Obstacles to Generosity…
Back in December, we did a series called Audible and we talked about a new vision we were hearing from God… a vision that requires generosity of our whole lives and selves – generosity of our time, our relationships, and our finances. (If you missed it, listen to the message here.) Within the context of the message during that series, we asked our attenders to write down their obstacles to generosity and their opportunities for generosity on each half of a dollar bill. We asked them to tear the dollar bill in half and keep their opportunities so they could pray about them and ask God to continue cultivating those opportunities in their lives. We then asked them to turn in their obstacles to generosity (which also contained their registration for the Generosity Conference on the back side). Through these responses, we had an overwhelming number of debt, budgeting, and questions about understanding how generosity can be more of an opportunity instead of an obligation. So we did a Generosity Conference in February….
This past week I had the privilege of sharing with other stewardship pastors about our Generosity Conference, our Celebration Generosity initiative, and other things we are discovering at Community in terms of generosity…. As with anything we do at Community, we definitely do not have it all figured out! But God has blessed our team with many things that have gone well, and we are excited and willing to share our findings with anyone who might be able to benefit from them.
This particular gathering of stewardship pastors last week were gathered together because of a common curriculum we use to help people overcome many of their obstacles to generosity. That curriculum is Good Sense. Kudos to Dick Towner, Matt Bell, and the whole Good Sense team for putting on a great event last week and for bringing together such a brilliant group of people. A couple of people I spent some time with I want to encourage you to check out are: Chris DeGraff, pastor of stewardship and discipleship at Grace Lutheran in the Twin Cities has a great blog on generosity… it’s called Synergenerosity. Check it out here. Sharon Steen, leader of the Generous Communities Initiative, is doing some innovative things in the Twin Cities area in regards to linking together like-minded organizations in generosity. Check it out here. Dave Briggs, stewardship pastor at Willowcreek has developed a terrific curriculum for parents of children and teens that teaches them about finances at an early stage in life. It’s called Raising Financially Healthy Kids. Definitely check this stuff out.
As we encourage people to find opportunities for generosity, it is important we provide them with strong tools for overcoming their obstacles to generosity. Sure, there are obstacles to generosity that can’t be overcome with a curriculum. And that’s the importance of generosity as a discipleship of the heart. But along with that discipleship come practical tools, just as with any other type of discipleship. This evening, in fact, a group of us at Community are gathering together to get trained on being financial counselors so that we can better serve those in our congregation who are struggling with some of these practical obstacles. If anyone wants to join us, shoot me an email and we’ll get you the info.
Where are your obstacles to generosity and how are you seeking to overcome them?
2 Responses to “Obstacles to Generosity…”
June 6th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Julie!
Wow, it made my week when I saw that I made your blog! Cool. I went home the other day & told my wife, “hey, I made it onto Julie Bullock’s blog!” My wife, of course said, “who’s Julie Bullock”?
Keep up the great work. It’s great to see your leadership skills & passion for generosity being put to use for the Kindgom. And, Community Christian seems to be one of those innovative churches/movements that ‘gets’ generosity & holds it as a high value.
Let’s stay in touch. Great to hear of all the great things you’re doing. It’s encouraging! Hope you can make it to the CSN Forum next March in Tampa.
October 28th, 2012 at 3:17 am
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