians must hold, without exception. We lay no precondition of belief on members other than the Nicene Creed, which, in the words of Vincent of Lerins in 450 AD, specifies “…that which has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.”

So I always say, “If it’s in the Nicene Creed, we believe it and do it, and if it’s not in the Nicene Creed, we do not treat it as if it is.”

So as regards when and how much and how often to give, you’ll notice that these things are not specified in the Nicene Creed. The Scripture gives us ample guidance in these matters, of course, and one recurring theme—which is especially important to note as we conclude this month’s emphasis, on the Work of Mercy of Doing Good—is that our giving should be planned and purposeful.

Some Christians who hate tithing say, “God wants us to give spontaneously and not in a way where we are bound to a set amount that drives the Spirit out of the process.”

But the Scripture does not commend spontaneous giving as the gold standard of Christian giving.  Instead, in 2 Corinthians 9:7, Paul says,

“Each one must give as he has decided [or the King James says “purposed”] in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

Purpose—that’s the key word.

The gold standard of Christian giving is not spontaneity but purpose.

If you read the verses around this one in 2 Corinthians, Paul is stressing to each Corinthian Christian the importance of praying and thinking through what they will give to a special offering Paul is raising to send to the mother church in Jerusalem, which is experiencing hardship due to famine and persecution. Paul is saying, “Think about this ahead of time. Pray about it ahead of time.” He uses the analogy of sowing and reaping. Anyone who has planted so much as a single zucchini will know that sowing a seed requires planning, preparation, and ongoing cultivation.

Sadly, most Christians do not put that level of thought into their giving. If they’re immature Christians, they’ll pull out their wallet and toss a few dollars in the offering when they’re asked. If they’re long-time Christians, they’ll compute their tithe or giving budget and put that in the offering.

And some “modern” Christians believe that God wants them to give according to what we call “random acts of kindness,” which means that they give whenever they sense the Holy Spirit is prompting them to give.

But none of these practices get at what Paul is talking about here.

Of course you should give whenever the Holy Spirit prompts you, but giving only when the Holy Spirit prompts you is like cleaning your room only when your parents tell you to. Your goal should be to give as God gives.

God plans his giving very carefully! He gives us what will help us, not whatever we ask for.

How have you navigated this question in the past?  What is your personal practice when it comes to giving?

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If You Love Your Enemies, Won’t They Take Advantage You?

Posted on January 23, 2012 by Pastor Foley

Part X of our series on Doing Good

As we progress through our series on Doing Good (specifically to our enemies), there’s one question that always comes up:

Won’t we just be taken advantage of?  Won’t people use our love against us?

Answer: yes.  And here’s a story that illustrates that:

Late in the winter of 1569, Dirk Willems of Holland was discovered as an Anabaptist and a thief catcher came to arrest him at the village of Asperen. Running for his life, Dirk came to a body of water still coated with ice. After making his way across in great peril, he realised his pursuer had fallen through into the freezing water.

Turning back, Dirk ran to the struggling man and dragged him safely to shore. [As in the story of Acts, perhaps he “takes him by the right hand” and “helps him up.”] The thief catcher wanted to release Dirk, but a burgomaster – having appeared on the scene – reminded the man he was under oath to deliver criminals to justice. Dirk was bound off to prison, interrogated, and tortured in an unsuccessful effort to make him renounce his faith. He was tried and found guilty of having been rebaptised, of holding secret meetings in his home, and of allowing baptism there – all of which he freely confessed.

“Persisting obstinately in his opinion”, Dirk was sentenced to execution by fire. On the day of execution, a strong east wind blew the flames away from his upper body so that death was long delayed. The same wind carried his voice to the next town, where people heard him cry more than seventy times, “O my Lord; my God”. The judge present was “finally filled with sorrow and regret”. Wheeling his horse around so he saw no more, he ordered the executioner, “Dispatch the man with a quick death.”

Why did Dirk Willems turn back?

In Matthew 5:42, Jesus says, “Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” (Do not turn away—do you see the physical dimension of that request?) So what will we give? We will give something far greater than what they ask for.

We will give them the mercy of God made physical, the mercy that he first gave to us.

Jesus assures us that there is no hope in wealth or in saving our own lives. Our lives and our wealth already belong to God. In fact, our lives are part of his wealth. But here is what is much more important: his life and his wealth already belong to us!  His life isn’t just part of our wealth; it is our wealth!

Martin Luther wrote that “in marriage, everything that properly belonged to the groom now comes into the possession of the bride, and everything that properly belonged to the bride now becomes the possession of the groom… ‘The believing soul can boast of and glory in whatever Christ has as though it were its own, and whatever the soul has Christ claims as his own’” (Robert Kolb and Charles P. Arand, The Genius of Luther’s Theology.)

So Christ, as the husband of his bride, says, “Let’s use my father’s limitless wealth to do good to his enemies. This will please him.” How can the bride refuse? And when that wealth is his life, and when our life is part of his life, our lives become a “touching place” for God to touch and be touched—and sometimes struck and spat on, too—by his enemies.

God doesn’t fear his enemies, and we do not need to fear ours. Scripture tells us in Colossians 3:3, “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

So he directs us to spend his life and his wealth by lending to his enemies as he directs, and in his name.  The money is the smallest part of it, but when we give the money, we end up being more likely to give our time, our attention, and our sight to them, too. When we give our money, our focus is drawn more and more to our enemies.

Our lives will be so tied up in theirs that we will want to do them good, not harm, even if only for our own sakes.

How can your life serve as a “touching place” today?  What steps do you need to take to make this a reality and not just a nice thought?

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