My mailbox is stuffed with junk mail. It is Christmas time, and ministries and organizations are in an all-out blitz to acquire those final gifts before year-end. The leaders at your local church, your state convention and our SBC International Mission Board are hoping that the Lord will stir many hearts toward generosity.
How do you weed through all the requests? To offer an answer to that question, I’ve chosen to ask Dr. Jason Allen, president of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, to allow me to share with you the excellent insights he shared with the people in the MBTS database:
“With so many pressing needs and viable ministries to which you can give, how should you discern which causes are most deserving of your financial support? How should you consider year-end giving in light of biblical principles of Christian stewardship?
Be Pre-Committed to Biblical Stewardship
Consider your giving in light of the broader, biblical principles of Christian stewardship. Ultimately, your resources are not your own. They are the Lord’s resources, with which you have been entrusted as a steward.
Be honest with yourself, your income, and your giving opportunities. Sheltering money from the government may work on earth, but it doesn’t work in heaven. God does not desire excuses; He desires obedience. He’s not looking for us to negotiate or enter into private arrangements with Him; He is looking for us to be faithful, sacrificial stewards with all He’s entrusted to us.
Give to Your Local Church First
Prioritize your local church. In the New Testament, we see by prescription and by pattern God’s people giving to their local church. The Apostle Paul repeatedly instructed and celebrated this pattern. Though I lead a theological institution dependent upon the generous donations of God’s people, my wife and I prioritize our local church, and encourage others to do the same.
Doubtlessly, you are confronted with many worthwhile opportunities to give this Christmas season. As you pray through these options, do not let any of them displace or curtail your giving to your local church.
Look for Optimal Impact
Look for optimal impact. Don’t give to fill ditches. Give to build mountains. Every Christian entity faces seasons of unusual need or unanticipated challenges. But, if an entity perennially engages in crisis fundraising, odds are they do not have a donor problem, they have a business-model problem. Be leery about throwing good money after bad.
On the contrary, look for organizations that have a track record of good financial management. Moreover, look for ministries wherein your gift will have a ripple effect. Why settle for making a short-lived impact if you can make an ongoing one?
Be Fully Informed
Be fully informed about the cause you are considering supporting. Are they a distinctively Christian organization? What is their vision? What is their mission statement? What is the their doctrinal statement? Where do they stand on pressing social issues like marriage and abortion? Are they committed to the Word of God as absolutely true and the exclusivity of the gospel as the only message that saves? Specifically, how will the gift be utilized? Be on the lookout both for what they don’t state publicly as well as what they do.
As a donor, no question should be off-limits. In fact, if there is an inappropriate question for a donor to ask, I have yet to be faced with it. There are too many great Christian ministries with pressing needs to settle for making ill-informed contributions.
Run From Manipulation
Making needs known is entirely appropriate, but placing undue expectations on potential supporters is not. If a solicitor resorts to heavy-handedness, it may belie duress, or something much worse. Don’t allow yourself to be pressured by such tactics. Instead, pray, reflect, inquire, and seek the will of God.
Christian stewardship includes more than generous giving, it includes wise, discerning giving as well. The power to give is the power to impact lives. The upside can be unlimited, and that is good. In fact, the upside is too great to be careless. Be a generous—and wise—steward of all God has entrusted to you.”
You can read more insights from Dr. Allen at http://jasonkallen.com.
As disciples seeking to make a difference in the name of Jesus, this is wise counsel to take to heart. Is your stewardship a reflection of the One who first loved you? Is there a year-end sacrificial gift the Lord wants to give through you to your local church? To the Lottie Moon Offering for International Missions? Be wise. Be faithful.
Just so that you are aware, all giving from churches and individuals for 2015 Missouri Baptist Convention ministries must be postmarked by Dec. 31, 2015.